We turn off the main road to what looks like a tourist attraction with lots of parking lot spaces and some interesting looking buildings. This is Shiloh (she-low) at least that is the way our Israeli guide, Eli pronounced it. I was a little embarrassed for him but didn't want to tell him the correct pronunciation in front of everyone. Ahem, it's Shy-low, Eli.
We are told that this part of Israel is dominated by Muslim people and there are times when there is "unrest" in this in this area. I look around and see the minarets in just about any direction I turn. Apparently the Muslims object to the Israelis finding anything that would authenticate any Jewish right or Jewish history connected to "Palestine". We are told that the moment the Muslims felt they could get away with it, they would abolish the entire site of Shiloh and destroy any work done here to say it never existed in the first place.
For some reason, I was not thinking about the biblical village of Shiloh (duh!), but just kind of assumed this was just another archaeological site like we have been used to seeing daily since we have been in Israel. It is very desert like here, not a lot of vegetation, some short, skinny trees that look like they live a hard life.
We are introduced to one of the site archaeologists who is a relatively young man whose wife (we never did meet her) is the site's main archaeologist. He is quick witted, funny and has a real antagonistic kind of humor for our humble guide, Eli Sukron. He attempts to provoke Eli at every turn, but Eli isn't falling for it. The young man brags about some coins that he has recently uncovered and is very proud of. Eli looks at the coins and shrugs. He asks the young man how many coins he has found in his career as an archaeologist. "Around 30" the young man answers. Eli says when he finds as many as he has then he can have a right to brag. "How many have you found?" asks the young man. Eli nonchalantly says with a shrug, "over 3,000". We all laugh at the rivalry.
There are lots of rocks here, lots of shade trees and little sitting areas.
In the center of this whole place is a rather space age looking building.
It doesn't really "blend in" with the antiquity of the site, but is modern and nice. We are directed to ascend (more stairs, more climbing) the little hill and enter the modern looking building.
In the center of this whole place is a rather space age looking building.
It doesn't really "blend in" with the antiquity of the site, but is modern and nice. We are directed to ascend (more stairs, more climbing) the little hill and enter the modern looking building.
Once we are inside, it finally begins to dawn on me that this is ancient Shiloh, like where the tabernacle stood once the Children of Israel entered the Promised Land, that Shiloh. Now I get it. For some reason, I think it was the way they mispronounce Shiloh, and I also thought the actual site of the Old Testament Shiloh was lost and that no one knew where it actually was. Well, not only are they pretty sure this is the exact spot of the Old Testament Shiloh, but from the high place vantage of this building, you can look on the far side of the site and actually see the area they are quite confident where the tabernacle stood!
My mind is blown again, which is becoming a regular event on this trip. I am in Ancient Shiloh! The tabernacle of the wilderness wandering actually stood in this place. The high priest Eli lived here! The prophet Samuel and his mother, Hannah made pilgrimage to this spot. I am pondering all of this when we are introduced to a theater kind of room that is very "high tech". We sit in the theater seats that ascend from the floor level on up and are looking out a large window down on the actual site of the tabernacle. The room darkens and a projector from somewhere over our heads super imposes a colorful image over the area we are looking at so we now see the tabernacle site with it "filled in" as it may have looked in antiquity! We are seeing the tabernacle projected on to the window in such as a way as to see the "Tent of Meeting" down where there was nothing before.
It is so interesting to see reality transformed into this image right before our eyes without a curtain blocking the window and all.
There is a history and a drama that is shown with this background giving the story of Shiloh and how it was destroyed and left to ruin after the Israelites had forsaken God.
The show ends and a man comes out to address us and tell us further about the site. He tells us that many childless couples have been able to conceive after they had visited Shiloh. In fact, the very building we are viewing all this from is a result of a wealthy US couple who had come to Shiloh, prayed to have a child and after did have a healthy child born to them. They in gratefulness, donated some millions of dollars and had this center built to benefit the on-going archaeology in Shiloh. I ask Indiana Jolie if she wants to pray for more children. She declines.
The show ends and a man comes out to address us and tell us further about the site. He tells us that many childless couples have been able to conceive after they had visited Shiloh. In fact, the very building we are viewing all this from is a result of a wealthy US couple who had come to Shiloh, prayed to have a child and after did have a healthy child born to them. They in gratefulness, donated some millions of dollars and had this center built to benefit the on-going archaeology in Shiloh. I ask Indiana Jolie if she wants to pray for more children. She declines.
We exit the building and head on down to the tabernacle site. There isn't much to actually see except what they believe to be the outline of the tabernacle itself and a few excavated "pits" that have just recently been started.
They can only dig in the hottest months of the year because in the "rainy season" it becomes too difficult to manage all the water and mud that fills in the holes. They had not begun excavation while we were there as there was too much potential for rain yet. We have a short devotional here and some archaeological insights. One of the more interesting tidbits I learned was that the "tabernacle" did not remain a "tent" once it arrived in Shiloh. The need to make it mobile no longer existed so it became more permanent with rock (what else?) pillars and permanent roof. I had never heard this before. This is how it remained up until King Solomon's time. It is amazing to think that this very spot was the spiritual home for the ancient Israelis for 369 years.
We are allowed to wander the grounds which have numerous remnants of ancient buildings and rooms.
It is all fascinating. Indiana Jolie and I want to volunteer to be diggers in the excavations. Most volunteers however are relegated to more mundane tasks such as sifting and sorting and washing the lesser items of discovery and hauling off the loads of empty dirt. The real archaeologists want to make the important discoveries. Imagine that. I will only volunteer if it isn't a million degrees in the sun. Indiana Jolie doesn't care, she just wants to find something old in the dirt. We do find out that they only dig at the hottest times of year because there is no rain to wash mud into the excavations. We see evidence of this in some of the excavations.
We come around to a wider path that bisects the grounds. On the other side of Shiloh we see a gathering of people and wonder what is going on. We hadn't bothered to go on that side as it was more of the place where the mundane tasks seemed to take place such as the washing and sorting chores.
We arrive and our archaeologist Eli is there explaining about how dating on archaeological sites is done. An important tool in this is pottery. Apparently pottery was done very consistently through certain ages. It might have ridges in the sides of the pottery. Handles would have a certain size and shape or done in a specific manner. Due to the nature of pottery most of it is in shards. Eli is literally standing on a pile of pottery shards that span many different eras and centuries that have all be washed and thrown in this pile. He picks up several and tells us from what century they came from and other details that are important. I haven't seen so many pottery shards since the first day of our trip in Caesarea. Those pottery shards were still embedded in strata that had been exposed by excavation to show the many differing layers that had accumulated over the centuries. These were all mixed together after being processed and for lack of something better to do with them, thrown in a big pile.
Someone asks if it would be possible to have one of the pottery shards as a memento. The on site people seem to think this is no problem as they have more broken pottery pieces than they can handle and even if everyone took a piece, it wouldn't lessen the pile significantly whatsoever. In the crowd I as usual lose sight of Indiana Jolie. Especially in an archaeological site such as this I hardly ever even catch glimpses of her as she is snapping pictures of all the rocks.
The crowd surges to each take a pottery shard of their own to take home with them of this amazing site. I wait until the excited horde get their broken pottery before I think about taking a piece. As the crowd moves on, I spot Indiana Jolie on the pile of shards, digging furiously through pieces of pottery. I take one and wonder how old it is and meander off toward the buses as I am hoping there is some ice cream up where the offices are.
I buy something akin to a Dove Bar and happily begin to consume it. I wonder if Indiana Jolie would want one and wonder where she might be by now. I head back to the last place I saw her, the pile of pottery shards. I meet her about half way back and she has an excited gleam in her eye, in her hands and pockets she is carrying MANY pieces of broken pottery and asks me to help her carry these off. She has mostly pieces of pottery that were handles to pots and are a little more bulky that the plain pieces. She is hoping she doesn't get in trouble for taking so many, but after a hundred people carted of pieces I don't think it is a big deal.
She is so excited she can hardly contain herself and neither of us remember to take pictures. Actually our hands were too full of pottery and ice cream we couldn't have pulled out our camera if we had thought of it. Jolie thinks these pieces are wonderful and the thrill of the hunt for these special looking ones was as close to being a real digger on an archaeological site as she has ever been and as close to her dream of being the real Indiana Jolie. The other big deal is they came from what will be our favorite archaeological site of the whole trip. We place these pieces in our bags like treasure and head back to the buses. Only then does she notice that I am eating ice cream. She does want one.
The day is wearing on and the heat, many stairs and walking have their accumulative effect of wearing us out and we board our buses feeling a little tired but lifted by the valuable treasures we now possess and the ice cream bars. I take a long drink of lukewarm water and wish it would refresh me better than it does.
Our buses head toward Jerusalem. Highways are busier, more buildings begin to appear, traffic increases greatly, highway signs in Hebrew with arrows pointing to other destinations are more frequent. The pace of the world around us picks up considerably which is quite a switch from being in Galilee up to this point. We head into the city. We pass through a "check point" in the infamous wall between the Palestinian controlled areas and the Jewish controlled areas. It feels sinister. The guard towers have inches thick bullet proof glass. Machine guns are present everywhere. It reminds us that this region of the world is not like our region of the world. I am grateful.
Then suddenly, we are here. Jerusalem.
I wonder what wonders await us in this city which seems to be the center of the whole earth. We arrive at our hotel in the dusk of the day, our bags are unloaded and will be delivered to our rooms.
We are ushered to the dining rooms where huge, long tables are once again festooned with multiple layers of salads and vegetables, breads and cheeses. The hot buffets line the walls with their unfamiliar offerings of dishes. The room is loud with conversations in many languages and skins of differing colors. It is energizing to pick up our plates and begin to fill them with the new options. I seek out the dill pickles which have become my favorite item on the salad tables. It is hard to explain, but they are the BEST dill pickles I have ever had, a little less "bite" to them but all the great flavor and texture of a dill pickle. Makes me want one now as I think of them. I find them and fill my plate and eat them as I go so I can fill my plate again before I go and sit down.
We do sit down and feel the weariness of the long day. Once again, the planners of our tour have managed to pack so much into the day. We eat feeling the lift that food gives and have easy conversations with new friends we have met on our bus. I decide I have eaten enough and prepare to finish our conversations before I head up to our room. Someone walks by with what looks like a fabulous dessert. Dessert? Didn't see any dessert tables.
In the corner of the dining room is a dessert table. I arrive to a table that looks like it once held many choices of dessert but now only a lesser few choices remain with many crumbs and evidences of previous selections scattered across the table cloth. Obviously I have waited too long to visit this table, a mistake I will not make again.
They can only dig in the hottest months of the year because in the "rainy season" it becomes too difficult to manage all the water and mud that fills in the holes. They had not begun excavation while we were there as there was too much potential for rain yet. We have a short devotional here and some archaeological insights. One of the more interesting tidbits I learned was that the "tabernacle" did not remain a "tent" once it arrived in Shiloh. The need to make it mobile no longer existed so it became more permanent with rock (what else?) pillars and permanent roof. I had never heard this before. This is how it remained up until King Solomon's time. It is amazing to think that this very spot was the spiritual home for the ancient Israelis for 369 years.
We are allowed to wander the grounds which have numerous remnants of ancient buildings and rooms.
It is all fascinating. Indiana Jolie and I want to volunteer to be diggers in the excavations. Most volunteers however are relegated to more mundane tasks such as sifting and sorting and washing the lesser items of discovery and hauling off the loads of empty dirt. The real archaeologists want to make the important discoveries. Imagine that. I will only volunteer if it isn't a million degrees in the sun. Indiana Jolie doesn't care, she just wants to find something old in the dirt. We do find out that they only dig at the hottest times of year because there is no rain to wash mud into the excavations. We see evidence of this in some of the excavations.
We come around to a wider path that bisects the grounds. On the other side of Shiloh we see a gathering of people and wonder what is going on. We hadn't bothered to go on that side as it was more of the place where the mundane tasks seemed to take place such as the washing and sorting chores.
We arrive and our archaeologist Eli is there explaining about how dating on archaeological sites is done. An important tool in this is pottery. Apparently pottery was done very consistently through certain ages. It might have ridges in the sides of the pottery. Handles would have a certain size and shape or done in a specific manner. Due to the nature of pottery most of it is in shards. Eli is literally standing on a pile of pottery shards that span many different eras and centuries that have all be washed and thrown in this pile. He picks up several and tells us from what century they came from and other details that are important. I haven't seen so many pottery shards since the first day of our trip in Caesarea. Those pottery shards were still embedded in strata that had been exposed by excavation to show the many differing layers that had accumulated over the centuries. These were all mixed together after being processed and for lack of something better to do with them, thrown in a big pile.
Someone asks if it would be possible to have one of the pottery shards as a memento. The on site people seem to think this is no problem as they have more broken pottery pieces than they can handle and even if everyone took a piece, it wouldn't lessen the pile significantly whatsoever. In the crowd I as usual lose sight of Indiana Jolie. Especially in an archaeological site such as this I hardly ever even catch glimpses of her as she is snapping pictures of all the rocks.
The crowd surges to each take a pottery shard of their own to take home with them of this amazing site. I wait until the excited horde get their broken pottery before I think about taking a piece. As the crowd moves on, I spot Indiana Jolie on the pile of shards, digging furiously through pieces of pottery. I take one and wonder how old it is and meander off toward the buses as I am hoping there is some ice cream up where the offices are.
I buy something akin to a Dove Bar and happily begin to consume it. I wonder if Indiana Jolie would want one and wonder where she might be by now. I head back to the last place I saw her, the pile of pottery shards. I meet her about half way back and she has an excited gleam in her eye, in her hands and pockets she is carrying MANY pieces of broken pottery and asks me to help her carry these off. She has mostly pieces of pottery that were handles to pots and are a little more bulky that the plain pieces. She is hoping she doesn't get in trouble for taking so many, but after a hundred people carted of pieces I don't think it is a big deal.
She is so excited she can hardly contain herself and neither of us remember to take pictures. Actually our hands were too full of pottery and ice cream we couldn't have pulled out our camera if we had thought of it. Jolie thinks these pieces are wonderful and the thrill of the hunt for these special looking ones was as close to being a real digger on an archaeological site as she has ever been and as close to her dream of being the real Indiana Jolie. The other big deal is they came from what will be our favorite archaeological site of the whole trip. We place these pieces in our bags like treasure and head back to the buses. Only then does she notice that I am eating ice cream. She does want one.
The day is wearing on and the heat, many stairs and walking have their accumulative effect of wearing us out and we board our buses feeling a little tired but lifted by the valuable treasures we now possess and the ice cream bars. I take a long drink of lukewarm water and wish it would refresh me better than it does.
Our buses head toward Jerusalem. Highways are busier, more buildings begin to appear, traffic increases greatly, highway signs in Hebrew with arrows pointing to other destinations are more frequent. The pace of the world around us picks up considerably which is quite a switch from being in Galilee up to this point. We head into the city. We pass through a "check point" in the infamous wall between the Palestinian controlled areas and the Jewish controlled areas. It feels sinister. The guard towers have inches thick bullet proof glass. Machine guns are present everywhere. It reminds us that this region of the world is not like our region of the world. I am grateful.
Then suddenly, we are here. Jerusalem.
I wonder what wonders await us in this city which seems to be the center of the whole earth. We arrive at our hotel in the dusk of the day, our bags are unloaded and will be delivered to our rooms.
We are ushered to the dining rooms where huge, long tables are once again festooned with multiple layers of salads and vegetables, breads and cheeses. The hot buffets line the walls with their unfamiliar offerings of dishes. The room is loud with conversations in many languages and skins of differing colors. It is energizing to pick up our plates and begin to fill them with the new options. I seek out the dill pickles which have become my favorite item on the salad tables. It is hard to explain, but they are the BEST dill pickles I have ever had, a little less "bite" to them but all the great flavor and texture of a dill pickle. Makes me want one now as I think of them. I find them and fill my plate and eat them as I go so I can fill my plate again before I go and sit down.
We do sit down and feel the weariness of the long day. Once again, the planners of our tour have managed to pack so much into the day. We eat feeling the lift that food gives and have easy conversations with new friends we have met on our bus. I decide I have eaten enough and prepare to finish our conversations before I head up to our room. Someone walks by with what looks like a fabulous dessert. Dessert? Didn't see any dessert tables.
In the corner of the dining room is a dessert table. I arrive to a table that looks like it once held many choices of dessert but now only a lesser few choices remain with many crumbs and evidences of previous selections scattered across the table cloth. Obviously I have waited too long to visit this table, a mistake I will not make again.
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