Hey Thoughty2 here. We all know the story; boy meets girl, boy loses girl,
boy finds girl in a bar in Nepal and saves her from the Nazis, in return for which she gives
him a mystical medallion, then they head off to discover a chest containing the Ten Commandments
in order to prevent it being used by the forces of evil to help them take over the world.
It's a tale as old as time, right?
The film fans amongst you, plus any budding archaeologists, may have realized that what
I just loosely described was the plot of the film Raiders of the Lost Ark. In which case you might
be forgiven for thinking that it’s not a tale as old as time, because it came out in 1981,
which in reality makes it a tale as old as 9 To 5 by Dolly Parton; love that song.
But in some ways, it really is a tale as old as time, because the artefact Indiana
Jones and his old-flame Marion were searching for is said to have been made
some 3000 years ago. Since then, it’s been depicted not just on the silver screen,
but in numerous works of art, countless books, several epic poems… oh and the Bible.
It’s really big in the Bible. I’m talking, of course, about the Ark of the Covenant.
It’s indisputably one of the most famous objects in history, and yet,
nobody has set eyes on it in two and a half thousand years. So,
what happened to it? And perhaps more importantly - did it actually exist in the first place?
According to Exodus, (that’s the book of the Bible, not the Bob Marley album),
God told Moses to see to it that the Ark was built by the Israelites, the people Moses had previously
led out of slavery in Egypt. Moses duly did this, and an ornate chest was constructed from wood,
gilded with gold and covered by a gold lid replete with two gold ornamental cherubs. Basically,
if you like gold this was the Ark for you. The Bible tells us that inside the Ark Moses
placed the stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written as well as two other
holy relics. Perhaps unsurprisingly given its divine contents, the Ark is described as having
incredible power. Admittedly there don’t seem to be any historical references to it melting
people’s faces off as is the case in the Indiana Jones film, but it’s said to have been the source
of several other miracles, the most spectacular of which took place during the Battle of Jericho.
When the Israelites laid siege to Jericho, they proceeded to march the Ark around the city walls
every day for six days. I can only imagine that the King of Jericho spent most of that time
wondering if the Isralites had lost their marbles. That is, until the seventh day, when they marched
the Ark around Jericho one last time and the city's towering walls crumbled into dust.
As impressive as this Ark-based warfare may be, it seems that having your own magic Ark didn’t
always guarantee victory, as several years later the Israelites battled the Philistines
and lost. Not only that, but the Ark itself was captured. Not that it remained an Ark du Triomphe
for the Philistines for very long - in fact, it brought nothing but bad luck to its new keepers
as they were afflicted by, amongst other things, a nasty bout of bubonic plague.
Apparently deciding this was a sign,
the Philistines swiftly returned the Ark to the Israelites, and it remained with them
for several generations, residing in a temple in Jerusalem built by the wise King Solomon.
It must be great to be referred to as ‘wise’ by everyone mustn’t it?
Anyway, around 587 BC the Babylonians attacked Jerusalem. Led by King Nebuchadnezzar the second,
they destroyed much of the city, including Solomon’s Temple.
So, what happened to the Ark? Well, this is where the adventure really begins.
Because from here on in there are several theories as to where it went.
If you believe Indiana Jones - and frankly why wouldn’t you, the man’s a doctor for
goodness sake - then the Ark was taken by the Egyptian Pharaoh Shishak long before the
Babylonians attacked and was buried in a really creepy vault in the ancient city of Tanis.
You might remember the scene in Raiders when Indy and Marion are trapped down there;
it’s dark, their torches are slowly going out, and dozens of snakes are coming in
through holes in the walls swiftly followed by a load of mummified corpses. Basically, if you’re
playing Indiana Jones bingo, when you see that bit give yourself a full house immediately.
Another story, albeit one that sadly involves fewer snakes and Nazis,
also begins with the Ark being removed from Jerusalem before the Babylonians turn up.
In this version it was nabbed by King Menelik, who took it back to his home country of Ethiopia.
The Ark of Zion, as followers of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church refer to it,
is supposed to have been kept for a time in a church on the island of Tana Kirkos,
home to an order of monks. Historically the monks took a vow of celibacy and no women
were allowed onto the part of the island where they live, so I imagine having a fancy Ark to
look after was quite a welcome distraction. According to Ethiopian Orthodoxy, the Ark was
then moved to the city of Aksum, where it remains to this day in the Church of St. Mary of Zion.
Unfortunately for the rest of us - and for the sake of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church
proving their claim - no one's actually allowed to see the Ark except the monk who sits with it day
and night, praying constantly, burning incense and paying tribute to God. This guardian of the Ark is
referred to as… the guardian of the ark, which seems pretty sensible when you think about it.
Possibly my favourite theory as to the Ark’s whereabouts claims that it never left Jerusalem,
but was instead hidden from the Babylonians beneath Temple Mount,
the site on which Solomon’s Temple stood before it was destroyed.
Fast forward fifteen hundred years or so to the early part of the 20th century and it was
the golden age of British adventurers. Men with stiff-upper lips and implausibly posh-sounding
names were busy making their way across the globe in service of the British Empire,
spreading religion, sharing innovation, and stealing from the natives - you know,
good empire-building stuff. One of these men with the stiffest of
upper lips and the most implausibly posh of names was Montagu Brownlow Parker, 5th Earl of Morley.
Parker‘s early life had followed a route typical of many aristocratic young men in the late 1800s;
he was educated at Eton and then joined the British Army as an officer.
Monty, which I’m pretty sure is what all his posh mates would have called him,
fought in the Second Boer War in South Africa and stayed there afterwards as the personal
assistant to a British general. Adventures in far-off lands were veritable catnip to old MBP,
so it’s no surprise that when he came across a mysterious Finnish scholar
by the name of Dr. Valter Juvelius, he was intrigued by the man had to say.
And in fairness it was quite the story, in many ways worthy of Indiana Jones himself.
Juvelius claimed he was a codebreaker and that he’d found secret ciphers in the Book of Ezekiel
that described exactly where the Ark of the Covenant was buried. Rather than treating this
information with the suspicion most of us would have demonstrated if a shadowy mystic told us
they’d discovered a secret map to a lost treasure hidden in plain sight inside the most widely
read book in history, Monty’s first reaction appears to have been “Great. When do we start?”
Between them, Monty and Dr. Juvelius recruited a group of adventurous archaeologists,
secured the equivalent of almost £1million in today’s money from some frankly irresponsible
investors, and set off for Palestine to seek fortune and glory, kid, fortune and glory.
As it happens, Monty wasn’t the first Brit to go digging around in the Holy city.
That dubious honour belonged to General Sir Charles Warren,
another mustachioed adventurer-type who’d conducted an exploratory dig fifty years earlier
and discovered a promising network of tunnels underneath Temple Mount. He’d also uncovered an
archaeologically significant water channel that was named ‘Warren’s Shaft’ in his honour - yeah
that hasn’t aged too well has it. Building on the work of Sir Charles before him,
Monty’s excavation started in the summer of 1909 and carried on through 1910 and well into 1911.
But two-and-a-half years later, he still hadn’t found the Ark.
Desperate for results, Monty and Co. decided the time had come to dig in the Dome of the Rock.
As you may know, Jerusalem is a city not just revered by Jews and Christians; it also has
massive significance for Muslims. The Dome of the Rock is the world’s oldest surviving example of
Islamic architecture and a shrine that’s deeply revered. So, when Monty and the boys bribed the
guardian of the temple and started digging up its floor, things were always going to go badly.
Which they duly did. When word got out about where the plucky
imperialists had decided to start planting their shovels, a full-scale riot broke out, and the
group only just managed to get out of Jerusalem alive, making their escape on a yacht.
The treasure hunters vowed to return, believing they‘d come close to discovering the Ark.
But before they had the chance the First World War broke out.
The world was a very different place after 1918, and, ultimately, our Edwardian Expendables
never went back to finish what they’d started. So, were they indeed on the brink of discovering
an artefact which has captivated people for thousands of years? Is the Ark of the Covenant
buried there to this day, tantalisingly out of reach in the tunnels beneath Jerusalem?
Well, after extensive research, I can exclusively reveal that the answer is…
I have no idea. No one does. The Ark may indeed be lying undisturbed beneath
that holist of cities, waiting for a modern-day Monty to unearth it. It might be in Ethiopia under
the watchful gaze of its presumably slightly bored guardian. It could be… pretty much anywhere.
As recently as 2008, British university professor Tudor Parfit, whose name makes him sound like a
colour you’d use to paint the spare room, claimed to have tracked it down to Harare in Zimbabwe,
but others believe it was taken to France by the Knights Templar, and still others place the Ark in
a secret location in a church in Rome. The truth is we’ll likely never know;
not just where the Ark is, but if it ever actually existed in the first place.
After all, underneath the fancy gold grills, the Bible tells us that the Ark of the Covenant
was made of wood, which would likely have turned to dust by now.
As of today, there simply isn’t enough evidence to draw any firm conclusions.
But perhaps that’s all for the best; the mystique, the centuries-old tales of celestial power
and of course the prospect that it might yet one day be found, these are the reasons that from the
ancient world to the silver screen we’ve remained so utterly transfixed by the Ark of the Covenant.
Thanks for watching.