Paging Indiana Jones!
An American archeologist thinks he may know where the lost Ark of the Covenant is hidden, and is hoping to mount a search to find it.
Dr. Jones — err, Professor Chris McKinny — believes the Lost Ark may be waiting beneath the City of David, an archeological site just south of the Dome of the Rock which is considered to be one of the oldest sections of Jerusalem, the Daily Mail reported.
McKinny — an associate professor of biblical archeology at Lipscomb University in Tennessee — drew on biblical and historical texts to zero in on his hypothesis, and is hoping to deploy a high-tech device known as a muon detector to scan deep beneath the ground from the City of David to the Dome of the Rock to test his theory.
Muon detectors track subatomic particles that come from cosmic rays striking the atmosphere. The particles penetrate deep within the Earth, and allow people to map structures otherwise hidden beneath the ground.
Scans of the City of David have already revealed unexplored openings beneath the area, and the Ark — said to be plated in gold — would likely appear clearly on muon scans because of its gilded composition, according to McKinny.
The Ark has been missing since about 587 BCE when Jerusalem was sacked by the Babylonians, and the Ark’s keepers hid it to prevent it from being destroyed or falling into enemy hands.
Legend says the golden chest carried the tablets of the Ten Commandments given to Moses by God, and was used by the Israelites as both a tool of protection and a powerful weapon that could topple city walls or afflict enemies with deadly plagues.
McKinny has focused on the three primary stories about the Ark’s fate to direct his search — the first being that it was hidden somewhere beneath the City of David and the Temple Mount, where the Dome of the Rock stands.
The supposed Temple Mount hiding place is one of the leading theories in Ark lore, and has been fueled by the relatively minimal archeological digging that has gone on beneath the area because of its religious importance.
Another theory follows biblical accounts that the Ark was hidden in a rocky valley between two mountains near Jerusalem.
The third suggests it was hidden in a cave on Mount Nebo, where Moses is said to have died.
McKinny said he does not know where the Ark is to a certainty, but that he is “excited and hopeful for what will come” from new technologies enabling researchers to peer within the Earth without disturbing holy locations, according to the Daily Mail.
He explored his theories and explorations in a recently released documentary, Legends of the Lost Ark.
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