In the summer of 2025, archaeologists working at Tel Shiloh made a remarkable discovery that may shed new light on one of the Bible’s most dramatic narratives—the capture of the Ark of the Covenant by the Philistines. The Associates for Biblical Research (ABR), led by project director Scott Stripling and ABR president Scott Lanser, announced in their June 2025 field report that they have focused their excavation efforts on what they believe to be the very gateway where the priest and judge Eli received the devastating news and died.

The Biblical Account of the Ark’s Capture

The dramatic story unfolds in 1 Samuel 4, where the Israelites, desperate to turn the tide of battle against the Philistines, bring the sacred Ark of the Covenant from Shiloh to the battlefield. The plan backfires catastrophically—not only are the Israelites defeated, but the Philistines capture the Ark itself, killing Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, who were serving as priests.

When a messenger arrives at Shiloh with news of the disaster, he finds Eli, now 98 years old and nearly blind, sitting beside the gate waiting anxiously for word about the Ark. Upon hearing that the Ark has been captured, Eli falls backward from his seat, breaks his neck, and dies instantly. The text records that “he had judged Israel forty years,” emphasizing the magnitude of this moment in Israel’s history.

The capture of the Ark represented more than a military defeat—it symbolized the apparent abandonment of Israel by their God and marked the end of Shiloh’s three-century role as the nation’s religious center.

The 2025 Archaeological Campaign

The ABR team’s 2025 excavation campaign has zeroed in on a breached gateway along Tel Shiloh’s ancient city wall, believing this structure to be directly connected to the biblical narrative. The researchers are systematically removing collapsed mud-brick debris to expose what they hypothesize was a multi-chambered gate complex that controlled entry to Shiloh’s sacred precinct.

If their interpretation proves correct, this gateway would mirror sophisticated gate designs previously uncovered at other major biblical sites like Megiddo and Hazor, providing a physical setting that aligns perfectly with the biblical account of Eli’s death. The team emphasizes that while definitive proof remains pending, the gate’s strategic location and construction timeline strengthen their case that this is “the very place” where the Ark episode unfolded.

The 2025 season faced significant challenges, including logistical disruptions from a May 4 Houthi missile strike on Ben-Gurion Airport that delayed international volunteers, and a brief evacuation on June 24 due to security concerns. Despite these setbacks, the team reached full staffing by late June and erected protective canvas sheltering over the gate to preserve exposed mud-brick courses from winter weather damage.

Previous Archaeological Discoveries at Shiloh

The current excavation builds upon decades of previous archaeological work at Tel Shiloh that has yielded compelling evidence of the site’s biblical significance. Earlier ABR seasons have “amassed significant evidence of the tabernacle and its sacrificial system: storage rooms, a monumental building, ceramic pomegranates, stone altar horns, and a bone deposit.”

Professor Finkelstein’s early 1980s excavations discovered “huge pottery shards and animal bones dating to the Late Bronze Age (1550–1200 b.c.e.) in the ruins of Shiloh’s walls,” providing archaeological evidence for occupation during the period when the Bible places the tabernacle at Shiloh. During these excavations, “an Early Israelite house was excavated near the city wall” showing “evidence of destruction by fire,” with ritual objects found in the debris suggesting “a connection with a cultic complex, perhaps that of the Tabernacle.”

In 2018, the excavation team “unearthed a section of the old Canaanite wall that encircled the tell” which “the Israelites encountered during their conquest of the land.” These discoveries paint a picture of a site with continuous occupation and significant religious activity spanning the crucial periods described in biblical accounts.

The abundance of animal bones discovered at Shiloh aligns remarkably with biblical descriptions of the sacrificial system that operated there for approximately three centuries. These finds include dense deposits concentrated near what researchers believe was the tabernacle complex, suggesting intensive sacrificial activity consistent with Shiloh’s role as Israel’s central worship site during the period of the Judges.

Dr. Stripling’s Mount Ebal Curse Tablet Discovery

Scott Stripling’s work extends beyond Shiloh to other significant biblical sites, most notably his controversial discovery of what he claims is an ancient curse tablet from Mount Ebal. The tiny, folded tablet was discovered in December 2019 during examination of discarded material from Adam Zertal’s 1980s excavation on Mount Ebal, located near the valley of Shechem. The folded lead object was found through a process called wet sifting, where “ancient stones covered in dirt are hand-washed,” and the tablet had nearly been mistaken for a stone but “popped out” once rinsed under water.

This small, one-inch square lead document is classified as a defixio, a type of curse tablet that Stripling and his team claim contains Hebrew text. Scientific analysis revealed “Hebrew letters older than the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, indicating a timeline of around 1400 B.C.” If verified, this would make it centuries older than the previous earliest known Hebrew inscriptions from the Land of Israel.

According to Stripling, the implications of finding such an artifact on “Ebal, the mountain of the curse, are enormous” because it “synchronizes with the account of the covenant renewal ceremony in Joshua 8” and “proves that there was an alphabetic script with which Moses and Joshua could have written the earliest biblical books.”

However, the discovery has faced significant scholarly skepticism, with critics questioning both the dating and interpretation of the artifact. The controversy highlights the ongoing debates within biblical archaeology about methodology, interpretation, and the relationship between archaeological findings and biblical texts.

Looking Forward

The Shiloh excavation represents more than an academic exercise—it embodies the ongoing quest to understand the historical foundations of biblical narratives. The team has launched a funding drive for an on-site laboratory that would allow sophisticated analyses like thin-section petrography and residue analysis to be conducted in Israel rather than overseas, potentially shortening the peer-review process by months.

As photogrammetric models and soil samples from the 2025 season undergo laboratory analysis before peer review, the archaeological community awaits results that could provide new insights into one of the Bible’s most poignant stories. Whether or not the gateway proves to be the exact location where Eli died, the ongoing excavation continues to illuminate the rich material culture of ancient Israel and the historical context in which these pivotal biblical events unfolded.

The work at Shiloh exemplifies how modern archaeology can engage constructively with ancient texts, neither seeking to “prove” the Bible nor dismissing it, but rather exploring the complex relationship between literature, history, and material culture in the ancient Near East. As excavations continue, each discovery adds another piece to our understanding of this crucial period in Israel’s early history.