Shiloh dig uncovers more of a tabernacle-sized building and jars of burned grain

Excavators at Shiloh announced three finds from their 2026 season in June. Shiloh is where, according to Joshua 18:1, Israel set up the tabernacle, and where it stood through the days of Eli and young Samuel (1 Samuel 1:3).

The team, led by Dr. Scott Stripling of the Associates for Biblical Research, uncovered the southern wall of a monumental building. Its dimensions resemble those of the tabernacle, and finds associated with it include altar horns, ceramic pomegranates and murex shells, used to make purple dye. They also exposed more of the city’s northern gate complex and found three storage jars holding charred olives and wheat in a destruction layer. Radiocarbon tests on that grain should help date the destruction.¹

Why it matters: a tabernacle-sized building is suggestive, not proof, and the excavators are careful about what they claim. Dated grain from the destruction could test when Shiloh fell, a question tied to Psalm 78:60 and Jeremiah 7:12.