Shiloh 2025

I’m exciting to be returning to excavate at biblical Shiloh where I will again be serving as an Assistant Square Supervisor. My wife and I plan to participate in the first two weeks of the dig, from May 16–June 2, 2025. To learn more about the excavations at Shiloh, or to join us, go to DigShiloh.org.

Goals

We’ll be excavating with the Associates for Biblical Research (ABR), who leads the dig at Shiloh each year. ABR’s goals at Shiloh include:

• Investigating the location of the tabernacle, which stood at Shiloh for over 300 years
• Uncovering evidence of the biblical sacrificial system
• Understanding daily life in Israel at the time of the Conquest (under Joshua) and period of the Judges (ie. the days of Eli and Samuel)

Shiloh 2024

Last year was my first time serving as an Assistant Square Supervisor and I learned so much about the archaeological process – both excavating and recording. While the dig team was smaller, due to the ongoing war in the region, we made some important discoveries and continued to uncover the secrets that Shiloh holds about her past.

During the first week I learned about supervising a square from Tim Lopez. We worked in the the western room of the Monumental Building seeking to clarify the date of a particular wall. I appreciated Tim’s careful attention to detail and his willingness to teach me about the way he makes decisions in the square. I was also happy to get the chance to excavate an architectural structure.

In the second week of the dig, I moved over to work under Jordan McClinton in Area D, which is a Late Bronze Age favissa (a place where ancient people buried items related to their worship). We excavated a number of beautiful pieces of Late Bronze Age painted pottery, discovered some potentially mendable vessels, and found many animal bones from the Jewish sacrificial system. The week after we left, the team found another piece of gold in Area D, the seventh piece of gold discovered in the favissa by the ABR team. I believe these gold pieces to be articles of value that the Israelites were offering to the LORD at Shiloh. We see this type of offering in Numbers 31:54, where the Israelites offered gold to the LORD as a memorial offering at the tabernacle. Please note, I will not be posting a photo of the gold pieces from Shiloh until they have been published.

Here is a video of ABR’s Dig Director, Scott Stripling, being interviewed by Jim Scudder of InGrace Ministries about the important finds at Shiloh in 2024:

Support Us in 2025

Would you consider a financial contribution towards our mission? Your support will help us with the financial costs associated with participating in ABR’s dig at Shiloh. This includes both the dig costs ($2100 USD per person for two weeks) and the airfare ($2500 CAD per person for flights with Air Canada).

You can support our mission to excavate in Israel through our GiveSendGo campaign: https://www.givesendgo.com/BibleArchaeologyReport

Please note that any financial support will be need to be a considered gift and not a donation; we are not able to provide tax-deductible receipts for these gifts.

Thank You

Finally, thank you for visiting my website, Bible Archaeology Report. I could not have envisioned that over 360,0000 people from over 150 countries in the world would read my blog each year. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d have over 1 million combined views of my articles.

Thank you for continuing to read my blogs and for considering a gift towards our trip to dig at Shiloh, Israel in 2025.

Bryan