Paging Indiana Jones: Scholar Finds Ark

Biblical treasure reportedly surfaces in Zimbabwe, not Hollywood
By Marie Morris,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 22, 2008 11:03 AM CST

A real-life Indiana Jones says he has found the Ark of the Covenant—not on the set of the latest Raiders of the Lost Ark movie, but on a shelf in a museum storeroom in Zimbabwe. The alleged ark is an old drum with an uncharacteristic charred hole on its bottom and remnants of carrying rings on the corners, Time reports.

A British professor traced the ark through the oral history of a southern African clan descended from the temple priests of ancient Judaism. Tudor Parfitt says the original ark destroyed itself 400 years ago, according to clan legend, and was replaced by the Zimbabwe drum, "the last thing on Earth in direct descent from the Ark of Moses." (More Tudor Parfitt stories.)

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