Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- About the Cover
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Prologue: The Prehistory of Power: Souls Spirits, Deities
- Part One Kings and Emperors
- 1 Divine Kingship in Mesopotamia
- 2 Pharaohs among the Indestructibles
- 3 Kingship among the Hebrews
- 4 The Deification of Roman Emperors
- 5 The Deva-Rajas in India and Southeast Asia
- 6 The Chinese Mandate from Heaven
- 7 The Japanese Imperial Cult
- Part Two Empires before the Common Era
- 8 The Legendary Empire of the Sumerians
- 9 Legendary Empires of Preclassical Greece
- 10 Patriarchs, Exodus, and the Epic of Israel
- 11 Legendary Empires of Ancient India
- 12 The Legendary Founding of Rome
- Part Three Founders
- 13 Moses: The Israelite Lawgiver
- 14 Buddha and Legends of Previous Buddhas
- 15 The Savior Narratives
- 16 Muhammad, the Qur’an, and Islam
- 17 The Virgin Mary through the Centuries
- 18 Tonantzin and Our Lady of Guadalupe
- Part Four Empires of the Common Era
- 19 Narrative Inventions of the Holy Roman Empire
- 20 The Epic of Kings, Alexander the Great, and the Malacca Sultinate
- 21 The Franks, Charlemagne, and the Chansons de Geste
- 22 The Legendary Kingdom of King Arthur
- 23 Ethiopian Kings and the Ark of the Covenant
- 24 Narratives of the Virgin Queen
- Part Five Ideologies
- 25 Discovery: The European Narrative of Power
- 26 Epics of the Portuguese Seaborne Empire
- 27 Dekanawida and the Iroquois League
- 28 The New England Canaan of the Puritans
- 29 The Marxist Classless Society
- 30 Adolph Hitler: Narratives of Aryans and Jews
- Epilogue: A Clash of Narratives
- Bibliography
- Index
- About the Author
23 - Ethiopian Kings and the Ark of the Covenant
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 December 2020
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- About the Cover
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Prologue: The Prehistory of Power: Souls Spirits, Deities
- Part One Kings and Emperors
- 1 Divine Kingship in Mesopotamia
- 2 Pharaohs among the Indestructibles
- 3 Kingship among the Hebrews
- 4 The Deification of Roman Emperors
- 5 The Deva-Rajas in India and Southeast Asia
- 6 The Chinese Mandate from Heaven
- 7 The Japanese Imperial Cult
- Part Two Empires before the Common Era
- 8 The Legendary Empire of the Sumerians
- 9 Legendary Empires of Preclassical Greece
- 10 Patriarchs, Exodus, and the Epic of Israel
- 11 Legendary Empires of Ancient India
- 12 The Legendary Founding of Rome
- Part Three Founders
- 13 Moses: The Israelite Lawgiver
- 14 Buddha and Legends of Previous Buddhas
- 15 The Savior Narratives
- 16 Muhammad, the Qur’an, and Islam
- 17 The Virgin Mary through the Centuries
- 18 Tonantzin and Our Lady of Guadalupe
- Part Four Empires of the Common Era
- 19 Narrative Inventions of the Holy Roman Empire
- 20 The Epic of Kings, Alexander the Great, and the Malacca Sultinate
- 21 The Franks, Charlemagne, and the Chansons de Geste
- 22 The Legendary Kingdom of King Arthur
- 23 Ethiopian Kings and the Ark of the Covenant
- 24 Narratives of the Virgin Queen
- Part Five Ideologies
- 25 Discovery: The European Narrative of Power
- 26 Epics of the Portuguese Seaborne Empire
- 27 Dekanawida and the Iroquois League
- 28 The New England Canaan of the Puritans
- 29 The Marxist Classless Society
- 30 Adolph Hitler: Narratives of Aryans and Jews
- Epilogue: A Clash of Narratives
- Bibliography
- Index
- About the Author
Summary
In 2007 the skeletal remains of Australopithecus africanus, better known as “Lucy,” spent a full calendar year in a special exhibition at the Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS) on a planned four-museum tour of the United States. Lucy's remains, dated to 3.2 million years BP based on radiometric dating of adjacent volcanic deposits, were discovered by Donald Johanson in 1974 in the Olduvai Gorge region of East Africa, formerly Abyssinia, now Ethiopia. Johanson has exhaustively documented Lucy (1981, 1996), who remains one of the most important hominid finds of the twentieth century, bringing recognition to an African nation that is otherwise a minor player on the global landscape. But while the actual HMNS display of Lucy required only a modest display area, the Ethiopian presentation was many times larger with a long approach before one could view Lucy. The focus was an elaborate narrative developed in maps, posters, photographs, and other display items featuring an astonishing claim concerning a surprising holding in an Ethiopian church: the original biblical Ark of the Covenant. Their claim to possess this artifact is their claim to a unique status in Christendom by virtue of owning a sacred object that disappeared from the biblical record almost 3000 years ago.
According to biblical stories, the Ark of the Covenant was a richly decorated container for the stone tablets received by Moses at Mount Sinai. After Yahweh recited the Ten Commandments (Exod. 20), he proceeded to deliver a series of general laws. Following this Yahweh spoke, specifying details of the Ark the Israelites should build, the Tabernacle to house it, its altar, and the details of religious ritual Yahweh expects (Exod. 25–31). The Ark should be two and a half cubits in length, one and a half cubits in breadth, and one and a half cubits high (45ʺ × 27ʺ × 27ʺ), made of acacia wood and overlaid inside and outside with gold. It should have gold rings on each side that can receive acacia-carrying poles.
The Ark was supposedly taken with the migrant Israelites in the wilderness of Sinai and carried into Palestine where it survived the Conquest under Joshua and the uncertainties of the era of the Judges. It was eventually installed in the Temple of Solomon, presumably in the tenth century BCE.
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- Invented History, Fabricated PowerThe Narratives Shaping Civilization and Culture, pp. 267 - 276Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2020