Readers of the Lost Ark - Imagining the Ark of the Covenant From Ancient Times to the Present

Said to have been built by the Israelites to house the stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written, the Ark of the Covenant has long captured the popular imagination and is perhaps best known in popular culture as the object sought by Indiana Jones in the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark. By exploring the different ways people have interpreted and made sense of the Ark of the Covenant from ancient times to the present, Readers of the Lost Ark shows how the Ark has been received, reinterpreted, and reimagined from ancient times to the present.

List of contents

• Introduction


• Chapter 1: What Was the Ark and What Did It Do?


• Chapter 2: The Archaeology of the Ark and Iron Age Religion


• Chapter 3: Rethinking the Ark without the Temple: The Ark in Early Synagogues and Churches


• Chapter 4: Medieval Theology: The Ark as Metaphor


• Chapter 5: The "Real" Raiders of the Lost Ark: From Jerusalem to Japan


• Chapter 6: The Ark of Indiana Jones and Other Cinematic Arks


• Chapter 7: Toys and Teaching Tools: Models of the Ark in Communities of Faith and Fandom


• Chapter 8: The Romance of Solomon and Sheba: Ethiopian Ark Traditions


• Chapter 9: Aliens, Radios, and Conspiracies: The Many Arks of Pseudoarchaeology


• Conclusion

About the author

Kevin M. McGeough is Professor of Archaeology and holds a Board of Governors Research Chair in Archaeological Theory and Reception in the Department of Geography and Environment at the University of Lethbridge. He is the author of the three-volume series The Ancient Near East in the Nineteenth Century and of Representations of Antiquity in Film: From Griffith to Grindhouse.

Product details

• Authors: Kevin M. McGeough, Kevin M. (Professor of Archaeology and B Mcgeough, McGeough Kevin M.
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 25.06.2025
• EAN: 9780197653883
• ISBN: 978-0-19-765388-3
• No. of pages: 264
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Popular Culture, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Popular Culture, HISTORY / Middle East / General, RELIGION / Christianity / History, RELIGION / Antiquities & Archaeology, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Archaeology, RELIGION / Christianity / General, Middle East, Christianity, History of Religion, Middle Eastern history, Archaeology by period / region, Church history, Middle & Near Eastern archaeology