can you dig it?

As every hotpress reader knows, the Old Testament ends with the last chapter of the book of Malachi in which God reminds us of the covenant he made with Moses and in which he ominously promises that before the great and terrible day of the Lord he will send Elijah the prophet. What few hotpress readers know is that the prophet Elijah has been reincarnated, has been living in Kells, Co Meath for the past two years under the name John A. Hill and passionately believes that the long-lost Ark of the Covenant is buried on the Hill of Tara, at one time the capital of Ireland and where our ancient high kings once hung out.

When you meet Hill, or JAH as he more generally styles himself, his long grey-streaked beard certainly carries echoes of the stereotypical biblical prophet, although this effect is somewhat dissipated by a colourful jacket and a baseball cap emblazoned with the world Ireland . He s an affable, clear-skinned, quietly-spoken man whose knowledge of the Bible and other ancient books and texts is truly impressive.
Anyone whose acquaintance with the Ark is confined to the film The Raiders Of The Lost Ark will know that it is one of the most sought-after archaeological treasures on the planet, believed to contain the tablets on which God wrote the ten commandments for Moses, as well as the Torah, the five books of the Bible from Genesis to Deuteronomy, which detail the covenant which God made with Moses and all of mankind.
JAH is convinced that the similarity of the names Tara and Torah is one factor that links Tara with the Ark Of The Covenant. He believes too that the Irish are descended from the Dan (as in De Danann), the fifth tribe of Israel. But his impressive book of evidence is a complex one and may be beyond the ken of the unscholarly. Some of his evidence has been unearthed in the ancient Irish Metrical Dindsenchas which states that the queen Teia Tephi, who crops up repeatedly in ancient Irish history, is buried in a mergach (Hebrew for resting-place) under a mound that fits the description of the Mound Of The Hostages on the Hill Of Tara.
The same source also states that Tara is the secret location of The Way Of Life , and the Book of Deuteronomy describes the Covenant in those terms.
Irrespective of what you think of JAH s claims, they remain so far unrefuted. As he explained to me, The author of the Book of Jeremiah was appointed custodian of the Ark and he s buried only a few miles away in Loughcrew. It was he who brought the Ark from Jerusalem to Tara via Tanis in Egypt and a short stopover in Gibraltar.
The story goes that when Jeremiah left Jerusalem with the Ark he also brought with him the aforementioned Teia Tephi, daughter of King Zedekiah. Having separated prior to their arrival in an effort to protect their treasure, they arrived separately in Hibernia, the ancient name of Ireland which JAH points out can be translated as Hebrew s New Land , perhaps supporting his claim that the De Danann were one of the tribes of Israel.
Jeremiah and Teia Tephi were subsequently reunited at Tara. He died in 581 BC and they are buried in Meath only a few miles apart. In one of her prophesies Teia Tephi predicted that one day she will be recovered from her resting-place at Tara along with the Ark Of The Covenant.
That, in an over-simplified nutshell, is supposed to be how the Ark came to be buried with Teia Tephi under the Mound Of The Hostages at Tara.
In another apparent coincidence, JAH points out that the very name Mound Of The Hostages has echoes of the Biblical Book Of Chronicles in which the Ark and its contents are referred to as the hostages .
JAH himself lived in Gibraltar for some time, a fact which also might explain how the signatures of 500 Gibraltarians and 500 locals have been sent to the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht Sile de Valera as part of a petition asking her to allow a dig on the site to verify JAH s claim. These appeals to the Minister have been turned down in the usual way Ministers have of doing business, with the unconvincing excuse that JAH is not a professional archaeologist.
As JAH told hotpress: She referred me to the Office of Public Works, but that process would be far too costly for me to pursue. All I want to do is dig up a specific piece of earth about two metres by two metres and maybe go down ten, twenty or thirty feet. That s all. I know the exact spot where the Ark is buried and there s absolutely nothing to be lost by allowing me to excavate there. This would be the most significant find in the history of the world, so the attitude of the Irish government is inexplicable.
Except maybe the fact that if JAH s claim holds water it would screw up the cosy relationship that exists between Irish archaeologists, whom JAH refers to as the liars club , and the Minister and her lackeys. It might also reflect unfavourably on the work carried out by de Valera s uncle Ruaidhri in the fifties, but that thought probably never crossed her mind.
JAH has also written to Minister for Tourism Jim McDaid who replied with the usual buck-passing manoeuvre referring the writer to de Valera.
There have of course been many claims for possession of the Ark, often referred to as a hotline to God , including those siting it in the Vatican, Scotland, Ethiopia, Egypt and Jerusalem, but the custodians of these alleged arks have uniformly refused to show it for the most spurious reasons, while JAH s claim has at least the advantage that he s not attempting to hide anything and it would be comparatively easy to prove him wrong.
JAH eschews all organised religion. Religion has killed more people than anything else , he admits, but he believes in the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Koran and argues that, when properly studied, all three books are in perfect harmony.
He also claims that unearthing the Ark at Tara would be a major scoop in more ways than one.
The benefits for all mankind, and especially Ireland, in finding the Ark at Tara are incalculable , JAH explains. I ve even approached RTE about doing a film based on my evidence. But despite broadcasting programmes about the Ark made in other countries they aren t interested in my evidence. The well-known American producer Bruce Burgess has expressed interest in funding a film about the excavation of the site but once again the Irish government is not interested in granting the necessary permission.
But support for JAH s project is growing, not least in Meath itself. Local Fianna Fail TD Johnny Brady is reported to be not best pleased by de Valera s recalcitrance and, according to JAH, even signed JAH s petition to her to allow JAH to excavate the site.
His supporters also include local activists such as Joseph Glynn who points with incontrovertible common sense that since the excavation can t damage anything and would leave the site unscarred there s no reason why the Government cshouldn t allow it to proceed. After all, Glynn reckons, we re talking about a small area and the dig would only take a couple of weeks.
JAH claims he knows precisely where that dig should take place. I was up on Tara one day and I saw this bright diamond-shaped light shining on the area. People who ve stood on that spot on even the coldest day will tell you that they can feel an inexplicable warmth emanating from the spot.
Although he s understandably reluctant to admit where precisely that spot is, he willingly admits it s in the vicinity of the Mound Of The Hostages and not far from the nearby Rath Of The Synods where a team of British Israelites excavated towards the end of the 19th century.
JAH also refutes concerns that the recovery of the Ark would result in the mayhem that features in the Raiders Of The Lost Ark film.
That couldn t happen he claims. The recovery of the Ark will set the world back in harmony again and this could be our very last chance. God has given me the task of recovering it and God has shown me the exact spot. I know that some people will dismiss this as the notion of a crackpot, but I ve thoroughly researched the subject and I ve no doubts whatsoever that the Ark is buried at Tara.
While some have argued that mankind needs a miracle to rescue us from certain catastrophe, JAH actually believes a miracle of a different kind has already happened.
When you see what we ve done to the earth, and to each other, the wars, the greed, the pollution, the materialism, it s actually a miracle that the earth hasn t already shut down. The Ruler of The Universe has been interfering to keep mankind alive. That s a miracle and it s already taken place!
All our woes can be traced back to our failure to obey the Covenant made between God and Moses. When I find the Ark we will return to a peaceful and prosperous society.
When the Covenant is restored, usury (the lending of money), believed by JAH and his supporters to be a major cause of all our woes, will also disappear.
He also maintains that this must happen in his lifetime. I put it to him that since he s now 52 years old, allowing the Biblical threescore years and ten as the average lifespan means that we have only 18 years before all hell (or heaven) breaks lose.
I d put it sooner than that , he answers with unnerving confidence, I d say it s more likely to be around twelve years.
Meantime, all that seems to stand between JAH and potentially the most significant find in history, is a stubborn Minister.