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An Ancient Replica of the Ark of the Covenant Found in Zimbabwe?

Teresa Neumann : Jun 3, 2010
Staff - Associated Press

"In the Zimbabwean Shona language, the artifact is called 'Ngoma Lungundu,' the 'drum that thunders,' while the waLemba call it 'the voice of God.'"

REPORTER'S NOTE: Though the main point of this story is a professor's theory on the Ark of the Covenant and a replica of it, I couldn't help but pick up on one minor detail: King Solomon's progeny. With his penchant for foreign women and his ultimate accumulation of a thousand wives, Solomon undoubtedly fathered hundreds of children, some of them—as this article notes—returning to the country of their mother's birth. A simple extrapolation offers up even more mind-bending possibilities. Since King David was Solomon's father, how many descendants of David are scattered throughout the Middle East and Africa? -Teresa Neumann, BCN.

(Harare, Zimbabwe)—Tudor Parfitt, a professor of Modern Jewish Studies at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies who has spent the last twenty years searching for the descendants of a lost tribe of Israel he believes ended up in South Africa. In the process, Parfit believes he has also found a replica of the Ark of the Covenant in Zimbabwe.

Though skeptics question the scholars deductions, his findings are, nevertheless, fascinating.

Ark of Covenant replica in ZimbabweNotes an AP report: "At the center of that research is a southern African ethnic group variously called Lemba, Remba or waLemba. Parfitt says 52 percent of them carry a Y chromosome known as the Cohen Modal Haplotype (CMH)—unique to ancient priestly Jewish communities and raising the possibility they are descended from Aaron, Moses' brother. Other groups in Zimbabwe have no CMH." (Photo by: AP)

The item Parfitt believes is the replica of the Ark is reportedly a wooden bowl traditionally known as "Ngoma Lungundu," (the "drum that thunders") or, as the waLemba call it, "the voice of God."

Theories about the Ark of the Covenant abound, of course. According to the report, "One says the original Ark of the Covenant may have been destroyed when the Babylonians invaded Jerusalem in 586 B.C.—that several copies likely were made and that one was taken to Ethiopia by Prince Menelik, the son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Another could have found its way to ancient Zimbabwe..."

Read this intriguing report in its entirety and find out why there's such a fuss in Zimbabwe over Parfitt's theory, by clicking on the link provided.