According to the Hebrew Bible, Shiloh was one of the main centers of Israelite worship during the pre-monarchic period, before the First Temple in Jerusalem was built.

Relative to other archaeological sites, it is south of the biblical town of Lebonah and 16 kilometres (10 mi) north of Bethel.

[8] During the Middle and Late Bronze Age Canaan, Shiloh was a walled city with a religious shrine or sanctuary.

Subsequently, Shiloh became one of the leading religious shrines in ancient Israel, a status it held until shortly before David's elevation of Jerusalem.

Talmudic sources state that the tent sanctuary remained at Shiloh for 369 years [12] until the Ark of the Covenant was taken into the battle camp at Eben-Ezer (1 Samuel 4:3–5) and captured by the Philistines at Aphek (probably Antipatris).

The people made pilgrimages there for major feasts and sacrifices, and Judges 21 records the place as the site of an annual dance of maidens among the vineyards.

According to 1 Samuel 1–3, the sanctuary at Shiloh was administered by the Aaronite high priest Eli and his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas.

According to this account, the young Samuel was dedicated by his mother Hannah there, to be raised at the shrine by the high priest, and his own prophetic ministry is presented as having begun there.

Albright hypothesized that the Philistines also destroyed Shiloh at this time; this conclusion is disputed,[14] but supported by recent archaeological research.

Certainly, the shadowy figure of Ahijah the Shilonite,[16] who instigated the revolt of Jeroboam I against David's grandson Rehoboam (I Kings 11, 14), came from there, and he bore the same name as the Aaronite priest that consulted the Ark for Saul in 1 Samuel 14:3.

[18] Jerome, in his letter to Paula and Eustochium, dated about 392–393, writes: "With Christ at our side we shall pass through Shiloh and Bethel " (Ep.46,13, PL 22, 492).

The mistaken identification lasted for centuries, as appears, for example, on the Florentine map of 1300, which places Shiloh at Nabi Samwil, where the Tomb of Samuel is found.

The sixth-century mosaic Madaba Map wrongly locates Shiloh east of Shechem, omitting the depiction of the church.

Muslim pilgrims to Shiloh mention a mosque called es-Sekineh where the memory of Jacob's and Joseph's deeds was revered.

The earliest source is el-Harawi, who visited the country in 1173 when it was occupied by the Crusaders and wrote: "Seilun is the village of the mosque es-Sekineh where the stone of the Table is found".

[citation needed] Finkelstein's work established eight strata, ranging from Middle Bronze II to the Byzantine period.

According to radiocarbon dating by Finkelstein, the site was abandoned around 1050 BCE, and then sparsely repopulated during the Iron II period.

[citation needed] This pile of pottery was the remnant of a number of animal sacrifices, which were tossed over the wall after completion of the ritual and then buried.

The top of the tell, where Finkelstein supposes that the tabernacle would have been placed, is now exposed bedrock, offering no clues concerning Israelite worship (aside from the adjacent storage complex).

A team led by the Archaeological Staff Officer for Judea and Samaria in Israel's Civilian Administration Antiquities Unit, performing a clean-up operation at Shiloh this summer, a belated continuation to a previous 1998 dig, discovered the mosaic floor of a large Byzantine church which was probably constructed between 380 and 420 AD.

It seems to have suffered problems of water drainage in its western section despite the installation of run-off pipes and troughs.