Hill of Tara

The Hill of Tara is an archaeological site located in County Meath Ireland. The site has several monuments and earthworks including a passage tomb, burial mounds, round enclosures, a standing stone, and a ceremonial avenue. The period of construction begins in the Neolithic Period and continues through the Iron Age.There is also a modern church and churchyard. The Hill of Tara also features in Irish mythology and is where the old High Kings of Ireland were crowned beginning as early as the 7th century until around the 12th century. It is perhaps the presence of the Christian High Kings of Ireland and the connection to Irish mythology that prompted ‘’’British Israelites’’’ to speculate that the Ark of the Covenant was contained within the ‘’’Mound of Hostages’’’. This belief led to the group vandalizing the site between the years 1899 and 1902.

History of British Israelism

British Israelism by definition is the pseudoarchaeological belief that people of the British Isles (Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and England) are the genetic, racial, and linguistic direct descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. .Written documentation for this belief is seen as early as the 16th century, with the peak of the movement occurring throughout the 19th century. There are some independently organized groups of British Israelites that have been active during the 21st century in both the United Kingdom and the United States. The United States also gave birth to the Christian Identity movement. This group is racist, anti-Semitic, and white supremacist interpretation of Christianity which professes that only Germanic, Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Nordic, Aryan people and those of other closely related groups are the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and therefore are the descendants of the ancient Israelites.

Early Figures

M. le Loyer's The Ten Lost Tribes, published in 1590 is the first published expression of British Israelite sentiments. Loyer was a French Huguenot magistrate, the Huegonots were a Calvinist sect of Protestants in the 16th century. In his work, Loyer asseverated the essential base that the British Israelites would expand upon in the 19th century. This base includes the typical Northern European countries being descendants of ancient Israelites.

Another known observant of British Israelism include Sir Francis Drake was an English sea captain and explorer of the Elizabethan era. James VI and I of England and Scotland was also a supporter of British Israelite sentiments and even claimed himself as the rightful King of Israel.

Principles of Belief

• Adherents believe that most Israelites are not in fact Jews. This is based on literal biblical interpretations. Believers think that the Twelve Tribes of Israel are the twelve sons of the patriarch Jacob. A division occurred among the twelve tribes during the reigns of Saul, David, and Solomon, as depicted in the Hebrew Bible. It was with the three tribes of Judah, Benjamin and in part Levi, that they formed the Kingdom of Judah, and the remaining ten tribes formed the Kingdom of Israel. It is by this Biblical account that they consider their views verified by evidence.

• A second tenet is that the British descend from the Lost Tribes. The way that adherents make this claim is by suggesting that the Scythians, Cimmerians, and Goths were representatives of these lost tribes and progenitors of the later invaders of Britain. While it is true that the ancient inhabitants of the British Isles are descended from the Scythians, . The Scythians and the Cimmerians are both ancient Indo-European groups that occupied Central Asia and were pagans. The Goths are generally associated with Central Europe and were Arian Christians, and do not have connections to the British Isles. The British Israelites make this claim of connection based on cultural comparisons and instinctual feelings that the Persian word for the Scythians 'Sacae', and the name Isaac look visually similar in the Latin alphabet. The etymology disaster train continues by their claims that the word Saxons means “the sons of Isaac”. The Saxons according to the British Israelites invaded England from Denmark, the 'land of the Tribe of Dan'. However, the country of Denmark did not as of yet exist and the Saxons also occupied parts of the Netherlands. They saw the same tribal name of Dan in the Dardanelles, the Danube, Macedonia, Dunkirk, Dunglow in Ireland, Dundee in Scotland, and London and ascribed to this lost tribe the mythical Irish 'Tuatha Dé Danann'. The Tuatha Dé Danann were a supernatural race described in Irish mythology. This supernatural race is generally considered to be the main deities of pre-Christian Gaelic Ireland.

• The third principle of British Israelites is that the British throne is a continuation of biblical David’s throne. This belief is traced through their belief that the British Royal family has a connection through the line of King David through the last king of Judah, Zedekiah’s daughters. They escaped the destruction of Judah by the Babylonians, first to Egypt and then according to only to British Israelites where one of the daughters became Tea Tephi, a legendary princess married to a high king of Ireland. Hexham, Irving (2001). It is through this connection to the royal lineage of Ireland that the British Israelites conjecture that the kings and lineage traveled from Ireland to the Scottish royal line and then on to the British royal family. Despite the fact, the line of British royals has been broken on multiple occasions through conflicts during the Norman Conquest and the Hanoverian takeover.