Canaanite town that became the central sanctuary site of the Israelite confederacy during the period of the judges (12th–11th century BC). After the Israelite conquest of Canaan, the Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant were installed in Shiloh until the Ark was captured by the Philistines (c. 1050 BC) in a battle with the Israelites at Ebenezer (site unknown), and Shiloh was soon thereafter destroyed. Excavations at Khirbat Sayūn, Jordan, during 1920–32 suggest that Shiloh remained a ruin for several centuries.