THE ZIMBABWE "ARK OF THE COVENANT" gets coverage in the Daily Mail in an article that really plays up the Raiders of the Lost Ark angle:

The real Indiana Jones: Intrepid British don Tudor Parfitt's mission to find the Lord Ark
By ZOE BRENNAN - More by this author » Last updated at 19:14pm on 22nd February 2008

As he entered the sacred cave, a deafening roar filled the air. It was the dead of night in deepest Zimbabwe. The lone explorer reached for his gun, the beam of his torch wavering as he battled his nerves.

This was Dumghe mountain, the spiritual home of the mighty Lemba people. In this cave lay the secrets of their ancestors. A real-life Indiana Jones was determined to reach into its closely-guarded depths.

The renowned Welsh academic Tudor Parfitt had been told of a previous hapless researcher who had wandered too far down forbidden paths leading to this den of treasures. He had been brutally circumcised by the tribe. Village elders spoke of two-headed snakes which resided in the cave.

Tonight was Parfitt's opportunity to put ancient questions to rest once and for all.

He had left the Lemba drinking chibuku - home-brewed maize beer the consistency of porridge - at their chief's hut, their naked women ululating and dancing to encourage the gods to bring rain.

Later, they would collapse into an alcohol-induced slumber, leaving the cave momentarily unguarded. The treasures they hid were reputedly no ordinary tribal spoils of gold and riches. Legend had it that deep within the mountain lay the Ark of the Lost Covenant - the subject of the Steven Spielberg film Indiana Jones And The Raiders Of The Lost Ark.

While conducting his research, Parfitt had found that the Lemba's stories told of a 'ngoma' - a wooden drum used to store sacred objects, which they claimed to have carried on poles from their homeland in Israel, where it had resided in "the great temple in Jerusalem". It had guided them on their long trek from Israel to Africa and was too sacred to be touched by their bare hands.

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