Aerial view of Tel Megiddo. AVRAM GRAICER, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Although remembered in the Bible as one of Judah’s most pious rulers, King Josiah met a rather untimely death, slain at Megiddo by Pharaoh Necho II. While Josiah’s death is recorded in both 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, no archaeological evidence has ever been found to corroborate the story, until now. Publishing in the Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament, archaeologists excavating at the site of Megiddo in northern Israel propose that new ceramic finds provide the first evidence for Egyptian forces stationed in the city at the time of Josiah’s end.

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When Egypt Reigned at Megiddo

The death of pious King Josiah at the hands of Pharaoh Necho II at Megiddo (c. 609 BCE) was the beginning of the end for the biblical kingdom of Judah, which just a few decades later would finally fall at the hands of the Babylonians. Now, the discovery of massive amounts of Egyptian and Greek pottery has confirmed at least one major element of the story: that Egyptian forces and their Greek mercenaries had a significant presence at Megiddo at the end of the seventh century BCE.

In searching for traces of the biblical event, the archaeologists had little to go on, with much of the upper layers of the archaeological mound at Megiddo having been removed by prior excavations. Finally identifying a promising spot, known as Area X, the team hit pay dirt: a small area containing the remains of a mudbrick wall and two successive buildings with well-preserved layers dating from the eighth to sixth centuries BCE.

The earliest layers excavated in the area contained evidence of the Israelite occupation of the site and the fiery destruction that brought that occupation to its end at the hands of the Assyrian army under Tiglath-Pileser III (c. 732 BCE). Later layers showed evidence for the site’s Assyrian occupation, a period when it was the capital of the province of Magiddu and home to a mixed population of Israelites and deportees from around the Assyrian Empire. None of that was unexpected based on previous excavations. However, it was the latest layers of Area X that provided striking new evidence of the biblical story.

Although no destruction layer was identified at the end of Assyrian control over the site (mid- to late seventh century), there was a sudden change in ceramic remains, with the inclusion of a large amount of imported Egyptian and eastern Greek pottery. Dating to the late seventh century BCE, these ceramic finds perfectly matched the period of Josiah’s death. According to the excavators, no other site in the region has such a large amount of Egyptian pottery, and no non-coastal site has as much Greek pottery.

Considering the data, the archaeologists suggest that the most logical explanation for such a large and sudden presence of Egyptian and Greek pottery is the presence of a large garrison of Egyptian and Greek troops, the latter well known as mercenaries who served under the employ of Necho II. Besides fitting the biblical story, the evidence also fits with Assyrian history. Conquering the southern Levant in the latter half of the eighth century, the Assyrian Empire would slowly start to decline, and upon losing control of the Levant about a century later, it was Assyria’s Egyptian allies that filled the power vacuum. In the last two decades of the seventh century, Assyria was on the ropes, under attack by the Babylonians, the Medes, and the Persians. It was then that Pharaoh Necho rode out from Egypt to aid the Assyrians.

As recorded in 2 Kings 23:29, “In his days Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. King Josiah went to meet him, and Pharaoh Necho killed him at Megiddo, as soon as he saw him.” Although 2 Chronicles 35:22–24 specifies that Josiah fought against Necho (an element of the story that is debated by scholars), it can no longer be doubted that the Egyptian army was stationed at Megiddo, exactly where and when the biblical narrative places them.

This article was first published in Bible History Daily on March 10, 2025.

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Assyrian cylinder seal from Horvat Tevet. Courtesy Omer Peleg et al.

What can a burial tell us about Assyrian administrative control over ancient Israel? Maybe a lot more than we think. Publishing in the journal Tel Aviv, archaeologists excavating at the site of Horvat Tevet in the Jezreel Valley suggest that a single grave may hold a major clue to understanding Assyrian administrative policy in the region they conquered from the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the seventh century BCE.

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Cremating a Clue

Horvat Tevet is about 10 miles northeast of the important city of Megiddo, which, during the period of Assyrian rule, was the capital of the imperial province of Megiddu. Across numerous periods, including under the Egyptians and the northern Israelite kingdom, Horvat Tevet served as an administrative hub and royal estate. However, like many sites in the strategically important Jezreel Valley, Horvat Tevet shrank in size and importance under the Assyrians, leading many archaeologists to suggest that the Assyrians neglected the region. That conclusion might now be challenged by an intriguing grave discovered at the site.

Plan and section drawing prepared by Elena Ilana Delerzon, IAA. Courtesy of Karen Covello-Paran and Omer Sergi, the Ḥorvat Tevet Expedition.

For those unfamiliar with the burial customs of the time, the grave at Horvat Tevet seems rather mundane. But when compared to other ancient Levantine burials, it is obvious that something is amiss. The burial consists of two separate burial pits, one of which is a cremation burial, a rarity in the Iron Age Levant (c. 1200–586 BCE). But even the more typical inhumation burial found alongside it was unusual, as the body was found in the fetal rather than supine position. The uniqueness does not stop there, however.

The Horvat Tevet cremains were spread across three separate urns, with a large quantity of grave goods found both inside and outside of the vessels. These included faience amulets, an alabastron, a stone weight, a cylinder seal, a glazed Assyrian bottle, various metal objects, ceramics, and nearly 100 beads. Although some of these objects were made locally, many were imported, largely from Philistia and Phoenicia but also Egypt and even Assyria.

While several features of the Horvat Tevet burial are unusual, the burial site itself is equally puzzling, at least until compared with burials known from Assyria. Indeed, many Assyrian cities and strongholds feature strikingly similar graves. Clearly, then, the grave at Horvat Tevet is connected to Assyrian burial practices, while the wealth of objects indicates the deceased came from among the higher echelons of local society.

How, then, does this relate to Assyria’s administration of the former Northern Kingdom? Although Megiddo was an Assyrian provincial capital, Horvat Tevet seems to have been less important, yet the grave is both rich and distinctly Assyrian. According to archaeologists, such a burial would have served to connect the deceased to the land around them. They suggest the individual may have lived at Megiddo, with their body transported to Horvat Tevet for burial. This connection, they argue, may help explain the apparent lack of development in the Jezreel Valley. Across other areas of Assyrian control, the Assyrians dedicated certain areas as royal agricultural territory, to be managed by local elites on behalf of the imperial administration. Under this assumption, the lack of development in the Jezreel did not reflect a lack of administrative oversight, but rather was an expression of Assyrian agricultural policy.

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Hanging Gardens of Babylon by John Henry Leonard, 1834–1904. Courtesy Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL.

Where are the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Today, the exact locations of six of the seven ancient Wonders of the World are known. Yet, the identification of the Hanging Gardens remains elusive. As recorded in multiple Greek sources, the gardens were one of the greatest feats of ancient engineering and included an irrigation system that was centuries ahead of its time. Yet, after thorough excavation of the site of ancient Babylon (located about 50 miles south of modern Baghdad), nothing of the gardens has been uncovered, leading many scholars to see the story as a fantasy. Others, however, have a different idea. What if the gardens did exist, but not in Babylon?

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A Missing World Wonder

According to the Jewish historian Josephus (Antiquities 10.220), the gardens were constructed by the infamous Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II as a gift to his wife. Although their details vary, several other ancient authors also wrote about the gardens, including Ctesias and Strabo. With all these writings, the lack of any definitive location for the Hanging Gardens of Babylon is certainly a puzzle. Despite years of excavation at the Babylonian capital city, no surefire locations for the famous gardens have been identified. The problem is even more troubling when looking at native Mesopotamian sources, where no such monumental gardens are ever recorded as having been constructed in Babylon.

Following famed archaeologist Leonard Woolley, earlier generations of scholars suggested that perhaps the ziggurat of Babylon was the garden. This idea, however, has been soundly rejected based on ancient depictions of ziggurats that show them unadorned by plants or foliage. Recently, some scholars have suggested that maybe the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were located at Nebuchadnezzar’s Outer Palace, where there is sufficient space for such a monumental feature. Unfortunately, the area is poorly preserved and provides no definitive archaeological evidence for the presence of a garden. So where are the Hanging Gardens of Babylon?

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The Hanging Gardens of Nineveh?

One proposed solution to the problem of where are the Hanging Gardens of Babylon is that they were not located in Babylon at all. As first proposed by Assyriologist Stephanie Dalley, these famous gardens might instead have been constructed in the Assyrian city of Nineveh.¹ Specifically, these gardens were constructed not by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II, but by Sennacherib, king of Assyria (r. 704–681 B.C.E.). According to Dalley, despite the name given to them by later writers, the Hanging Gardens fit much better with the archaeological and textual evidence from Nineveh. One issue with identifying the gardens with Babylon is that after the fall of the Babylonian empire in 539 B.C.E., the course of the Euphrates River was intentionally diverted away from the city. While most descriptions of the Hanging Gardens state that they pulled water directly from the Euphrates, this water source would have long dried up by the time the Greek accounts were written. It is also important to note that many classical and Greek descriptions of Babylon do not make any mention of the Hanging Gardens, which surely would have been noted if they were actually to be found in Babylon.

Assyrian Palace at Nineveh by Austen Henry Layard, 1853. Austen Henry Layard, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Another factor in favor of identifying the Hanging Gardens with Nineveh is that the Assyrian sources depict just such a garden. While there is a stark absence of any mention of large garden works within any texts from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, texts from the time of Sennacherib speak extensively about his horticultural projects within Nineveh. More importantly, several of Sennacherib’s inscriptions mention that he constructed a palace in Nineveh with an incredible garden that he called “a wonder for all peoples.” Sennacherib’s inscriptions also describe a revolutionary new irrigation system, which Dalley argues is incredibly similar to the system that supplied the supposed Hanging Gardens of Babylon, as mentioned by Strabo and others. In examining the archaeological remains of Sennacherib’s palace, Dalley likewise suggests that the ruins of Sennacherib’s garden closely follow the classical description of the Babylonian gardens.²

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Confusion Between Babylon and Nineveh

How is it possible that the classical sources unanimously got the location of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon wrong? As mentioned by Dalley, later writers frequently conflated the two cities of Babylon and Nineveh. Part of this is due to foreign authors’ poor understanding of Mesopotamian history. Herodotus, for example, considered the Assyrians and Babylonians to be the same kingdom. Within Jewish literature, Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar are often similarly conflated, which could explain Josephus’s attribution of the gardens to Nebuchadnezzar.

Babylonis Muri (The Walls of Babylon) by Philip Galle, 1572. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

However, there is also a historical basis for this conflation of the two imperial cities. Throughout the ancient Near East, royal inscriptions would sometimes intentionally conflate different cities to make political or religious statements. Sennacherib is well known for his attempts to establish Nineveh as a new Babylon following his conquest and destruction of that city. He transferred the Babylonian cult to Nineveh and frequently described the city with terms that had previously only been applied to Babylon.

Although there is no definitive answer to the question, “where are the Hanging Gardens of Babylon,” an examination of the archaeological and textual sources reveals that they were likely not located in Babylon itself. Instead, as Dalley has argued, it is very possible that the gardens did exist, but were to be found in Nineveh, the capital of Sennacherib, the Assyrian king, who conquered Babylon.

Notes

1 Stephanie Dalley, “Ancient Mesopotamian Gardens and the Identification of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon Resolved,” Garden History 21 (1993), pp. 1–13.

2 Stephanie Dalley, The Mystery of the Hanging Garden of Babylon (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).

This post was first published in Bible History Daily on May 13, 2022.

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Winged genie from Sargon’s palace at Dur Sharrukin.
Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

One of Sargon II’s (r. 721–706 BCE) many acts—besides conquering Samaria and taking the ten northern tribes of Israel into exile, of course—was the establishment of a brand-new capital for the Assyrian Empire, Dur-Sharrukin. Before the purpose-built city was completed, however, Sargon fell in battle, and his son, Sennacherib, moved the capital instead to Nineveh, leaving the unfinished Dur-Sharrukin to be buried by history. Now, a joint French-German team is discovering that much more of the city had been completed than previously thought. The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

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Assessing an Assyrian Capital

Utilizing a high-resolution magnetometer, the team conducted a large-scale survey, scanning 2.79 million square feet of the site over a week. While this is less than ten percent of the ancient city’s overall area, the team still made some incredible discoveries, including five previously unknown monumental buildings, as well as the city’s water gate and several palace gardens. One of the monumental buildings was an enormous 127-room villa, twice the size of the White House. These discoveries help prove that despite only lasting for around a decade before being abandoned, Dur-Sharrukin was a genuinely lived-in city.

Magnetometry, which scans for electromagnetic materials beneath the ground, allows researchers to investigate a site without the need for excavation, which can be costly in resources and time. Following such surveys, archaeologists can better target areas where digging may be the most fruitful.

The team at Dur-Sharrukin carried the 33-pound magnetometer along the ground as opposed to mounting it on a vehicle or drone to avoid additional attention, as the surrounding region is still potentially dangerous even with the Islamic State occupation of the area having ended in 2017. During their occupation, Islamic State destroyed parts of the ancient site, and it was later the site of fighting between Islamic State and Kurdish forces. Fortunately, very little of the site has been excavated and thus most of it was protected from threats.

This article was first published in Bible History Daily on December 13, 2024.

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The post Uncovering a Buried Assyrian Capital appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

The cuneiform inscription, dating to the First Temple period, found in Jerusalem. Courtesy Eliyahu Yanai, City of David.

For the first time, a fragment of a cuneiform inscription from the First Temple period (c. 1000–586 BCE) has been excavated in Jerusalem. The inscription, believed to be part of a royal correspondence between the court of the Assyrian Empire and the royal court of Judah, pertains to a delay in payment, possibly of a required tax. This scenario fits nicely with the historical context of Judah’s vassalage to the Assyrian Empire as recorded in the Hebrew Bible. It provides a remarkable view into the Assyrian administration of Judah.

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Royal Correspondence

The small clay fragment, which measures about an inch wide, preserves only about 20 cuneiform signs. Yet even these few signs provide a mountain of information, especially since this is one of only two cuneiform inscriptions ever discovered in Jerusalem from the First Temple period. A second fragmentary inscription was found nearby but is still undergoing analysis. Both inscriptions were found in the Davidson Archaeological Park, less than 100 feet from the Western Wall.

According to researchers, the newly announced inscription was likely a bulla used to seal a letter that was written on perishable material, such as papyrus. This can be assumed based on the unusually thin clay upon which the inscription was written, as well as its steep curve and the indentation of what was probably a cord on the backside of the inscription. Such bullae, used to seal documents or containers, were common in the Assyrian Empire and often included a summary of the letter to help the messenger better communicate its contents. It is this very summary, written in the Assyrian dialect of Akkadian, that the inscription contains.

While only part of the original message, the preserved text mentions a due date on the first day of the month of Av, likely for the delivery of a tax or other obligation. The inscription then mentions a chariot officer. Within the Assyrian Empire, chariot officers were high-ranking individuals who could carry messages on behalf of the royal household, as was likely the case with the Jerusalem fragment. Based on this limited information, the team proposes that the letter was likely about a delay, intentional or otherwise, in sending tribute to the Assyrian court.

Petrographic analysis of the clay confirmed that the letter was composed in the Assyrian heartland, near the Tigris River. Paleographic and linguistic analysis of the inscription further supports Assyria as its place of origin. It also fixes the date of the inscription to the eighth or seventh century BCE, during the period in which Judah was a vassal of the Assyrian Empire. While no Assyrian or Judahite king is mentioned, the limited context available in the inscription suggests it likely dates to the reign of Hezekiah, Manasseh, or Josiah.

Assyriologist Peter Zilberg holding the cuneiform inscription from Jerusalem. Courtesy Yoli Schwartz, IAA.

“While we cannot determine the background for this demand, whether it stemmed from a mere technical delay or was taken as a deliberate step with political significance, the very existence of such an official appeal would seemingly attest to a certain point of friction between Judah and the imperial government,” said Peter Zilberg and Filip Vukosavović, the Assyriologists who studied the fragment, in a press release. They further hypothesize that it could date specifically to the period of Hezekiah’s tax revolt from Sennacherib, as recorded in 2 Kings 18:7.

This inscription marks the only known instance of direct Assyrian royal communication with the Judahite court ever discovered in Jerusalem, although archaeological finds from elsewhere—as well as the biblical text—suggest such communication was not uncommon. “We did not have any evidence for correspondence between Assyria and Judah, which we have always attributed to the fact that such letters might have been written in Aramaic and did not survive,” Zilberg told Bible History Daily. “We have waited for an Assyrian text from Jerusalem for quite a while, and now we finally have it! We do know of emissaries of the Judean court receiving wine rations in Nimrud. But as opposed to the Assyrian province of Samaria and Megiddo, the textual corpus of legal/administrative texts and letters from the Neo-Assyrian period is quite limited [for Jerusalem].”

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“I spent many years studying Neo-Assyrian legal and administrative texts and Neo-Assyrian letters, which relate to the southern Levant,” said Zilberg. “To tell you the truth, I was not expecting such an amazing find.”

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Relief from the Palace of Sennacherib in Nineveh showing two horsemen. Courtesy The Met, public domain.

The assassination of Sennacherib, king of Assyria, is presented in the Bible as God’s divine justice against an evil king. Outside of the Bible, however, this was one of the most significant events in the history of the ancient Near East. Collecting records and references from contemporary and later sources, historian Christopher Jones has provided a renewed look at this event and its aftermath in the Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History, allowing for the most complete recreation of events to date.

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Assassinating Sennacherib

On January 22, 680 BCE, Sennacherib was assassinated in his capital city of Nineveh during a coup spearheaded by several of his own sons. While the biblical account of the event takes up only a few verses (Isaiah 37:37–38; 2 Kings 19:37; 2 Chronicles 32:21), Assyrian documents from the time provide a much fuller picture of the turmoil surrounding Sennacherib’s death. By examining letters, records, and even the names of Assyrian officials, Jones, an expert on the Neo-Assyrian Empire, has been able to tentatively reconstruct the events leading up to the king’s assassination.

Relief from the Palace of Sennacherib in Nineveh showing a high ranking official, possibly a crown prince. Courtesy The Met, public domain.

By the time of his death, Sennacherib had achieved great success, expanding and strengthening the empire that had been left to him by his father, Sargon II. Indeed, Sennacherib’s military campaigns in the Levant led him to be one of the most frequently mentioned non-Israelite kings in the Hebrew Bible. Yet, the near constant turmoil and conflict of Sennacherib’s reign also led to great tragedy, including the death of his eldest son and heir, Assur-nadin-šumi, during a rebellion in Babylon.

Following this death in 694 BCE, Sennacherib briefly elevated his son Urad-Mullissu (biblical Adrammelech) before he changed his mind and named his younger son Esarhaddon as his new heir. This was not an unheard-of situation in Assyria, as Sennacherib’s own name (literally, “Sin has replaced the brothers”) tells us that Sennacherib was not the firstborn son of Sargon. However, this decision would eventually cost Sennacherib his life.

With the young Esarhaddon off in the western portion of the empire—likely the dynasty’s ancestral home of Dur-Katlimmu (modern Tell Sheikh Hamad)—several of Esarhaddon’s brothers began a coup. After convincing a large number of Assyria’s elite chariot forces, as well as many of the Nineveh’s senior officials, the brothers assassinated their father, Sennacherib.

While a few scholars had previously suggested that Esarhaddon coordinated the assassination, this was almost certainly not the case. Instead, as documented in several letters from the time, Urad-Mullissu was likely the ringleader, intending to take by force the throne that his father had denied him. A few references indicate that the brothers also likely attempted to assassinate Esarhaddon but failed.

According to the biblical account (Isaiah 37:37–38), the assassination of Sennacherib was carried out in the temple of the god Nisroch by Adrammelech and Sharezar. While Adrammelech is likely a defective spelling of Urad-Mullissu, there is no consensus among scholars on the character of Sharezar, which is likely a defective spelling of the name of one of the other brothers. The god Nisroch is likewise unknown and could have been a minor deity such as Nusku, or even a wordplay on the name of a particular god, which is lost to translators today.

A Battle for Power and the Decline of the Empire

Following the assassination of Sennacherib, Assyria was thrown into a brief but chaotic power struggle. Having likely survived an assassination attempt, Esarhaddon swiftly began to build support for his ascent to the throne. Based on letters and inscriptions from the time, it appears that Esarhaddon first launched a massive propaganda campaign that was intended to compel regional governors and temple institutions to back his claim on the throne. As the named heir, Esarhaddon relied heavily on his official status as the chosen of the gods.

Esarhaddon’s ascension to the throne, however, was not the end of the story of the assassination of Sennacherib. Although managing to restore order, Esarhaddon could not undo the damage done to the empire. Indeed, the events of his father’s death had a profound impact on Esarhaddon himself, who spent much of the later parts of his reign attempting to solidify his own succession, elevating his younger son Ashurbanipal to the position of heir apparent over his elder son Šamaš-šumu-ukin. But his decision would prove disastrous, as only a few decades after Esarhaddon’s death, Šamaš-šumu-ukin utilized his position as king of Babylon to stir up a bloody civil war against his brother Ashurbanipal, plunging the empire into turmoil yet again.

Although Assyria maintained hegemony in the Near East for nearly a century after the assassination of Sennacherib, the political and psychological effect of the event would continue to be felt until the final fall of the Assyria Empire in c. 610 BCE, splintering the empire and pitting brother against brother.

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A lmlk stamp impression – ‘(belonging) to the king’ from the Judahite administration in the aftermath of the Sennacherib campaign. Courtesy Emil Aladjem, IAA.

Excavators with the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) have uncovered two large administrative buildings in the Mordot Arnona neighborhood of Jerusalem. Constructed one on top of the other, the two buildings date to immediately before and after the conquest of Judah by Sennacherib in 701 BCE. According to the directors of the excavation, the buildings and the finds inside of them may shed important new light on the administrative impact of Sennacherib’s campaign in the area immediately surrounding Jerusalem.

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Administering a Kingdom

Until now, evidence of changes to Judah’s administrative structure after the “>Assyrian conquest came mainly from the Judean foothills (the Shephelah) to the west. This discovery, however, provides new information about administrative changes in the area of Jerusalem following the campaign.

In addition to the two administrative buildings, the team also uncovered nearly 200 stamped storage jar handles that would have been used to store important agricultural produce collected as taxes, a primary interest of both the Judahite and Assyrian administrations. These agricultural commodities would have included grains, but also wine and olive oil. Many of these handles bear the famous lmlk (“for the king”) impression that clearly marks them as belonging to the central administration. Other jars, however, bear what appear to be personal names that could have been wealthy estate owners or local officials.

A lmlk stamp impression bearing the name mmšt – ‘(belonging) to the king, mmšt’. Courtesy Emil Aladjem, IAA.

“We discovered remains of a significant royal administrative center from the days of King Hezekiah, and perhaps even from the reign of his father, King Ahaz,” said the IAA excavation directors. “The center functioned in the last third of the eighth century BCE but was destroyed down to its foundations and buried under a massive heap of stones. The stone pile formed a platform upon which a subsequent structure was erected.” Furthermore, the archaeologists said, “We interpret these dramatic changes as a statement by the Assyrian imperial government, intended to convey a political-diplomatic message to the surrounding region and make it clear ‘who is really in charge’ by overhauling the administrative structure and its function.”

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This article was first published in Bible History Daily on October 14, 2024.

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Relief of chariot horses from the palace of Ashurbanipal. Photo Companion to the Bible, 2 Kings.

Early eighth-century BCE Megiddo is famous for two massive stable complexes, thought by early excavators to be the stables of Solomon. Covering a large portion of the city, these stables were central to daily life at Megiddo and reflect the city’s intensive interest in breeding and keeping horses. In Near Eastern Archaeology, archaeologist Israel Finkelstein sets out to explain the role these stables played in both the city and the powerful Northern Kingdom of Israel.

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Horses for Sale

Located within the strategic Jezreel Valley, Megiddo played an important role in the northern Israelite kingdom. However, the city was largely destroyed during the campaign of Hazael, king of Aram-Damascus, in the mid-ninth century BCE. When it was rebuilt a few decades later, the city was entirely different in size and character. The eighth-century city featured a massive inset-offset wall, a new city layout, and two massive complexes that, together, occupied a significant portion of the city. The rebuilt city also sprang up at a time when the northern kingdom was once again asserting its authority. As an ally and vassal of the mighty Assyrian Empire, Israel was beginning to expand and develop economically, becoming a powerhouse in the southern Levant.

The purpose of the two massive complexes has long been a subject of debate; however, recent work has connected these complexes with similar contemporary buildings known to have been horse stables. One such stable, discovered at Nabi Yunus in Iraq, even included inscriptions from the Assyrian king Sennacherib II that explicitly identified the complex as a construction for horses. So, why was one of the most strategically important cities in ancient Israel seemingly dedicated to the singular purpose of stabling horses? According to Israel Finkelstein, director of the current Megiddo excavations, the answer is trade.

Reconstruction of the Southern Stables at Megiddo. Courtesy Photo Companion to the Bible, 2 Kings.

Although expansion brought prosperity to the Assyrian Empire, it also required gaining access to strategic resources. One such resource was cavalry and chariot horses. While the best horses came from Egypt and Nubia, the distance between Assyria and Egypt presented a golden opportunity for Israel to serve as an intermediary in this trade network. Thus, as suggested by Finkelstein, “Israel could have imported Nubian horses from Egypt via the services of the cities of Philistia and established a horse breeding and training center at Megiddo. The horses were then sold to Assyria and other clients in the region.”

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Although this period of history at Megiddo ended when the city was captured by Tiglath-Pileser III in 732 BCE, the stables of Megiddo provide a window into the northern kingdom’s commercial and military strategy. Indeed, it was likely a strategy that relied on trade with the very empire that would eventually destroy it. Nevertheless, the chariots of Israel were a formidable, if short-lived, force in the biblical world.

Related reading in Bible History Daily

Ceremonial Chariot Found in Pompeii

Israelite Chariots in the Assyrian Period

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library

The Mystery of the Horses of the Sun at the Temple Entrance

Back to Megiddo

The post The Chariots of Israel appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

Bottom of the Assyrian scarab seal. Courtesy Anastasia Shapiro, IAA.

While hiking in the Lower Galilee, a man was surprised to spot a small scarab seal sparkling on the ground. Used by Near Eastern cultures for millennia, seals are important indicators of the various peoples who lived in or passed through different places. In this case, the iconography of the seal, carved in the shape of a scarab beetle, identified it as Assyrian, possibly dating back to the eighth century BCE and, therefore, suggesting the presence of Assyrians in Israel at that time.

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A Seal at Tel Rekhesh

Found in the Tabor Stream Nature Reserve at the foot of Tel Rekhesh, the scarab depicts a griffin and is made of carnelian. While scarab seals originated in Egypt in the fourth millenium BCE, the particular iconography of the seal is similar to Assyrian seals from the eighth century, shortly before the Neo-Assyrian Empire conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel. It is possible the seal was a family heirloom that traveled with an Assyrian administrator to Israel after the conquest, as it was common for a son to continue using the seal of his father or grandfather.

Side view of the scarab seal. Courtesy Anastasia Shapiro, IAA.

The seal’s discovery near Tel Rekhesh is likely no coincidence, as the site boasted a large citadel in the seventh and sixth centuries, during the period of Assyrian control. The citadel included fortified structures, grand halls, ceremonial chambers, and paved bathrooms. “Considering the scarcity of finds discovered so far in the area of the citadel,” said archaeologist Yitzhak Paz of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), “it may be possible to link the seal to the Assyrian presence in the citadel of Tel Rekhesh, which may be a discovery of great significance!” According to the IAA’s press release, Tel Rekhesh is an important tell site in the Galilee, identified with biblical Anacharath (Joshua 19:19) within the territory of the tribe of Issachar.

Describing his chance discovery of the seal, hiker Erez Avrahamov said, “I saw something sparkling on the ground. At first, I thought it was a bead or an orange stone. After picking it up, I noticed engravings on it resembling a scarab. I contacted and reported the amazing find to the IAA.”

Related reading in Bible History Daily

Young Girl Discovers Egyptian Scarab

Cylinder Seals: A Better Impression

Seal Controversy: From Temech to Shlomit

Clay Seals Give Clues to Wealth of Biblical Jerusalem

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Seal of Ba‘alis Surfaces

King Hezekiah’s Seal Revisited

King Hezekiah’s Seal Bears Phoenician Imagery

Fit for a Queen: Jezebel’s Royal Seal

This article first appeared in Bible History Daily February 2024

The post Hiker Finds 2,700-Year-Old Scarab Seal appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

Tel Azekah, the home of the prophet Micah? Courtesy Nathan Steinmeyer, BAS.

Where is the biblical town of Moresheth-Gath, the birthplace of the prophet Micah? The exact location of Moresheth-Gath, a site that is mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible, has continued to elude scholars. Now, a pair of scholars have suggested a fascinating new theory. Publishing in the journal Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, Oded Lipschits, a professor of archaeology at Tel Aviv University, and Jakob Wöhrle, a professor of Old Testament at the University of Tübingen, propose that Moresheth-Gath be identified with biblical Azekah. But how did one site get two biblical names?

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Discovering Micah’s Moresheth-Gath

Mentioned only three times in the Bible, the birthplace of the prophet Micah is certainly an enigma, with modern scholars suggesting nearly a dozen archaeological sites as Moresheth-Gath, but none seemed to fit Micah’s description. So could this mysterious town be none other than the biblical site of Azekah, a powerful stronghold of Judah?

One of the earliest references to the city of Moresheth-Gath comes from the Amarna letters, where a letter from the king of Gath describes a city in his territory known as Murashtu, an Akkadian rendering of the name Moresheth. This letter (and other texts where the site is mentioned) help establish the location of Moresheth-Gath firmly in the territory of Gath, likely in the Elah Valley, which was a strategically important corridor through the Judean foothills. Micah 1:13–16 gives more information about Moresheth. Micah’s lament for the cities that would be destroyed by Sennacherib (c. 701 BCE) includes Moresheth-Gath among a list of fortified Judahite cities in the Shephelah, pairing it closely with the site of Lachish just 15 miles to the south.

The Elah Valley as seen from on top of Tel Azekah. Courtesy Nathan Steinmeyer, BAS.

Meanwhile, texts naming the site of Azekah are lacking, at least before its conquest by Judah at the end of the ninth century BCE. Despite the lack of textual records, archaeology shows that the site was already well established by the Bronze Age (c. 3300–1200 BCE), when it was an on-again, off-again vassal city of nearby Gath. Strong in its own right, Azekah, located in the Elah Valley, appears to have existed in the shadow of the larger Gath. Despite this, the city was certainly an important and prosperous one. But there is an issue. The earliest references to Azekah, which appear only in the late ninth century, describe it as a Judahite city that was closely linked to nearby Lachish rather than Gath. By contrast, during this period, the name Moresheth-Gath no longer appears in textual sources outside of the biblical account.

Excavations at Azekah. Courtesy Nathan Steinmeyer, BAS.

Even though we lack clear textual references to Azekah’s name prior to the ninth century, the available textual and biblical evidence seems to indicate that Azekah and Moresheth-Gath were actually one and the same. According to Lipschits and Wöhrle, “In all likelihood, Azekah is the new name of Moresheth-Gath given to the city by Judahite rulers after taking control of the western Shephelah, not before the end of the ninth century BCE.” However, despite the official name change during the time of the Judahite kingdom, local residents, including the prophet Micah, continued to call the city by its traditional name, Moresheth-Gath.

Read more in Bible History Daily:

Digging In: Tel Azekah

The Cruel End of Canaanite Azekah

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library:

The Last Days of Canaanite Azekah

Excavating Philistine Gath: Have We Found Goliath’s Hometown?

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