Assyrians Archives - Biblical Archaeology Society

Who Were the Philistines, and Where Did They Come From?

BAS Staff — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 12:00:04 +0000

Philistine Pottery. These pottery pieces from Ashkelon bear early Philistine decorations. Photo: © The Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon.

The Philistines are best known from the Bible as the Israelites’ enemies, but they were much more than that. Recent archaeological discoveries help inform our understanding of their culture, economy, and even origins. In the Spring 2022 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Daniel M. Master of Wheaton College looks at the biblical and archaeological evidence for the Philistines’ roots in “Piece by Piece: Exploring the Origins of the Philistines.”

Who Were the Philistines?

In the Bible, the Philistines are remembered as an uncircumcised people with advanced technology and a formidable military (Judges 14:3; 1 Samuel 13:19–20; Exodus 13:17). The Philistines frequently encroached on Israelite territory, which led to some battles, including the famous clash between David, the Israelite, and Goliath, the Philistine (1 Samuel 17). They were condemned for being idol worshipers (1 Samuel 5:1–5) and soothsayers (Isaiah 2:6). In short, the Philistines are portrayed quite negatively in the Bible.

They lived in the cities of Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron, Gath, and Gaza—the heartland of ancient Philistia on the Mediterranean Sea’s southeastern shore. Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron, and Gath have been excavated in recent decades. The findings from these cities show that the Philistines had distinct pottery, weapons, tools, and houses. They also ate pork and had vast trade networks.

Philistine culture flourished during the Iron Age (12th through sixth centuries B.C.E.). Similar to the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, the Philistines lost their autonomy toward the end of the Iron Age. They became subservient and paid tribute to the Assyrians, Egyptians, and then Babylonians, the great superpowers of the region who severely punished rebellion. For example, the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar destroyed disloyal Ashkelon and Ekron and carried off many Philistines into exile.

Where Did the Philistines Come From?

In his article, Daniel Master looks at archaeological and biblical evidence for the Philistines’ origins. He considers the accounts at Ramesses III’s mortuary temple at Medinet Habu. In the 12th century B.C.E., during the reign of Ramesses III, a confederation of tribes from the “islands” of the “northern countries” attacked Egypt—several times, both on sea and land. The Peleset, whom scholars connect with the Philistines, was named as one of these tribes.

Battle Ships. This drawing of a relief at Medinet Habu shows a sea battle between the Egyptians and people from the “islands,” who had invaded Egypt in the 12th century B.C.E. Photo: Public Domain.

On the way to Egypt, the confederation had traveled through the eastern Mediterranean and destroyed numerous cities, including Ugarit on the Syrian coast. Ammurapi, the last king of Ugarit, had written to surrounding kingdoms for help, when the “seven ships of the enemy” had arrived to ransack his kingdom. By the time help had come, though, it was too late: Ugarit lay in ruins.

Egypt defeated the confederation, as recorded on one of the temple walls at Medinet Habu. A relief from that temple also depicts a sea battle between the island tribes and the Egyptians. In it, the islanders wear distinct headdresses, which clearly set them apart from the Egyptians. After being defeated, some of these tribes settled on the southern coast of Canaan—in what would become the land of the Philistines. Egyptian sources, thus, seem to record a migration of people from the “islands” to Philistia.

Philistine Portrait? A confederation of island tribes, including the Peleset (Philistines), attacked Egypt in the 12th century B.C.E. This relief from Medinet Habu records a sea battle between the two forces. Photo: Olaf Tausch, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Master also examines the evidence for Philistine origins in the Bible. The biblical authors remembered the Philistines as coming from a foreign land, from “Caphtor” (Genesis 10:14; Deuteronomy 2:23; 1 Chronicles 1:12; Amos 9:7; Jeremiah 47:4). Scholars have long drawn a connection between Caphtor and Crete. This is largely based on Egyptian inscriptions and paintings of “Keftiu” from the 15th and 14th centuries B.C.E., wherein the Keftiu are linked to the Minoan civilization, which was centered on Crete.

Migration Map. Who were the Philistines, and where did they come from? New archaeological evidence suggests that many of the Philistines originally came from Crete, called “Caphtor” in the Bible. Map: © Biblical Archaeology Society.

Excavations have shown that the Philistines had a distinct assemblage of artifacts. Master notes parallels between some early Philistine objects, especially from the 12th and 11th centuries B.C.E., and Aegean and Cypriot artifacts. Elements of Philistine material culture, then, also hint at an Aegean or Mediterranean origin for the Philistines.

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New evidence from Ashkelon further supports this connection. The Leon Levy Expedition excavated at Ashkelon from 1985–2016 under the direction of the late Lawrence Stager at Harvard University; for the last decade, Daniel Master co-directed excavations. They found some infant burials from the 12th century B.C.E., as well as a Philistine cemetery with burials from the 11th through eighth centuries B.C.E. Teaming up with scientists at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, they were able to analyze DNA from seven of these individuals. When they looked at the 12th-century infants’ DNA, they discovered that the infants had some European ancestry. Crete proved to be one of the best matches for the infants’ heritage—when considering all of their genetic material. Yet other places in the western Mediterranean, such as Iberia, also provided a good match.

Interestingly, in the later individuals from Ashkelon’s cemetery, this European ancestry had been so diluted to barely register. Master explains that, by the tenth century B.C.E., enough intermarriage had taken place between the Philistines and the local Levantine population that the Philistines looked a lot like their neighbors:

While there was some evidence of the same Western European Hunter-Gatherer genetic input, for all statistical purposes, it could not be identified for certain. The best models showed that these people [the tenth- and ninth-century individuals buried in Ashkelon’s cemetery] were descendants of both the 12th-century inhabitants and the earlier Bronze Age inhabitants. It appears from these results that so much intermarriage had taken place between the original immigrants and the people around them that the genetic makeup of Ashkelon’s inhabitants had lost its immigrant distinctiveness.

Yet Master clarifies that, at this point in history, the Philistines still thought of themselves as distinct, as evident in a seventh-century inscription from the Philistine city of Ekron. The inscription names Ekron’s king as Ikausu, which means “Achaean” or “Greek.” The name Ikausu (or Achish) also appears in 1 Samuel 21:10 as Gath’s king.

The Philistines remembered their foreign origins

Master concludes that the new DNA evidence, coupled with the biblical and archaeological testimonies, suggests that the Philistines originated in Crete. That is not to say that the Philistines were a homogenous group, all coming from the Aegean world, but it seems that many Philistines did indeed migrate from there, bringing with them vestiges of Minoan culture. Learn more about this ancient people in Daniel M. Master’s article “Piece by Piece: Exploring the Origins of the Philistines,” published in the Spring 2022 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

Subscribers: Read the full article “Piece by Piece: Exploring the Origins of the Philistines” by Daniel M. Master in the Spring 2022 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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The Philistines

Piece by Piece: Exploring the Origins of the Philistines

What We Know About the Philistines

The Other “Philistines”

Exploring Philistine Origins on the Island of Cyprus

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This article first appeared in Bible History Daily on March 23, 2022.

The post Who Were the Philistines, and Where Did They Come From? appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

When Did Monotheism Emerge in Ancient Israel?

Jonathan Laden — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 13:00:38 +0000

The well-known Iron Age temple discovered at Tel Arad in southern Israel was likely dedicated to Israel’s God YHWH. Pictured here is the reconstruction of the site’s inner sanctuary, which included altars and two standing stones, or masseboth. Image credit: Ian Scott/CC BY-SA 2.0

When did the Israelites first begin to worship YHWH, refusing to worship or even recognize the existence of other deities? Was monotheism part of Israelite religious belief from the beginning, or was it an idea that developed later? While many biblical scholars view monotheism as a relatively late development within Israelite religion, I believe—based on evidence from early Israelite poetry—that the origins of biblical monotheism can be located early in Israel’s history, most likely by early in the first millennium B.C.E.

My first piece of evidence comes from Exodus 15, the Song of the Sea, which scholars generally agree is very early, perhaps dating to the very end of the second millennium B.C.E.¹ The Song of the Sea is the song that Moses and the Israelites, followed by Moses’s sister Miriam, sang after the crossing of the Red Sea. In Exodus 15:11 and following, Moses sang, “Who is like You among the gods, O YHWH? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awe-inspiring in splendors, doer of miracles?”

At first sight, the text seems to be acknowledging the existence of other gods. In my view, that is only a tease, for both are rhetorical questions, with the clear answer that there is no one like Israel’s God, YHWH. None of the other gods is majestic in holiness, awe-inspiring in splendors, nor do they perform miracles. In other words, the other “gods” lack divine attributes, hence they are “non-gods.” So, what at first sight is an acknowledgment of other gods is actually a denial that the gods people worshipped actually existed! Only YHWH, unlike the supposed gods, is majestic in holiness, awe-inspiring in splendors, and a performer of miracles. For instance, the Assyrians and Babylonians believed their gods exuded a supernatural radiance called melammu. By asserting that God, unlike the non-gods, is awe-inspiring in splendors, Exodus 15 says that YHWH has a supernatural radiance that the supposed gods do not. Therefore, they lack the intrinsic splendor that would make them divine. In this way, the passage affirms the one God, YHWH, and denies the existence of other gods. Hence this passage, with its rhetorical questions, is early evidence for Israel’s monotheism.

Another ancient Israelite poem that offers evidence of early monotheism is 2 Samuel 22, which is repeated with slight variations in Psalm 18. Verse 32 of 2 Samuel 22 says, “Who is a god besides YHWH? Who is a Rock besides our God?” Psalm 18:32 is worded slightly differently. It uses a different word for god and, in the second question, replaces “besides” with the Hebrew word for “except”—“Who is god besides YHWH? Who is a Rock except our God?” The word “rock” is capitalized because here the word is being used as a synonym for god or God. As with Exodus 15, this poem features a pair of rhetorical questions, with the answer being the same: Nobody is god except YHWH. This pair of rhetorical questions, taken together, clearly make a statement that YHWH is the only God.

We turn to yet another ancient poem, Deuteronomy 32, also known as the Song of Moses. Many scholars view the language of the poem as archaic, and Jeffrey Tigay dates it to the 12th–11th centuries B.C.E² It reaches a climax in verse 39, which reads: “See, now that I, I am He, and there is no god besides Me.³ I deal death and I give life, I wound and I heal, and there is no one who can deliver from my hand.” Here we find the clearest statement of monotheism yet, denying the existence of other gods. In other cultures, there were gods of death and of healing—here, the one God is in charge of everything, and there is no countervailing power who can undo what God has done.

These passages from early Israelite poetry support and reinforce each other, showing unequivocally that the notion of monotheism was afoot far earlier than many scholars realize. That does not mean it was adopted by everyone. Far from it. Still another ancient poem, Psalm 29, begins as follows: “Ascribe to YHWH, O divinities (literally, “sons of gods”), ascribe to YHWH glory and might…” Although the rest of the poem lauds YHWH alone, it is not at all clear that the reference to divinities is meant to be tongue in cheek. Yet another ancient poem in Judges 5, the Song of Deborah, is compatible with monotheism in that the sole god mentioned is YHWH, but it lacks any clear references to monotheism such as we have already seen.

In light of the above findings, it is clear that we can take biblical authors seriously when they profess monotheism, as in the famous passage in Deuteronomy 6:4–9 known as the Shema: “Hear O Israel, YHWH our God, YHWH is one! You shall love YHWH your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength…” Monotheism existed as an idea when these verses were written, but in light of the broader polytheistic milieu in which Israelite religion developed, it needed to be confirmed. Monotheism did not reach the point of consensus in Israel until late in the biblical period, for the Israelites were a “stiff-necked people,” but the idea of monotheism arose in some of Israel’s earliest poems.

—–
Philip D. Stern studied with renowned scholar, Baruch A. Levine at NYU, who mentored his doctorate on the Biblical Herem. The published edition is a revision of the doctoral dissertation, and is in a real sense a book. Philip Stern has also contributed to other books, as co-translator in the “Haftarah Commentary” (UAHC Press, 1996), and as philological editor of the Book of Genesis in the revised version of “The Torah: A Modern Commentary” (URJ Press, 2005). He has also contributed many times to scholarly and popular journals and magazines, especially to Midstream: A Jewish Review.

—–

Notes:

[1] Dating biblical poetry is a vexed question; while scholars generally agree that the poems cited here are very early, it would be misleading to provide specific dates for their composition.

[2] See Jeffrey H. Tigay, Deuteronomy, JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1996), p. 512. The poem could be slightly earlier or later, Tigay recognizes.

[3] I follow the NRSV, NIV, and NASB translations in the latter half of this verse; the New Jerusalem Bible and NJPS read “beside Me.”

Iraq’s Capital Catastrophe

Robert Bronder — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 14:10:53 +0000

The monumental Tibira Gate at the site of Assur as it appeared in 2008. The gate was partially destroyed by the Islamic State in 2015 but is now being restored. Photo by the U.S. Army – www.Army.mil, Public Domain.

Assur, the first capital and spiritual heart of the Assyrians—the great Mesopotamian empire that, in the first millennium B.C.E., subjugated much of the Near East, including the biblical kingdoms of Israel and Judah—is fighting for its survival. The ancient capital, with its extensive remains of palaces, temples, and monumental walls that date back some 5,000 years, may soon be flooded by a lake created by a dam that is being constructed along the nearby Tigris River.

Perched on a high, rocky outcrop on the west bank of the Tigris, about 70 miles south of Mosul in modern Iraq, Assur was the capital city of the Assyrians for more than a thousand years. The city reached its zenith during the second millennium B.C.E. as generations of Assyrian rulers built impressive palaces, thick fortifications, and towering monuments in honor of Assyria’s patron god, Assur. Still visible today are the crumbling ruins of the city’s massive stepped temple (ziggurat) and the three towering arches of an enormous gateway (known as the Tabira Gate), the ceremonial entrance to the city’s sacred precinct. Although subsequent kings relocated Assyria’s capital several times during the first millennium B.C.E. when Assyria was the Near East’s dominant imperial power, Assur remained Assyria’s cultural, spiritual, and geographic center until it was destroyed by the Babylonians in 614 B.C.E.

Much of this ancient history will be drowned, however, with the building of the Makhoul Dam about 25 miles south of Assur. First proposed by Saddam Hussein’s government two decades ago but delayed because of years of warfare and upheaval, the dam’s construction has taken on new urgency in the face of the increasingly severe and prolonged droughts that have plagued Iraq in recent years. Archaeologists and activists argue, however, that the dam will destroy not only Assur, but also more than 200 other archaeological sites in the region. More significantly, as many as a quarter of a million people from surrounding villages will be displaced by the dam’s construction.

But the Makhoul Dam is only the latest and most serious threat to face the ancient Assyrian capital. In 2015, the Islamic State attempted to destroy many of Assur’s major monuments, including the Tabira Gate, which recently underwent emergency restoration to prevent its imminent collapse. Other sites, such as Assur’s ziggurat, which once stood more than 10 stories high, and luxurious palaces, were constructed almost entirely of mudbrick, which is now degrading much more rapidly as Iraq’s climate worsens. And despite Assur’s importance to the nearby town of Sherqat, which just celebrated the reopening of the site to visitors in April, the site remains largely unprotected and unmonitored, making it an ideal target for potential looters and antiquities traffickers.

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Israelite Pottery and Household Life

Michele Barasso — Wed, 25 May 2022 14:00:29 +0000

A restored lmlk storage jar from the Kingdom of Judah. Impressed with the phrase lmlk—meaning “belonging to the king”—such royally administered storage jars were used to distribute military rations, collect taxes, or support the kingdom in times of war.
Credit: Chamberi, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons.

Sustainability is something we hear about a lot these days. New items are developed every day to help reduce waste in our daily lives. One area that has long been sustainable is food storage. Earl Tupper created his first storage container in 1942; a few years later, Tupperware became a household name. Mr. Tupper’s idea, however, wasn’t entirely new.

Across the millennia, people and cultures from all over the world, including in ancient Israel and Judah, have been using reusable containers—mostly pottery—to store and keep food. As Tim Frank explains in “Storage and Staples in Biblical Israel” in the Spring 2022 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, archaeologists can study Israelite pottery and other material evidence to learn how the average person managed issues of food preparation and storage.

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Craft centers in Jerusalem, family structure across Israel and ancient practices—from dining to makeup—through the Mediterranean world.

At the site of Tel Halif in southern Israel (possibly biblical Rimmon: Joshua 15:32; 19:7), Frank carefully studied ancient Israelite pottery related to food processing and storage. The site was suddenly and violently destroyed by the Assyrians in 701 B.C.E. In the face of the city’s imminent demise, many of the inhabitants fled, abandoning their houses and, for archaeologists, leaving behind a snapshot of daily household use and organization. This included food containers, which were left in their “normal” positions, allowing Frank to effectively study an ancient pantry. According to Frank, “Storage jars were found beside other artifacts, such as an oven and a grinding installation, but also put together in little groups. The location of storage jars and other items was not random; there was purpose in how the household was organized.”

This digital reconstruction shows a typical Iron Age dwelling at Tel Halif; the letters indicate different areas of domestic activity, like food preparation, cooking, and storage.
Credit: Courtesy of Tim Frank.

Through digital modeling, Frank and the Halif team were able to show how and where food was stored in ancient Judah, as revealed by recent excavations. The image above shows a typical Iron Age dwelling at Tel Halif; the letters indicate different areas of domestic activity. Food preparation—grinding grain, cooking, chopping, etc.—was conducted in Areas H, I, J, and K. Domestic work, such as weaving, would have been done in Areas D and E. Areas B and C served as a living space. Area M would have been used for agricultural production, while the cobbled floor in Area G likely served as a stable.

In addition to archaeology, ethnography—the study of living peoples and their cultures—also plays a major role in the study of ancient household organization. By comparing the lives and practices of living or historically documented peoples with the archaeological remains of ancient societies who lived in comparable settings, archaeologists can gain insight into how households were organized or how certain objects were used. For example, how pre-industrial farmers organized and stored their food can give valuable insights into how a household in ancient Judah may have functioned or how Israelite pottery was used. Of course, ethnographic comparisons can only explain so much, as societies and their historical contexts are constantly changing. But ethnographic studies, when combined with archaeology and textual studies, can help form a picture of ancient daily life.

To learn more about food storage in ancient Israel and Judah, read “Storage and Staples in Biblical Israel” by Tim Frank, published in the Spring 2022 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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What’s For Dinner? The Answer Is In the Pot

Pottery Talks

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A Hilltop Fortress and the Origins of Ancient Israel

Nathan Steinmeyer — Fri, 04 Mar 2022 14:30:28 +0000

View of Mt. Adir in the Upper Galilee. Credit: Avi1111 Dr. Avishai Teicher, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

A lonely and little-known hilltop fortress in northern Galilee offers archaeologists a unique opportunity to gaze into the origins of ancient Israel. First excavated in the mid-1970s, the fortress is located on Mt. Adir, a region that historically was sparsely populated and a challenge for states and empires to control. Yet during the early Iron Age (twelfth–ninth centuries B.C.E.), Adir was the location of a major fortress, which scholars have associated with the Phoenicians, the United Monarchy of David and Solomon, or Israel’s Omride dynasty. However, a study published in Archaeological and Anthropological Science suggests that this fortress was instead the base of a small upstart chiefdom that researchers believe might provide valuable insights into the origins of ancient Israel.

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The Iron Age I (c. 1200–1000 B.C.E.) has often been described as a “dark age.” With the Bronze Age collapse around 1200 B.C.E., many of the previously powerful kingdoms and empires either completely vanished or retreated to their traditional borders. Yet, this period also witnessed a large increase in settlements in the mountainous Upper Galilee, possibly fueled by immigrants and refugees fleeing the weakened and destroyed Canaanite city-states. This was the period during which the hilltop fortress of Mt. Adir was established. Despite past suggestions that Adir was a small outpost of a larger political force, such as Phoenicia or Israel, the recent study has shown this to be unlikely.

Instead, they argue that the vacuum left behind by the older regional powers paved the way for a local chieftain to establish political control over this isolated region. This likewise helps contextualize the origins of ancient Israel and the rise of several other kingdoms, such as Aram-Damascus in the north, the kingdom of Geshur around the Sea of Galilee, and the brief dynasty of King Saul in the hill country of Benjamin. It was not long, however, before these kingdoms began to compete with one another and larger empires, such as the Assyrians, once again returned to the area.

The Archaeology of the Mt. Adir Fortress

The site of Mt. Adir was first excavated in 1975 by the Israel Department of Antiquities (now the Israel Antiquities Authority). The initial excavations revealed the remnants of a large fortress, commanding an impressive view of the surrounding area. The fortress, which was protected by a casemate wall, covered an area of roughly 27,000 square feet. The original excavations dated the fortress from the eleventh to ninth centuries, generally coinciding with the very beginning of ancient Israel. This, in turn, led to a wide array of interpretations of the site, most of which could not be confirmed because of a fire that destroyed the excavation’s storehouse and records. Thus, in 2019, a team from Kinneret College in Israel returned to Mt. Adir to reexamine the site. Their excavation was able to securely date the site to the Iron Age IB (c. 1100–1000 B.C.E.), a century before the rise of Israel’s United Monarchy.

In addition, the site’s pottery showed that while several luxury ceramics were imported from the Phoenician coast, the majority of the pottery—especially cookware and storage jars—was locally made. The study concluded, therefore, that although the fortress had trade relations with Phoenicia, it was almost surely the base of a local chief whose political power did not extend far beyond the site’s immediate agricultural hinterland. Although this situation would have been out of place in preceding or subsequent periods, it fits in perfectly with the highly local forms of authority that characterized the Iron Age I. However, as mentioned by the researchers, “It seems that this spell of independent power was fleeting. Maybe not even enough for our warlord to bequeath it to his heirs.” Thus, within about a century, the fortress was abandoned and left largely untouched until modern times.

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First Person: Did the Kingdoms of Saul, David and Solomon Actually Exist?

Archaeological Views: Carbon 14—The Solution to Dating David and Solomon?

Biblical Views: How a People Forms

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Sennacherib’s Siege of Lachish

Michele Barasso — Fri, 28 Jan 2022 14:30:56 +0000

A section of the Assyrian siege ramp as seen on the Lachish relief from Sennacherib’s palace at Nineveh.
Credit: Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Perhaps no event recorded in the Hebrew Bible is better supported by archaeology and external evidence than Sennacherib’s siege of Lachish in 701 B.C.E. The siege of Lachish is documented in multiple Assyrian texts and reliefs and is also clearly visible in the site’s archaeology. These various sources agree that Lachish eventually fell to the Assyrians, who built a massive siege ramp to reach the top of the city’s walls. The same tactic would later be used by the Romans in their siege of Masada. A study, published in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology, examines what went into the construction of the Lachish siege ramp and, in turn, argues for the accuracy of the biblical description of the event.

Plan and section drawings of the reconstructed siege ramp at Lachish, starting from the far end with a stone quarry nearby.
Credit: Yosef Garfinkel et al.

In investigating the Assyrian siege ramp at Lachish, the team examined several questions, specifically how the construction material for the ramp was collected and transported, how the ramp was built, how the ramp’s builders were protected from the city’s defenders, and how the ramp was made usable for Assyria’s heavy siege engines. In answering these questions, the team relied on textual and archaeological information, as well as statistical and computer analyses of the efficiency of various ramp models.

The Assyrian siege ramp, constructed with three million stones.
Credit: Yosef Garfinkel

The study showed that it would have taken hundreds of workers laboring 24 hours a day over three weeks to build the siege ramp. It was constructed from medium-sized stones, around 15 pounds each, that were quarried and gathered by the Assyrian army from a small hillside adjacent to the city. The stones were likely carried to the construction site by workers made up mostly of foreign prisoners taken by the Assyrians on their way to Judah. These workers would have been protected by large shields as they carried their stones to the site and dumped their stones to gradually build up the ramp. This is in line with the biblical description of the siege in 2 Kings 19:32, which mentions how the Assyrian army confronted the city with shields.

The ramp was constructed from its back end forward, not from the ground up. Thus, the stones would be dropped over the edge of the ramp to the open area between the city’s wall and the end of the ramp. This would in turn minimize the height advantage of the defenders on the wall. The study notes that this particular construction method was clearly known to the biblical authors, who used the Hebrew verb spk, meaning “to pour,” to describe the building of the ramp (2 Kings 19:32). Thus, in the same way that liquids are poured, stones were poured over the end of the ramp in its construction

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Finally, the upper surface of the ramp was constructed with a smoothed layer of dirt topped by wooden boards. This is seen in contemporary depictions of the siege including the famous Lachish relief from Sennacherib’s palace at Nineveh. The smoothed surface allowed the heavy Assyrian battering rams to reach and then breach the city walls. These siege devices, which weighed up to a ton, were made up of a wooden frame and a heavy metal chain that held a log used to batter the city wall. Remarkably, one of these chains was uncovered from the excavations at Lachish.

According to the study, the siege ramp was roughly 260 feet long and would have required almost 20,000 tons of stones. Even if working 24 hours a day, it would have taken the Assyrian army between 20 and 25 days to construct the ramp. The Assyrian army was one of the most advanced of the day and easily conquered most of the smaller kingdoms and city-states in the southern Levant. During the reign of King Hezekiah, however, Judah posed a major threat and, as a relatively large kingdom, was likely more difficult to conquer. This also explains why Merodach-Baladan, the king of Babylon, as well as the kingdom of Cush would have allied with Judah in their attempt to overthrow the Assyrians.

Map of the Kingdom of Judah and the location of Lachish.
Credit: Yosef Garfinkel et al.

Located southwest of Jerusalem in the Judean foothills, Lachish was the second most important city in Judah during the First Temple period. The city was conquered in 701 B.C.E. as part of the Assyrian advance to Jerusalem in response to King Hezekiah withholding Judah’s tribute and inciting a regional rebellion against Assyrian control. The events of the campaign are recorded in numerous royal Assyrian inscriptions as well as several letters from Assyrian and Judahite soldiers. The events are also described in several biblical texts, including Isaiah 36–37, 2 Kings 18, and 2 Chronicles 32. Although Sennacherib was successful in conquering Lachish and many other Judahite cities and towns, he did not conquer Jerusalem. The reasons for this are debated, but it is known that a short time later, Judah was once again paying tribute to the Assyrian Empire.

Read more in this special collection of seven seminal BAR articles on the Lachish excavations in the BAS Library.

Assyrians Archives - Biblical Archaeology Society

Who Were the Philistines, and Where Did They Come From?

Who Were the Philistines?

Where Did the Philistines Come From?

The Philistines remembered their foreign origins

Related reading in Bible History Daily

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library

When Did Monotheism Emerge in Ancient Israel?

Notes:

Related reading in Bible History Daily

Related reading in the BAS Library:

Iraq’s Capital Catastrophe

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Read More in the BAS Library:

Israelite Pottery and Household Life

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A Hilltop Fortress and the Origins of Ancient Israel

The Archaeology of the Mt. Adir Fortress

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Sennacherib’s Siege of Lachish

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