Are the legends of Israel’s lost tribes true? Find out what the ancient Assyrian cities reveal about some of the oldest Biblical stories.
The popularly told story of the Israelites’ exile under the rule of the Assyrian Empire is a simple one: The Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C.E. and deported the population. These Israelites—the “Ten Lost Tribes”—were never heard from again.
Actually, the situation was more complicated—and more interesting. In reality, three different kings of the Assyrian Empire were responsible for Israelite deportations: Tiglath-pileser III (745–727 B.C.E.), Shalmaneser V (727–722 B.C.E.), and Sargon II (722–705 B.C.E.).
Throughout 733 and 732 B.C.E., Israel’s ally Damascus was besieged by Tiglath-pileser. In 732 B.C.E. the city was captured and destroyed, and their leader, Rezin, was executed. Tiglath-pileser’s annals describe the situation:
While Damascus underwent this siege, the Assyrian Empire launched another attack into Israel. This conquest marked the beginning of the deportation of the Israelites to Assyria. Assyrian records reveal that some deportees served as military personnel, skilled laborers, merchants, and priests. Most, however, lived under an ideology of terror.
The vast majority endured a bare subsistence with many hardships. Further, the Assyrian army was paid partly in rape and plunder of the enemy’s land, activities that they indulged in even before the deportees had embarked on their long trek. And the only Israelite women mentioned in the records of the Assyrian Empire were slaves. Life for most Israelites deported to Assyria was “poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”
In one sense, however, the Israelites were never “lost.” Though the legend of “the Lost Tribes” continues to capture people’s imaginations, archaeology has made it possible for us to understand what actually happened to this ancient diaspora.
In “Israelites in Exile,” K. Lawson Younger Jr. shares a tale of conquest, political weakness, murder, and an alliance with an anti-Assyrian coalition that proved disastrous for Israel in their plight against the Assyrian Empire.
The Assyrian Empire left more behind than a history of conquered lands and enslavement. In the middle of the 19th century, archaeologist Austen Layard (1817–1894) set off for the East in search of exotica.
Layard began digging at Nimrud, located on the east bank of the Tigris River in modern-day Iraq, in November 1845 and immediately discovered portions of two Neo-Assyrian palaces, including one of King Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 B.C.E.). By the time he left Mesopotamia two years later, he had uncovered the remains of six more palaces and supplied the British Museum with a treasure trove of art and artifacts from the Assyrian Empire—including the celebrated Black Obelisk, a stone stela nearly seven feet tall covered with reliefs and cuneiform inscriptions.
Read Layard’s story in “Past Perfect: Excavating Nimrud” to learn more about the massive undertaking that brought the remains of the Assyrian Empire back from antiquity.
Alas, the beauty of Assyrian art could not save the empire. Late in the seventh century B.C.E., Babylon began a military campaign that would destroy the once-powerful Assyrian empire that had dominated the Near East for 200 years. In 612 B.C.E., the Babylonian and allied Median armies reached the Assyrian royal city of Calah, now Nimrud, destroying, looting, and then setting aflame the gorgeous palaces of the Assyrian Empire. But not all was lost.
In 1952, British archaeologists, working to excavate the once-glorious palace of Ashurnasirpal, king of the Assyrian Empire from 883 to 859 B.C.E., found some of the finest ancient ivory carvings ever discovered. Twenty-three years later, in 1975, an Iraqi team clearing a well recovered some of the most astonishing ivory carvings known from the ancient world. Apparently, amid the mayhem and destruction visited at the site by the Babylonians, someone gathered some of the world’s most magnificent ivories in a wicker basket that he or she then lowered into the well.
These findings lend additional credence to the idea that Assyrian art was an important part of the culture in one of the greatest empires of antiquity. Read more about their discovery in “Well-Hidden Ivories Surface at Nimrud” by Alan R. Millard.
One of the most dramatic finds ever made relating to the Bible is the famous Black Obelisk of King Shalmaneser III, ruler of the Assyrian Empire from 858–824 B.C.E.
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Omri, also a general, became king of the northern kingdom in 882 B.C.E. He was succeeded by his son Ahab (ruled 871–852 B.C.E.), who in turn was succeeded first by one son, Ahaziah (ruled 852–851 B.C.E.), and then by another son, Joram (ruled 851–842 B.C.E.), whom Jehu murdered.
Jehu was not satisfied, however, simply to murder Joram. He also had Ahab’s 70 descendants murdered and their heads brought to him in baskets. But even this was not enough. “Jehu struck down all that were left of the House of Ahab in Jezreel—and all his notables, intimates, and priests—till he left him no survivor” (2 Kings 10:11).
The grisly paradox of the cuneiform inscription on the Black Obelisk is that it identifies Jehu as the son of Omri, the very house he is famous for destroying.
In “Did King Jehu Kill His Own Family?” Tammi Schneider explores a new way of thinking about Jehu, solving problems on both the cuneiform and Biblical sides without having to make excuses for any of the texts involved
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Does a Jordan Valley Site Reveal the Origin of Ancient Israel?
Early Israelites at Khirbet el-Mastarah
• 06/27/2018
How did ancient Israel come to be? Did the early Israelites enter Canaan from the east by crossing the Jordan River “opposite Jericho,” as recounted in the Book of Joshua? Or were the early Israelites already in Canaan as part of the indigenous population? The topic of Israel’s origins has been debated for well over a century by archaeologists seeking to use material evidence to fill out the picture described by the Biblical account.
Hidden in the Jordan Valley in one of the hottest places on earth, the ancient site of Khirbet el-Mastarah may shed light on this thorny question of the origin of ancient Israel. Khirbet el-Mastarah contains numerous enclosures and structures, which appear to have been used by a nomadic or semi-nomadic group at the beginning of the Iron Age (c. 1200 B.C.E.). In their article “Khirbet el-Mastarah: An Early Israelite Settlement?” in the July/August 2018 issue of BAR, Khirbet el-Mastarah excavation co-directors Ralph K. Hawkins and David Ben-Shlomo examine the evidence.
According to Hawkins and Ben-Shlomo, the theory that the early Israelites had already been indigenous to Canaan—rather than had come into the land from the east—is in part based on the idea that there isn’t any evidence for early Israelites in the east during the Iron Age I (c. 1200–1000 B.C.E.), particularly in the Jordan Valley. However, archaeological investigations in the Jordan Valley, from Adam Zertal’s survey of the hill country of Manasseh starting in the 1970s to Hawkins and Ben-Shlomo’s excavations today, are providing evidence for early Israelite origins.
A 2.5-acre site primarily occupied during the Iron Age, Khirbet el-Mastarah lies in the middle of a wadi surrounded on three sides by hills. Excavations conducted at this ancient settlement in the summer of 2017 revealed stone enclosures, rectilinear rooms, and pottery dating to the Late Bronze Age II (1400–1200 B.C.E.) or to the Iron Age I (1200–1000 B.C.E.). To get a better understanding of the nature of this site and its relation to other sites in the region, the Khirbet el-Mastarah archaeological team researched current Bedouin settlements, reviewed ethnographic studies, and visited the nearby fortified site of Khirbet ‘Auja el-Foqa—identified as the Biblical city of Ataroth (Joshua 16:5) by Adam Zertal.
“By the end of our 2017 season, we were struck by the fascinating picture that had begun to emerge in the Jordan Valley, a region that up until recently has been virtually unknown archaeologically,” write Hawkins and Ben-Shlomo in BAR. “Within a range of just a couple of miles, we may be able to see the evolution of early Israel from a domestic-scale culture [at Khirbet el-Mastarah] to a political-scale culture [at Khirbet ‘Auja el-Foqa].”
Take a closer look at Khirbet el-Mastarah and how the archaeological picture developing from the Jordan Valley supports the Biblical account of Israelites entering Canaan from the east by reading the full article “Khirbet el-Mastarah: An Early Israelite Settlement?” by Ralph K. Hawkins and David Ben-Shlomo in the July/August 2018 issue of BAR.
Hidden in the Jordan Valley in one of the hottest places on earth, the ancient site of Khirbet el-Mastarah may shed light on this thorny question of the origin of ancient Israel. Khirbet el-Mastarah contains numerous enclosures and structures, which appear to have been used by a nomadic or semi-nomadic group at the beginning of the Iron Age (c. 1200 B.C.E.). In their article “Khirbet el-Mastarah: An Early Israelite Settlement?” in the July/August 2018 issue of BAR, Khirbet el-Mastarah excavation co-directors Ralph K. Hawkins and David Ben-Shlomo examine the evidence.
Archaeological excavations at the site of Khirbet el-Mastarah in the Jordan Valley may help to shed light on the origin of ancient Israel. Photo: Courtesy of Ralph K. Hawkins.
As the point where three of the world’s major religions converge, Israel’s history is one of the richest and most complex in the world. Sift through the archaeology and history of this ancient land in the free eBook Israel: An Archaeological Journey, and get a view of these significant Biblical sites through an archaeologist’s lens.
One of the stone rectilinear rooms at Khirbet el-Mastarah. Photo: Courtesy of Ralph K. Hawkins.
Take a closer look at Khirbet el-Mastarah and how the archaeological picture developing from the Jordan Valley supports the Biblical account of Israelites entering Canaan from the east by reading the full article “Khirbet el-Mastarah: An Early Israelite Settlement?” by Ralph K. Hawkins and David Ben-Shlomo in the July/August 2018 issue of BAR.
Sculpted head of mystery biblical king found in Israel
Published June 10, 2018
A rare, miniature sculpture of a king's head that dates back almost 3,000 years has prompted scholars to figure out whose face it depicts.
The mysterious 2-inch sculpture is a very rare example of figurative art from the Holy Land during the 9th century B.C. — a period associated with biblical kings. The sculpture is exquisitely preserved but for a bit of missing beard, and nothing quite like it has been found before.
While scholars are certain the stern bearded figure donning a golden crown represents royalty, they are less sure which king it symbolizes, or which kingdom he may have ruled.
Archaeologists unearthed the diminutive figurine in 2017 during excavations at a site called Abel Beth Maacah, located just south of Israel's border with Lebanon, near the modern-day town of Metula.
A team from Hebrew University was digging through the floor of a massive Iron Age structure when a volunteer who arrived for the day struck pay dirt. The layer where the head was found dates to the 9th century B.C., the epoch associated with the rival biblical kingdoms of Israel and Judah.
In a rare move, archaeologists and curators at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem rushed to put the piece on public display. A detailed report is set for publication in the June edition of the journal Near Eastern Archaeology.
Eran Arie, the Israel Museum's curator of Iron Age and Persian archaeology, said the discovery was one of a kind. "In the Iron Age, if there's any figurative art, and there largely isn't, it's of very low quality. And this is of exquisite quality."
Nineteenth-century archaeologists identified the site, then home to a village called Abil al-Qamh, with the similarly named city mentioned in the Book of Kings.
During the 9th century B.C., the ancient town was situated in a liminal zone between three regional powers: the Aramean kingdom based in Damascus to the east, the Phoenician city of Tyre to the west, and the Israelite kingdom, with its capital in Samaria to the south.
Kings 1 15:20 mentions Abel Beth Maacah in a list of cities attacked by the Aramean King Ben Hadad in a campaign against the Israelite kingdom.
"This location is very important because it suggests that the site may have shifted hands between these polities, more likely between Aram-Damascus and Israel," said Hebrew University archaeologist Naama Yahalom-Mack, who has headed the joint dig with California's Azusa Pacific University since 2013.
The royal figurine is made of faience, a glass-like material that was popular in jewelry and small human and animal figurines in ancient Egypt and the Near East.
"The color of the face is greenish because of this copper tint that we have in the silicate paste," Yahalom-Mack said. But a crucial clue for identifying it as a Near Eastern monarch was its "very interesting hairdo," she said.
The bearded figure's hair is pulled back in thick locks that cover the ears, and is held in place by a striped diadem of gold. Its hairstyle looks similar to the way ancient Egyptians depicted neighboring Near Eastern peoples in art.
"The guy kind of represents the generic way Semitic people are described," she said.
Because Carbon-14 dating cannot give a more exact date for the statue's creation other than sometime in the 9th century, the field of potential candidates is large. Yahalom-Mack posited it could be kings Ben Hadad or Hazael of Damascus, Ahab or Jehu of Israel, or Ithobaal of Tyre, all characters appearing in the biblical narrative.
"We're only guessing here, it's like a game," she said. "It's like a hello from the past, but we don't know anything else about it."
As scholars debate whether the head was a stand-alone piece or part of a larger statue, the Hebrew University team is set to restart digging this month at the spot where the mystery king's head was found.
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