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Army camps utilized by the Assyrian king Sennacherib, whose exploits of laying siege to Lachish and Jerusalem are detailed within the Hebrew Bible, have lastly been recognized, a scholar says.
On the time of the sieges, which each occurred round 701 B.C., the Assyrians managed a quickly rising empire that stretched from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea.
The sieges at Lachish and Jerusalem are talked about steadily within the Hebrew Bible and supposedly ended at Jerusalem when “the angel of the Lord went out and put to dying 100 and eighty-five thousand within the Assyrian camp” (2 Kings 19:35). However historic Assyrian inscriptions inform a unique story, claiming that Hezekiah, the king of Judah, paid a considerable amount of tribute to get the Assyrians to depart.
Lachish siege
On the British Museum in London, there’s a aid depicting the siege of Lachish, and it reveals the Assyrian camp. Stephen Compton, an impartial scholar who makes a speciality of Close to Jap Archaeology, in contrast this aid to images from the early to mid-Twentieth century which present Lachish. He recognized a website north of Lachish with an oval formed construction with partitions that he thinks might have been the Assyrians’ camp.
Compton famous that Assyrian camps tended to be oval. The Arabic title of the proposed camp website is “Khirbet al Mudawwara,” and throughout the Center Ages, the phrase “Mudawwara” may imply a spot the place a sultan positioned a army camp. This means that individuals who lived on the website in later occasions knew that the traditional Assyrians had used it as a camp, Compton famous in an article revealed within the June concern of the journal Near Eastern Archaeology.
Moreover, an archaeological survey performed within the early Twentieth century discovered the stays of pottery shards whose types date to across the time that Sennacherib laid siege to Lachish, Compton famous. He instructed Reside Science he has despatched a duplicate of his paper to archaeologists who’re working on the Lachish website and he hopes that future excavations will make clear whether or not the Assyrian camp is situated there.
Jerusalem camp
Within the case of the Jerusalem camp, Compton used previous aerial pictures and Nineteenth-century archaeological excavation information to survey the panorama. He famous that in 1881 to 1882, the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) discovered partitions at a website referred to as Jebel el Mudawwara, situated north of the Temple Mount. The Palestine Exploration Fund is a non-profit group that facilitates analysis within the area.
The Nineteenth-century archaeologists thought it was a Roman camp, however the excavation information point out that the camp is oval. “Roman [military camps] were rectangular, whereas the images point out that this was roughly oval, according to an Assyrian camp,” Compton wrote. Moreover, the title “Mudawwara” — a reputation related to army camps — is utilized by Nineteenth-century sources to explain the positioning.
If that is the place the place Sennacherib arrange camp to put siege to Jerusalem, it is also Nob, a website that when held the Tabernacle, a conveyable sanctuary constructed by Moses, Compton stated. The Hebrew Bible claims that the Tabernacle was arrange at Nob and that Nob was the place Sennacherib halted to assault Jerusalem.
The positioning’s Twentieth-century historical past might make it harder to conduct new excavations there. Within the Thirties, the British constructed an ammunition storage facility on the website, and it turned often called “Ammunition Hill.” In 1948, the Jordanian military positioned troopers on the positioning and constructed a collection of trenches and fortifications. And in 1967, there was a bloody battle between the Israelis and Jordanian troops that resulted in Israeli troops taking the hill. At this time, a museum and memorial website are situated there.
Students react
Students who weren’t concerned with the analysis had combined opinions of the findings. Some famous that the concept that the Khirbet al Mudawwara website at Lachish is an Assyrian camp is believable. “The case of Lachish is essentially the most attention-grabbing,” Israel Finkelstein, a professor emeritus of archaeology at Tel Aviv College, instructed Reside Science in an e mail. The “subsequent factor to do is to verify the suspected website within the discipline,” Finkelstein stated.
Eckart Frahm, a professor of Assyriology at Yale College, stated that it is attainable that Khirbet al Mudawwara was an Assyrian siege camp.
Others are uncertain, nonetheless. David Ussishkin, a professor emeritus of archaeology at Tel Aviv College who has performed intensive work at Lachish, instructed Reside Science he thinks the siege camp was to the southwest of Lachish.
In the meantime, the concept of Jebel el Mudawwara because the siege camp for Jerusalem received a destructive response. Frahm stated Assyrian inscriptions recommend that whereas Sennacherib blockaded Jerusalem, he did not attempt to take it by storming it or via using siege engines. Assyrian inscriptions say Sennacherib constructed “fortified buildings” to blockade Jerusalem somewhat than to assemble a single camp, Frahm stated.
Frahm additionally disagreed with the which means of the Arabic phrase “mudawwara,” saying it does not essentially check with a spot the place a sultan would place their tent. “The fundamental which means of Arabic ‘mudawwara,’ if I’m not very a lot mistaken, is ‘spherical place’ — and in my opinion, the numerous totally different al-Mudawwaras mentioned by the creator all merely point out the roundness of the construction the time period describes,” Frahm stated.
The sources famous that additional investigations will likely be wanted. Mordechai Cogan, professor emeritus of archaeology on the Hebrew College of Jerusalem, instructed Reside Science that the panorama the place the websites are situated might make them ultimate for Assyrian army encampments but in addition stated that new archaeological excavations are essential.
