Ancient Assyrian inscription unearthed in Jerusalem describes real events behind Bible story

This tiny fragment belied a find of Biblical proportions.Archaeologists in Jerusalem have unearthed a 2,700-year-old Assyrian inscription in clay that could shine a light on key events detailed in the Old Testament.“For me as a historian, this is somewhat of a flashlight in the fog of history,” Dr.

Peter Zilberg, a Near Eastern Studies expert at Bar-Ilan University who studied the artifact, told The Times of Israel.The 1-inch pottery fragment — part of a seal that was used to authenticate official documents — had reportedly been unearthed in a drainage canal at Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City, marking the first time that evidence of relations between the Assyrian Empire and the Kingdom of Judah had been uncovered in the city.By analyzing the clay, researchers were able to trace the shard’s origin to the Tigris basin region, where several Assyrian hubs were located.It was reportedly inscribed with Akkadian cuneiform — the world’s oldest written Semitic language.Scientists subsequently deciphered the ancient text, discovering what appears to be a complaint by the Assyrian brass over a delayed tax payment by Judah that had been due on the Av, the 11th month of the Hebrew calendar.From this, researchers deduced that the doc was an ancient tax notice from the Assyrian Emperor to a Judean King, which rang shockingly similar to a Biblical account of how the empire made the Kingdom of Judah their vassal state.Per a passage in II Kings 18 and 19, during the reign of Judah’s King Hezekiah, “King Sennacherib of Assyria marched against all the fortified towns of Judah and seized them.”“King Hezekiah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish: ‘I have done wrong; withdraw from me; and I shall bear whatever you impose on me,'” the excerpt read.

“So the king of Assyria imposed upon King Hezekiah of Judah a payment of 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold.”Alas, the fragment “does not include the exact year of the inscriptio...