Skip to footer

Israel: Bible Assyrian seige account matches archaeological find

Israel Bible: Assyrian inscriptions and biblical accounts describe a revolt against the Assyrian empire in eighth century BC Judea. A newly discovered harbor fortification lends credence to these stories. 

|
Philip Sapirstein
A part of the 8th century BC mud-brick defensive wall.
  • By Megan Gannon LiveScience News Editor

Archaeologists say they have discovered massive fortifications on the coast of Israel that may have protected an Assyrian artificial harbor during the Iron Age more than 2,700 years ago.

Researchers from Tel Aviv University (TAU) unearthed the crescent-shaped structure in the Israeli city of Ashdod, just south of Tel Aviv. The impressive fortifications date back to the eighth century B.C. At their core is a mud-brick wall that measures more than 12 feet (3.6 meters) wide and 15 feet (4.5 m) high. This wall is covered in layers of mud and sand extending outward hundreds of feet.

"The fortifications appear to protect an artificial harbor," TAU archaeologist Alexander Fantalkin said in a statement. "If so, this would be a discovery of international significance, the first known harbor of this kind in our corner of the Levant." [In Photos: Amazing Ruins of the Ancient World]

The researchers are not exactly sure who built the defensive structure, but they think it may be associated with a rebellion.

From ancient Assyrian inscriptions, researchers have gleaned that a rebel king of Ashdod named Yamani led a revolt against Sargon II, the king of the empire, around the time the fortifications were built. Sargon II's forces quickly put down the rebellion. Whereas some researchers have conjectured that the rebels put up the fortifications in anticipation of a fight, Fantalkin said the construction is too huge to have been completed under hasty circumstances.

"An amazing amount of time and energy was invested in building the wall and glacis [embankments]," Fantalkin added.

The excavations are taking place at the site of Ashdod-Yam, and researchers say there are more layers of the site's archaeological history.

Buildings seem to have been constructed on top of the Iron Age embankments during the Hellenistic period, between the fourth and second centuries B.C.  But those structures seem to have collapsed during an earthquake in the second half of the second century B.C., the researchers say.

Excavators found artifacts, including coins and weights, tucked in these more recent ruins. The researchers also used photogrammetry to make a 3D reconstruction of the site.

Follow Megan Gannon on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Israel: Bible Assyrian seige account matches archaeological find
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2013/0821/Israel-Bible-Assyrian-seige-account-matches-archaeological-find
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe