neo assyrian empire

By: Trevor Bryce

In the latter part of the second millennium B.C., the Hittite empire was a Near Eastern superpower. Then, suddenly, the empire collapsed and Hattusa was invaded and destroyed.

By: BAS Staff

Was there really weeping from the Judahite exiles by the rivers of Babylon? New evidence suggests that life was actually pretty good for some Judahite deportees and their successors.

By: Nathan Steinmeyer

The assassination of Sennacherib, king of Assyria, is presented in the Bible as God’s divine justice against an evil king. Outside of the Bible, however, […]

By: Nathan Steinmeyer

Known today as Tel Be’er Sheva, biblical Be’er Sheva sits in the northern Negev Desert, a few miles away from the modern city of the […]

By: Robin Ngo

An ancient clay tablet acquired in recent years by the Sulaymaniyah Museum in Iraq offers new insights into the Gilgamesh Epic.

By: Noah Wiener

What caused the Bronze Age collapse? A study of pollen grains in sediment cores beneath the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea provides a different view of the Bronze Age collapse.

By: Robin Ngo

A recent study argues that overpopulation and drought may have contributed to the rapid demise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.

By: Noah Wiener

Has archaeology uncovered portraits of two Israelite kings? One contender is on the famous Black Obelisk from Nimurd/Calah, but scholars differ about the identification. Another more recent candidate for an Israelite king’s portrait is an image from a wall at Kuntillet ‘Ajrud, a remote site in the Sinai desert.

By: Michael D. Danti, Darren P. Ashby, Marina Gabriel, and Susan Penacho

Between January 20–22, 2018, the early Iron Age temple at Tell Ain Dara in Syria—considered to be a close parallel to the Temple of Solomon—suffered large-scale damage. Read a special report by ASOR’s Cultural Heritage Initiatives that documents the damage.

By: Samuel Pfister

Archaeologists working at a Bronze Age site in Iraqi Kurdistan discovered a trove of Assyrian clay tablets. Many of the tablets had been stored in a ceramic vessel, perhaps for safekeeping.