neo assyrian

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: Lawrence Mykytiuk

How many people mentioned in the Hebrew Bible have been confirmed archaeologically? Lawrence Mykytiuk reveals the surprising number—from Israelite kings to Mesopotamian monarchs—and some lesser figures as well.

By: Shawna Dolansky

Are the 10 Commandments really a moral code, or did the ancients understand them rather as the constitutional basis of a political theocracy?

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: 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: Cathleen Chopra-McGowan

I Am Ashurbanipal, featured at the British Museum in London through February 24, 2019, is a magnificent exhibition.

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.