Showing Results 1 - 10 of 11
This relief, from Sennacherib’s palace in Nineveh, shows Sennacherib’s army attacking Lachish (an event alluded to in 2 Kings 18:14 and 17). Sennacherib is sitting on his throne outside the city…
In the eponymate of Dayan-Ashur, on the 14th of Aiaru (Iyyar), I set out from Nineveh . . .
I set out from the Euphrates and approached Aleppo. They (i.e., the inhabitants of Aleppo) were afraid of…
Idol-quickening instructions, Babylonia, 6th century BCE. The “mouth-washing” ritual was a ceremony for transforming a newly manufactured idol into a living deity. The instructions include these…
Lot (puru), Assyria, 8th century BCE. The inscription identifies this as a lot (puru—the Akkadian form of Hebrew pur, the word used in Esther 3:7) that belonged to an Assyrian official named Yahalu…
The panel shown here is part of an obelisk that contains a long inscription summarizing the triumphs of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III (r. 858–824 BCE) until the thirty-third year of his reign. The…
The flood story in the Atrahasis Epic, Babylonia, 17th century BCE. The epic relates the early history of humanity from creation through the flood. Apart from its polytheistic perspective, it has many…
Laws of Hammurabi on Babylonian Stela, eighteenth century BCE. The stela was originally placed in the temple of the god Marduk in the city of Babylon. Inset shows part of the prologue.
Vassal Treaty of Esarhaddon, King of Assyria (reigned 681–669 BCE). This copy of the treaty was found in the inner sanctum of the Assyrian temple in Tell Tayinat (in southeastern Turkey), where it was…
Soldier slaying captive, Khorsabad, late eighth century BCE. The captive is probably a Samarian seized during Sargon’s conquest of the city. From a relief in the palace of Sargon at Dur-Sharrukin…
Cyrus Cylinder, Babylonia. In the inscription, Cyrus, the king of Persia (reigned 559–530 BCE), declares that he was chosen by Marduk, the god of Babylon, to free its citizens from the tyranny and…
