Israel & Judah — biblical archaeology discoveries

931–722 BCE and the Assyrian records. 50 archaeological finds from this period that run alongside the biblical story: what was found, who found it, why it matters, the Hebrew word to know, and the Scripture passages each discovery touches.

• Tel Dan Stele
  Aramean victory inscription naming the 'House of David' · found 1993
• Mesha Stele (Moabite Stone)
  King Mesha of Moab's own account of his revolt against Israel · found 1868
• Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III
  Jehu of Israel bowing before the Assyrian king — the only known portrait of an Israelite king · found 1846
• Kurkh Monolith of Shalmaneser III
  'Ahab the Israelite' and 2,000 chariots at the Battle of Qarqar · found 1861
• Shalmaneser III's Annals of 841 BCE
  The Calah bull and marble-slab texts recording Hazael's defeat and Jehu's tribute · found 1846
• Nimrud Slab of Adad-nirari III
  Assyria lists 'the land of Omri' among its tributaries · found 1854
• Tell al-Rimah Stele
  'Jehoash the Samarian' pays tribute to Adad-nirari III · found 1967
• Annals of Tiglath-Pileser III
  Menahem's tribute, Pekah's overthrow, Hoshea's appointment, and 'Jehoahaz of Judah' · found 1845
• Sargon II's Khorsabad Annals
  'I besieged and conquered Samaria... 27,290 people I carried away' · found 1843
• קֶשֶׁר
  Nimrud Prism of Sargon II
  A second Assyrian telling of Samaria's fall and the exile of its people · found 1952
• Samaria: The Omride Royal Acropolis
  Omri's new capital and Ahab's palace on the hill he bought from Shemer · found 1908
• Samaria Ivories
  Carved furniture inlays from the 'ivory house' of Ahab and his successors · found 1932
• Samaria Ostraca
  Wine and oil receipts from the royal storehouse in the days of Jeroboam II · found 1910
• חוֹתָם
  'Jezebel' Seal
  An opulent Phoenician-style seal that may — or may not — have belonged to Ahab's queen · found 1964
• Seal of Shema, Servant of Jeroboam
  A roaring lion and the name of a royal official of Jeroboam II, from Megiddo · found 1904
• Megiddo Pillared Stables
  Rows of stone-pillared buildings for hundreds of horses in Israel's chariot city · found 1928
• Megiddo Water Tunnel
  A deep shaft and tunnel giving the city hidden access to its spring in wartime · found 1928
• Hazor: Israelite Citadel and Water Shaft
  Yadin's Omride-period fortress and the 40-metre shaft to the water table · found 1955
• בָּמָה
  Tel Dan Sacred Precinct ('Jeroboam's High Place')
  A monumental platform, altar and horned altar stones at Israel's northern shrine · found 1966
• Tel Dan Iron Age Gate Complex
  The stone gate, plaza and 'seat of judgment' where the Tel Dan Stele was reused · found 1966
• Kuntillet Ajrud Inscriptions
  'YHVH of Samaria and his Asherah' — blessings painted on storage jars at a desert way-station · found 1975
• בָּרוּךְ ... לַיהוה
  Khirbet el-Qom Tomb Inscription
  'Uriyahu... blessed by YHVH... by his Asherah' — a Judahite tomb blessing with a carved hand · found 1967
• נָבִיא
  Tel Rehov 'Elisha' Ostracon and Nimshi Inscriptions
  The prophet's name inked on a sherd in a ninth-century house near Abel-meholah · found 2013
• Jezreel: The Omride Royal Enclosure
  Ahab and Jezebel's fortified compound overlooking the valley · found 1990
• כֶּרֶם
  Jezreel Rock-Cut Winery ('Naboth's Vineyard')
  An Iron Age wine press at the foot of Ahab's Jezreel · found 2013
• מָצוֹר
  Tell es-Safi/Gath: Hazael's Siege Trench
  A 2-km ditch and burnt city marking the Aramean destruction of Gath · found 1996
• Zakkur Stele
  A king of Hamath saved from 'Bar-Hadad son of Hazael' — Ben-Hadad III in stone · found 1903
• Hazael Booty Inscriptions (Arslan Tash Ivory and Samos Horse Frontlet)
  Luxury goods marked 'for our lord Hazael', carried off as plunder across the ancient world · found 1928
• Bar-Rakib Stele
  A vassal king of Sam'al who boasts of serving 'my lord Tiglath-Pileser' · found 1891
• Sefire Treaty Stelae
  Aramaic vassal treaties whose curses read like Deuteronomy 28 · found 1930
• Amman Citadel Inscription
  The god Milkom speaks: the earliest Ammonite monumental text · found 1961
• Tell Siran Bottle
  A bronze flask naming three generations of Ammonite kings, two of them known to Assyria · found 1972
• Uzziah Tablet
  'Here were brought the bones of Uzziah, king of Judah. Do not open.' · found 1931
• רַעַשׁ
  The Earthquake of Uzziah's Days
  Cracked walls and tilted floors across Israel dated to Amos's 'two years before the earthquake' · found 1956
• מֶלֶךְ יְהוּדָה
  Bulla of Ahaz, King of Judah
  'Belonging to Ahaz (son of) Jehotham, king of Judah' — a royal seal impression with no findspot · found 1995
• עֶבֶד
  Seal of Ushna, Servant of Ahaz
  A carnelian seal of a royal official of King Ahaz · found 1940
• יוֹתָם
  'Jotham' Seal from Tell el-Kheleifeh
  A copper seal ring naming Yotam from the Red Sea port of Elath · found 1940
• Royal Steward Inscription (Shebna's Tomb?)
  'This is the tomb of ...yahu who is over the house' — a Jerusalem tomb Isaiah may have condemned · found 1870
• הוֹשֵׁעַ
  Seal of Abdi, Servant of Hoshea
  The only Israelite object naming Israel's last king · found 1995
• Nimrud Ivories
  Thousands of Phoenician and Syrian ivories — the same art that filled Ahab's palace — hoarded by Assyria · found 1845
• יַבְנֶה
  Yavneh 'Temple Hill' Favissa: Philistine Cult Stands
  A single pit with over a hundred clay shrine-stands from Philistine Jabneh · found 2002
• תִּרְצָה
  Tirzah (Tell el-Far'ah North): Omri's First Capital
  De Vaux's excavation of Israel's second capital, with a building project abandoned when Omri moved to Samaria · found 1946
• Abel Beth Maacah and the Faience 'King's Head'
  A 'mother city in Israel' on the northern border, and the tiny glazed head of a 9th-century ruler · found 2013
• מוֹאָב
  Dibon (Tell Dhiban): Mesha's Capital
  The Moabite royal city that produced the Mesha Stele, dug from 1950 to today · found 1950
• צִידוֹן
  Sidon: The British Museum 'College Site' Excavation
  A Canaanite temple and 4,000 years of the city that gave Israel Jezebel · found 1998
• Tel 'Eton Standing Stone and Hezekiah's Reform
  A decommissioned massebah in a Judean mansion, published 2026 · found 2014
• City of David Rock-Cut Sanctuary Rooms
  Eight bedrock chambers near the Gihon with an altar, olive press and winepress, sealed in the 8th century BCE · found 2010
• The Gihon Standing Stone (Matzevah)
  A thin upright stone on a rock-cut platform beside the spring, still standing where it was set · found 2011
• חוֹמָה
  Radiocarbon Re-dating of Jerusalem's Eastern Wall
  The 2024 PNAS study that moved a City of David wall from Hezekiah's reign back to Uzziah's · found 2024
• Tel Rehov Open-Air Sanctuary and Horned Clay Altars
  Neighborhood worship in the Northern Kingdom: a small bamah and dozens of pottery altars · found 1997

← All 533 discoveries by era

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