2,700-year-old Assyrian cuneiform fragment found in Jerusalem: first proof of imperial letters to Judah, echoes Hezekiah’s biblical revolt vs. Sennacherib.
Newsroom (28/10/2025, Gaudium Press ) Archaeologists have unearthed a 2,700-year-old pottery fragment inscribed with Akkadian cuneiform in Jerusalem, providing the first tangible proof of direct royal correspondence between the Assyrian Empire and the Kingdom of Judah during the First Temple period — a discovery that resonates deeply with the biblical account of King Hezekiah’s defiance against Assyrian King Sennacherib.
The thumb-sized artifact, recovered during an Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) excavation adjacent to the Western Wall north of the City of David in collaboration with the City of David Foundation, appears to record a delayed tribute payment or shipment from Judah to Assyria. Scholars suggest it may reflect the very tensions described in 2 Kings 18–19, where Hezekiah withholds tribute, prompting Sennacherib’s invasion of Judah in 701 BCE.
The fragment will be publicly presented Thursday at the New Discoveries in Jerusalem and Environs Conference, co-hosted by the IAA, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv University.
Measuring just 2.5 centimeters, the shard bears a concise Neo-Assyrian inscription mentioning a payment delay and an imperial “chariot officer” — a senior envoy in Assyrian administration.
“This small fragment tells a monumental story,” said Dr. Peter Zilberg, a Bar-Ilan University Assyriologist who deciphered the text with IAA experts Dr. Filip Vukosavović and Dr. Anat Cohen-Weinberger. “It’s a clay bulla — an official seal for letters or documents — offering direct evidence of diplomatic traffic between the Assyrian court and Jerusalem’s palace.”
Linguistic and paleographic analysis dates the inscription to the late 8th or early 7th century BCE, aligning with the reigns of Assyrian kings Sennacherib (705–681 BCE), Esarhaddon, and Ashurbanipal, and Judean kings Hezekiah (715–686 BCE) and Manasseh.
“The administrative language is pure Neo-Assyrian,” Zilberg said. “The reference to a delayed shipment mirrors the exact geopolitical strain described in the Bible: Judah as a vassal state required to send silver, gold, and goods to Nineveh — until Hezekiah ‘rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him’ (2 Kings 18:7).”
The artifact surfaced during wet-sifting at the Archaeological Experience in Emek Tzurim National Park, a joint project of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and City of David Foundation.
Sifting volunteer Moriah Cohen described the moment: “I thought the lines were ornamental. Then I realized — cuneiform. I screamed. Everyone came running. To be the first in 2,700 years to touch a message possibly tied to Hezekiah’s court was overwhelming.”
Petrographic analysis by IAA geologist Dr. Anat Cohen-Weinberger confirmed the clay originated in the Tigris Basin of northern Mesopotamia — the heartland of Assyria’s imperial cities: Nineveh, Ashur, and Nimrud.
“This wasn’t made in Jerusalem,” Zilberg emphasized. “It was crafted in Assyria, sealed, and dispatched — likely carried by the very ‘chariot officer’ named in the text — to a Judean official, perhaps in protest over late tribute.”
The biblical narrative in 2 Kings 18:14–16 records Hezekiah eventually capitulating, stripping the Temple of gold and silver to pay Sennacherib. The newly found bulla may represent an earlier stage in that crisis: a warning, a demand, or a record of non-compliance.
“This isn’t just archaeology — it’s biblical history stepping out of the text,” said IAA excavation director Dr. Ayala Zilberstein. “We now hold physical evidence of the administrative machinery behind the Assyrian pressure on Judah, and of Jerusalem’s role as a tributary capital — exactly as Scripture describes.”
The find also illuminates an emerging administrative quarter west of the Temple Mount, where Judean scribes and officials likely received and responded to imperial decrees.
For Zilberg, the convergence is profound: “The Bible gives us the story; Assyrian annals give us the imperial version; Jerusalem’s soil now gives us the artifact. A delay in tribute could be bureaucratic — or an act of rebellion. In Hezekiah’s case, we know from 2 Kings it was both.”
Israel’s Heritage Minister, Rabbi Amichai Eliyahu, hailed the discovery as “undeniable archaeological testimony to the historical accuracy of the Bible and Jerusalem’s centrality in Jewish sovereignty 2,700 years ago.”
“This cuneiform seal,” Eliyahu said, “is a silent witness to the drama of Hezekiah’s reign — a king who dared defy the mightiest empire of his day, in the very city the Bible calls the throne of the Lord (Jeremiah 3:17). Our roots in Jerusalem are not myth; they are etched in clay.”
(Note: “BCE refers to Before the Christian Era and CE refers to Christian Era nothing Common about the Era’s” – RH )
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Jerusalem Post
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