Blog posts

For those interested in Assyrian history, brilliant Assyriologist (and friend) Alexander Johannes Edmonds has a new book coming out on April 21 that will make an enormous contribution to Assyrian history. Most notably, he has discovered two Assyrian kings that had been lost to history and also presents a third that was initially found by […]

Honored to have made #3 on the Armstrong Institute’s recap of 2024’s ten biggest finds in Biblical Archaeology. (At minute 24:30)

Had an amazing time at the ASOR 2024 conference and seeing Boston. Below is the abstract from my presentation interspersed with the relevant slides (photos courtesy of Professor Takayoshi Oshima): The Visual Storytelling on Sennacherib’s Throne-Room Wall: New Insights into His Invasions of Ushu and Jerusalem In the largest ancient Assyrian room ever excavated, on the […]

In case anyone happens to be in the Milwaukee area, I’ve been invited to speak to the Milwaukee Area Biblical Archaeology Society and the Wisconsin Lutheran College:

This magazine has an interview with me about locating the Assyrian siege camps:  https://armstronginstitute.org/1102-the-assyrian-military-camp-at-lachish-and-maybe-at-jerusalem-too-an-interview-with-stephen-c-compton

Thrilled that my work tracking down Sennacherib’s military camps (and a few biblical sites) has been peer reviewed and published in the prestigious journal Near Eastern Archaeology. 

ASOR 2023 Annual Meeting Grateful for the opportunity to present the discoveries of the Assyrian camps at Jerusalem, Lachish, and beyond to a gathering of leading archaeologists at the ASOR Annual Meeting. Thanks to Dr. Stephen Cook, who did an amazing job of organizing and leading the session.  

Concerned about extensive damage being inflicted on the archaeological remains at the Thamanin site by mechanized agriculture, I met with the governor of Şırnak Province, Governor Ali Hamza Pehlivan; the mayor of the city of Şırnak, Mayor Mehmet Yarka; and the head of Şırnak University, Rector Prof. Dr. M. Emin Erkan. They promised to see […]

     Intrigued by ruins atop Mt. Cudi (the original Mt. Ararat) that had for millennia been association with the ship of survivors of a great flood by multiple Middle Eastern cultures and religions, I made a few attempts to reach the site. The famous British explorer Gertrude Bell had reached it in 1911, as […]

This is a quick overview of the summit of Mount Cudi to help put the site where pilgrims for centuries claimed to dig up pieces of the Ark in geographical context, along with the ruins of sacred structures surrounding it.    A. UNDERGROUND CHAMBERS I almost missed this hole in the ground, and previous expeditions […]

This is a happy intersection of my love of history, coding, and writing, as well as my adopted hometown, Chicago. I had the honor of cowriting the code and writing all of the text for this app as an official guide to Chicago’s historic Tribune Tower and the 150 stones from famous monuments (the Great Pyramid […]

I saw this extraordinary bird on the way to the mountain.   Just a simple butterfly: These flowers were everywhere, and I thought they were a wonderful infusion of color into the dry landscape, until I touched one and it drew blood. If you look closely, you can see the spikes hiding among the florets. […]

I noticed this strangely perfect circle in the satellite photos of a very remote area that has been sealed off for decades due to conflict:   When I first arrived at the coordinates, this was all I found:   Most of the perimeter that appears circular from space is just a mounded edge encased with […]

This is a satellite view of the summit of Mt. Cudi. Notice the roughly ship-shaped formation on the left (west) side of the summit (satellite photo courtesy of Bing Maps):   In ancient times, there were numerous pilgrimages to the top of this mountain to view what was said to be Noah’s Ark. However, with […]

In July of 2013, on my third trip to Turkey, I finally succeeded in summiting the sacred mountain associated for millennia with the great flood story, Mt. Cudi. I believe I am the first American to have done so.       I also got myself captured by guerrilla fighters in the foothills and found […]

During a rainy period in 1948, an earthquake and its aftershocks caused mudslides around the mountain now known as Ararat. One of these, 17 miles to the south, either uncovered Noah’s Ark or happened to create an island between two mud flows that looked like a ship. An expedition in 1960 dug three archaeological trenches […]