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.
Presentation Abstract:
The Trail of Sennacherib’s Military Camps through Judah
Sennacherib’s 701 BCE invasion of Judah is, historically and archaeologically, one of the best-documented events in the Bible. However, the archaeological remains of the royal siege camps depicted on Sennacherib’s palace walls have never been found. By comparing the textual and visual representations of these distinctive oval camps with the surroundings of the cities besieged (in person and via archaeological and historical data, aerial and satellite imagery, surveys, and early maps), likely locations are proposed, including for the biblically significant Assyrian camps at Lachish and Jerusalem. These likely camp sites are found to have all had the same Arabic name on early maps, Mudawwara ( مدورة ), which, in the Middle Ages, referred to the “large tent of rulers … when the army was on the march.” At times, the name was extended to Khirbet Mudawwara, referring to the ancient stone ruins thereof. The pattern of distribution of this toponym is found to correspond with what is known of Sennacherib’s route and of the cities conquered. It also resolves some longstanding questions, including contributing to identifying the locations of the cities of Nob, Libnah, and Ushu.
