Image Details
Courtesy Bethsaida Excavations
Tiglath-pileser was here. In 734 B.C.E. the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III cut a deadly swath across the Near East, conquering the kingdom of Aram-Damascus, the Golan, Galilee (including Bethsaida) and Gilead. Chamber 4 of Bethsaida’s inner gateway yielded vivid evidence of the attack: a thick layer of ash and an abundance of arrowheads, such as the one shown here, and spearheads and broken pottery. Tiglath-pileser did not completely destroy Bethsaida, but the city never regained its former eminence.