Image Details

Signs of Babylonian destruction have been found at sites ranging from the extreme north to the far south of Palestine (see map). On top of these remains, however, excavations have revealed very little that would indicate an ongoing Babylonian presence in the region.

The Assyrians, on the other hand, left much evidence pointing to their occupation of Palestine. The fragment shown here, for example, is from an Assyrian memorial stela. Inscribed in wedge-shaped cuneiform script, the fragment was recovered from the Philistine city of Ashdod, which the Assyrian king Sargon II conquered in 711 B.C.E.