The Lachish Reliefs and the destruction of Lachish
A siege the Bible mentions in a single verse can be seen carved by the besieger and dug out of the ground at the place it happened.
Confirmed by the groundObjectc. 700–692 BC
A wall-length carved panorama of the Assyrian assault on Lachish — siege ramp, battering rams, archers, deportees leaving the gate — commissioned by the king who did it. The city itself has been excavated: the destruction layer, the siege ramp and the arrowheads are all still there, matching the carving scene for scene.
Sennacherib, king of the world, king of Assyria, sat upon a throne and the booty of Lachish passed before him.
- Found
- Sennacherib's palace, Nineveh; the city itself at Tell ed-Duweir, Israel, 1847 — Austen Henry Layard (reliefs); later excavations at Lachish
- Now held at
- British Museum, London
- Language
- Akkadian (captions)
- How it reached us
- Dug up, or still standing where it was built.
What it shows
The match between relief and excavated site — including the siege ramp, still the oldest known — is exceptionally close and not seriously disputed.
How historians use it
A textbook case in ancient military history of an image, a text and an excavation describing one event.
In Scripture
Connects to
Sources
- Lachish reliefs — overview and bibliography
- Ussishkin, The Conquest of Lachish by Sennacherib (Tel Aviv University, 1982)
These summaries are written in English for now. Translations follow.