The Assyrian Eponym Canon and the eclipse of 763 BC
Kings of Israel and Judah appear in Assyrian records that are dated to the exact year by this list. Biblical chronology is not dated in isolation — it is pinned to the same astronomical anchor secular historians use for the whole ancient Near East.
'Aho pauTohi tangata motu'ac. 891–648 BC
The Assyrians named each year after an official (a limmu) and kept continuous lists of them. One entry records that in the year of Bur-Sagale "the sun was eclipsed" — an eclipse modern astronomy dates to 15 June 763 BC. That single fixed point converts the whole list into absolute dates, and every Assyrian record hung on it becomes datable to the year.
In the eponymy of Bur-Sagale of Guzana: revolt in the city of Assur. In the month Simanu the sun was eclipsed.
- Na'e 'ilo'i
- Nineveh, Assur and other Assyrian sites — Nineteenth-century excavations in Assyria
- 'Oku tauhi 'i
- British Museum and other collections
- Lea
- Akkadian
Hono lahi 'o 'ene fakamo'oni
The eclipse identification is astronomically secure and is the standard chronological backbone of the period.
Founga hono ngāue'aki 'e he kau hisitōlia
Every academic history of the ancient Near East dates Assyrian, Babylonian, Israelite and Judahite kings by this canon. It is not a religious argument; it is the ordinary machinery of ancient chronology.
'I he Folofola
Fekau'aki mo
Ngaahi ma'u'anga fakamatala
- Millard, The Eponyms of the Assyrian Empire 910–612 BC (SAAS 2, 1994)
- Assyrian eclipse — overview
'Oku 'i he lea faka-Pilitānia 'a e ngaahi fakamatala ko 'eni he taimi ni. 'E muimui mai 'a e liliu.