The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel announced the discovery of a pottery shard giving evidence for communications between the Assyrian Empire and the Kingdom of Judah. Their announcement begins:
A cuneiform inscription on a small pottery sherd addresses a delay in payment from the Kingdom of Judah to the Assyrian Empire. A possible scenario under investigation: A deliberate tax revolt, such as the Bible describes regarding King Hezekiah rebelling against Sennacherib King of Assyria.
A tiny, extremely rare pottery sherd bearing a cuneiform inscription in the Akkadian language from about 2,700 years ago was discovered in an archaeological excavation near the Western Wall of the Temple Mount, north of the City of David. This is an extraordinary find and the first of its kind – the only Assyrian inscription from the First Temple period (8th to 7th centuries BCE) ever found in the city.
The inscription will be presented to the public for the first time on Thursday, October 23, at the New Discoveries in Jerusalem and Environs Conference by the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv University, at the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of the Land of Israel.
Read the entire announcement:
Thanks to Soror Amy for the tip!
