Place · Land of Israel / Judea
Samaria
Ancient names: Shomron, Samaria, Sebaste
Capital of the Kingdom of Israel from Omri's dynasty, destroyed by Assyria late in the eighth century BCE.
32.2767°N 35.1908°E · representative coordinate · Pleiades 678370 ↗
Statements linked to this place
Each block is a sourced statement. Click the number to see the cited page.
A ninth- or eighth-century BCE ivory plaque from Samaria's royal palace, in the Northern Kingdom's capital, depicts a winged sphinx. Alongside roughly 500 other palace ivories, it indicates the prosperity enjoyed by Israel's elite.
The larger Northern Kingdom resisted Assyria until Shalmaneser V and his successor Sargon II crushed its revolt and destroyed it in 722 to 720 BCE, as Assyrian records corroborate. Assyria deported the population elsewhere in its empire. The fate of the 'ten lost tribes' remains unknown, while Samaritans still claim descent from Ephraim and Manasseh.
Assyrian and Babylonian records corroborate Assyria's destruction of the Northern Kingdom in 722 to 720 BCE, described in 2 Kings 17. Inscription fragments, architecture in Assyrian styles and imported Assyrian pottery further attest imperial rule over the conquered kingdom.
Community: Royal court at Samaria
The Kingdom of Israel, in the north, had close ties with Phoenicia (Ahab married the Phoenician Jezebel) and seems to have benefited from greater agricultural and trading resources. Judah, in the south and more isolated, was the smaller and poorer but politically steadier: in the north power passed from one family to another through coups and assassinations, while the Davidic dynasty persisted in Judah almost without interruption. A ninth- or eighth-century BCE ivory plaque from Samaria's royal palace, in the Northern Kingdom's capital, depicts a winged sphinx. Alongside roughly 500 other palace ivories, it indicates the prosperity enjoyed by Israel's elite.