Archaeologists believe they have found the site of a notorious Assyrian military camp, reports say the daily email .
Archaeologists have found an ancient military base that may partially confirm the Bible’s story about God’s angels repelling an attack on Jerusalem.
One Bible story says that about 2,700 years ago, God sent a messenger angel to confront an army of Assyrian warriors who came with the intention of conquering the Holy Land.
According to legend, the angel of the Lord brought down his wrath on the Assyrian army and killed 185 thousand soldiers in one night. Until recently, there was no archaeological evidence that such a battle could actually take place, aside from supernatural elements.
Now archaeologist Stephen Compton, armed with modern mapping methods, has discovered evidence that some kind of epic battle took place.
The Assyrian Empire existed from 1365 to 609 BC. i.e. hundreds of years before the time of Christ. The invasion of Jerusalem was launched by the Assyrian king Sennacherib. He was keen to assert his political and economic dominance over all routes through the Syrian desert leading to the Mediterranean Sea.
Previously, scientists found a scene carved into the stone walls of King Sennacherib’s palace. It was dedicated to the conquest of Lachish, a city south of Israel. The engravings also identified a military base, allowing scientists to compare them with photographs of the area taken in the 1910s.
Compton saw an area that was the same size and shape as the paintings on the walls of the palace. Ruins were found in this area: the remains of a perimeter wall, as well as fragments of ceramics. Further archaeological investigation of the site revealed that it was abandoned after Sennacherib’s invasion and remained so for 2,600 years.
The initial discovery allowed researchers to continue searching for other military installations in the area. Eventually, Compton found the former location of Sennacherib’s military camps.
“Each camp was a circular site close to the old city walls, and each camp had the same Arabic name, or so it says on one of the early maps,” says Compton.
The name of the camps also suggested that it was at this place that Sennacherib’s forces planned their attack.
Three Bible passages describe how Assyrian soldiers were slaughtered the night before the attack on Jerusalem. In all three cases, the Israelite deity Yahweh sent an angel who entered the enemy camp and killed all the soldiers as they slept.
The Lord’s messenger was sent to protect Jerusalem in response to the prayers of its ruler, Hezekiah.
Another variant of this legend says that a plague killed the Assyrian army, and the Greek version claimed that the army was defeated because mice crept into the camp at night and gnawed the strings of their bows and the straps of their shields.
