A late eighth-century BCE tomb has been found at the Assyrian city of Kalhu (Nimrud)
in northern Iraq, containing the bodies of two Assyrian queens identified from
inscribed grave-goods. Their names Yabâ and Atalya are almost certainly
Hebrew. Assyrian letters and administrative texts also found at Nimrud, and palace
sculpture from Nineveh, contain evidence for a close relationship between Judah and
Assyria, from the reign of Uzziah contemporary with Tiglath-pileser III, to that of
Manasseh, contemporary with Esarhaddon. In this article Hezekiah’s
short-lived attempt to reject the alliance is re-examined using contemporary
Assyrian sources. Judah’s vital position facilitating trade from Egypt
through Philistia to Assyria is deduced from Assyrian royal inscriptions recently
edited, and from a recent study of Judaean weights.
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