Assyrian Inscription Near Western Wall Points to Judah’s Tax Trouble
Archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), working with the City of David Foundation, say they have found a First Temple–period Assyrian cuneiform inscription near Jerusalem’s Western Wall that likely records a tax dispute involving the Kingdom of Judah. The thumb-size pottery sherd, written in Akkadian and dated to roughly 2,700 years ago, was recovered through wet sifting in Emek Tzurim National Park and will be unveiled Thursday at the “New Discoveries in Jerusalem and Environs” conference in Jerusalem. Researchers argue the text refers to a payment deadline and a royal courier—evidence, they say, of formal Assyrian correspondence to Judah during the era of Assyrian dominance.
The piece was discovered in soil associated with a collapsed First Temple–period building on the Western Hill, one of the closest areas west of the Temple complex with in-situ remains of that age. The find points to an administrative quarter tied to high-ranking officials, according to the IAA team, and may align with the historical backdrop of Judah’s vassal status and episodes of resistance remembered from the reigns of Hezekiah, Manasseh, and early Josiah. Assyria’s court often sealed letters and dispatches with inscribed bullae; the team believes this fragment came from such a royal sealing.
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Petrography suggests the piece was manufactured far from Jerusalem in the Assyrian heartland. According to Dr. Anat Cohen-Weinberger of the IAA, “ Petrographic analysis of the fragment’s composition revealed that the material from which it was made is entirely different from the local raw materials typically used to produce pottery, bullae, and clay documents in Jerusalem and the southern Levant. Moreover, the bulla’s mineral composition generally corresponds to the geology of the Tigris Basin region, where the central cities of the Assyrian kingdom were located, such as Nineveh, Ashur, or Nimrud/Kalḫu. A chemical analysis of the bulla’s composition is currently being conducted in collaboration with Dr. Yehudit Harlavan of the Geological Survey of Israel, to precisely determine its provenance.”
Israel’s Minister of Heritage Rabbi Amichai Eliyahu said the discovery is “impressive evidence of the city’s status as the capital of the Kingdom of Judah some 2,700 years ago, and of the depth of its ties with the Assyrian Empire just as described in the Bible.”
