3. Background history

The Bible is mainly concerned with the nation of Israel and its neighbours. Below is a simple timeline for Israel relating to the period of the archaeological discoveries we shall look at. As the oldest discovery refers to king David, we shall start our timeline there. Many of the discoveries relate to the superpowers that dominated the nation of Israel: the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks and Romans. Each superpower conquered the previous one and Israel usually suffered as a result. The “Go there ” column allows you to jump straight to the relevant part of this section

 
Israel
Century BC
Other nations
Go there
King David
11
 
Israel split into 2 parts
Known as Judah and Israel
10
 
  
Kings of
Judah                    Israel
 
Omri
9
Ben-Hadad I King of Syria
Ahab
Mesha King of Moab
Ben-Hadad II King of Syria
Jehu
Shalmaneser III King of Assyria
Hazael King of Syria
Hoshea
8
Sargon II King of Assyria
Israel taken
captive by the
Assyrians
Sennacherib King of Assyria
Hezekiah
 
  
 
7
Esarhaddon King of Assyria
 
Babylon conquers Assyria
 
Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon
Jehoiachin
  
6
  
Zedekiah
    
Judah taken
captive by the
Babylonians
  
 
 
Nabonidus King of Babylon
 
Darius King of Persia conquers
Belshazzar King of Babylon
Persians allow
Jews to return to
their own land
 
Cyrus King of Persia
Jews ruled by
Greeks
4
Greeks conquer Persians
 
Jews ruled by
Romans
1
Romans conquer Greeks