Construction of Assyrian Siege Ramp Explored in Israel

News November 11, 2021

(Yosef Garfinkel)
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Lachish Assyrian Ramp
(Yosef Garfinkel)

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL—According to a statement released by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, researchers led by archaeologist Yosef Garfinkel analyzed the construction of the triangular wedge–shaped Assyrian siege ramp at the site of the Canaanite city of Lachish. Historical sources indicate that the ramp was built in 701 B.C. by the Assyrian army, under the direction of King Sennacherib, in order to breach the hilltop city’s walls with battering rams. Garfinkel said a detailed study of the landscape revealed an exposed cliff in the bedrock where the Assyrians likely quarried the three million small boulders for the construction of the ramp. This quarry was just 260 feet away from the city walls, so hundreds of workers would have been able to pass the 14-pound stones along by hand—perhaps as many as 160,000 stones a day. They likely worked behind massive shields as the ramp progressed toward Lachish, he explained. At this rate, Garfinkel surmised, the ramp could have been completed in 25 days, adding that biblical sources described the Assyrians as efficient and unrelenting. To read about the destruction of the Egyptian ruling compound at Lachish, go to “Egypt’s Final Redoubt in Canaan.”

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