Around 150 years ago, British archaeologist Sir Austin Henry Layard excavated much of Assyrian King Sennacherib’s palace in ancient Nineveh. In the royal throne room, there stood a stunning 3-meter-high carving of a majestic city that was utterly unique in all of Sennacherib’s reliefs. Atop the tallest tower in the city was one individual holding up a royal standard.
Could this be a depiction of ancient Jerusalem and could the lone figure be Judah’s King Hezekiah, of whom Sennacherib boasted that he besieged as a “bird in a cage.”
Researcher Stephen Compton believes so and recently published his findings in an article titled “Sennacherib’s Throne-Room Reliefs: On Jerusalem and the Misplaced City of Ushu.” The peer-reviewed article was published in the October 2025 issue of the Journal of Near Eastern Studies, a prestigious journal of the University of Chicago Press.
In this exclusive interview, host Brent Nagtegaal talks with Compton about his research and why he is certain that Jerusalem is pictured in Sennacherib’s throne room.
Show Notes
“Sennacherib’s Throne-Room Reliefs: On Jerusalem and the Misplaced City of Ushu,” By Stephen Compton
“Revealed: A 2,700-Year-Old Depiction of Jerusalem and Hezekiah?”, by Brent Nagtegaal
