event · E0361
Annals of Tiglath-Pileser III כתובות תגלת פלאסר השלישי
The British Museum's holdings from the Central Palace of Tiglath-Pileser III at Nimrud — the king Tanakh calls Pul: annal slabs recording tribute from "Menahem of Samaria" (738 BCE), the very payment of Melachim II 15:19–20; summary inscriptions (e.g. K.3751) listing "Jehoahaz of Judah" — Achaz — among the tributaries; and the reliefs of his army at siege. His 732 BCE campaign stripped Gilead and the Galil and deported their people (Melachim II 15:29) — the first act of the exile of the ten tribes, a decade before Shomron fell. Layard's mid-19th-century excavations brought the corpus to London; the annals' physical reconstruction from dispersed slabs is complex, and specific pieces are cited per claim.
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I. Who
- Hebrew
- כתובות תגלת פלאסר השלישי
- Also known as
- Tiglath-Pileser III Annals and Reliefs, Pul Inscriptions
- Era
- bible
II. When
- Traditional
- c. 3174–3187 AM — from Menachem's tribute to the Gilead-and-Galil deportations on the atlas's schematic chains
- Civil (computed)
- 3174–3187 AM · 587–574 BCE (trad.)
- Academic
- c. 738–727 BCE
- Date range
- annal slabs and summary tablets c. 738–727 BCE, from the Central Palace at Nimrud
- Duration
- ≈13 years
- Precision
- approximate
IV. What
- Events
- Exile of the Ten Tribes
Why it matters
The exile of the ten tribes was a process, not a day, and these are the invoices of its opening decade. "Pul king of Assyria came against the land, and Menachem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver" — the same payment sits in Tiglath-Pileser's own annals: "the tribute of Menahem of Samaria." Achaz of Yehudah, who bought Assyrian protection against the Aram-Israel alliance, appears in the summary tablets as "Jehoahaz of Judah," tributary. Then the ledger turns dark: the 732 campaign takes Iyon, Avel-Beit-Maachah, Chatzor, "Gilead and the Galil, all the land of Naftali" — and the annals count the deported. A decade before Shomron's fall, the north had already lost its east and its north. Kings buying time, kings buying protection, and the door of exile swinging open — from the Assyrian side of the ledger.
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| The corpus comes from Tiglath-Pileser III's Central Palace at Kalhu (Nimrud), excavated in Austen Henry Layard's expeditions of the mid-19th century, and is distributed among the British Museum's annal slabs, reliefs, and tablets. The palace was dismantled in antiquity and the slabs reused, so the annals' physical reconstruction is complex; scholarship cites them through critical editions, above all Tadmor's.
Cited as a corpus per the ballot; individual slabs and tablets carry their own registration numbers, quoted per claim as needed.
|
archaeology external | ★★★★★ | |
| The annals for 738 BCE list "Menahem of Samaria" among the tributaries of the west — the same payment Tanakh records: "Pul king of Assyria came against the land, and Menachem (Menachem) gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to strengthen the kingdom in his hand"; the levy was raised from the gibborei chayil at fifty shekels a head.
The Pul = Tiglath-Pileser III equation is standard, confirmed by Babylonian sources where he reigns as "Pulu."
|
biblical archaeology external | ★★★★★ | |
| A summary inscription (K.3751) lists "Ya-u-ha-zi of Judah" — Yehoachaz, the full form of Achaz (Achaz) — among the western kings paying tribute, c. 734 BCE: the submission Tanakh narrates when Achaz, besieged by Aram and Israel, sent the Temple's silver and gold to Assyria with the words "I am your servant and your son." | biblical archaeology external | ★★★★★ | |
| The annals for the 733–732 campaigns record the conquest of the Galil and Transjordan and the deportation of their populations — the Assyrian side of "in the days of Pekach king of Israel came Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria and took Iyon and Avel-Beit-Maachah and Yanoach and Kedesh and Chatzor and the Gilead and the Galil, all the land of Naftali, and exiled them to Assyria." This is the first act of the exile of the ten tribes (Exile of the Ten Tribes), a decade before the fall of Shomron. | biblical archaeology external | ★★★★★ | |
| The AM band (c. 3174–3187) bridges the atlas's schematic chains: Menachem's tribute falls at the close of his reign on the northern-kings chain (3174 AM ↔ 738 BCE), and the deportation campaigns open Exile of the Ten Tribes's span (from 3187 AM). The two chains do not merge exactly — the band is a placement, not a derivation.
Schematic placement for the atlas timeline; the annals themselves are dated by Assyrian eponym years.
|
tradition reconstruction | ★★☆☆☆ |