When discussing the history of ancient Israel it is difficult to decide just where to start. Israel was actually a person, a name given by Yahweh God to Jacob the son of Isaac the son of Abraham. From Jacob Israel are the twelve tribes of Israel descended. The bible records their exile in Egypt and entry into the promised land and then documents their history right up to the destruction of the temple at Jerusalem in about 50 AD.
Perhaps this blog should start with the creation of a single kingdom of Israel under King David in about 1000 BC. This was the point at which a loose affiliation of Israelitish tribes was woven into a single state. David was followed by his son Solomon and it was during his reign that the bible tells us that the people of Israel began to sin against Yahweh God by worshipping false idols. Yahweh declared to Solomon that for these sins he would tear his kingdom from him and give it to his servants, but for the sake of his father David, he would not do this until after Solomon's death. Following Solomon’s death in about 926 B.C, he was succeeded by his son Rehoboam. However, the northern tribes revolted against Rehoboam’s harsh rule with the result that the kingdom was split in two. The ten tribes of the north formed the Kingdom of Israel under Solomon’s servant Jeroboam with its capital as the city of Shechem (Samaria). The two tribes of the south formed the Kingdom of Judah under Solomon’s son Rehoboam and maintained their capital in Jerusalem.
The two kingdoms existed side by side for about 200 years after this, but never came back together as a single political unit. The people of the northern Kingdom of Israel were known as Israelites and the people of the southern Kingdom of Judah were known as Judahites. Neither the bible nor the historical records use the term ‘Jew’ for either of these people.
Then, in the 7th century BC, the northern kingdom was attacked and defeated in a series of invasions by the Assyrians. Between about 762 and 721 BC, the northern tribes were defeated by Tiglath-Pilesar, Shalmaneser and Sargon II and, as was their custom, the Israelites were deported into the land of the Medes. Not only are these deportations detailed in the Bible but the Assyrian records confirm the Biblical account. This area lies just to the south of the caucasus mountains between the Caspian and Black Seas and roughly in the north western corner of modern day Iran.
In 700 BC the Assyrian king Sennacherib struck northward towards Jerusalem on his way back from an invasion of Egypt. In 2 Kings 14 v13 we read, "Now in the 14th year of Hezikiah did Sennacherib, king of Assyria come up against the fenced cities of Judah and took them." This event is recorded also by the Assyrian king on wall plaques in his palace and on a Prism which is now in the British Museum. It actually details the number of captives on this occasion - 200,150 men women and children - deported to join the Israelites already in Media.
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The Assyrians did not just leave the land of northern Israel unpopulated. In accordance with their policy of transferring defeated peoples around their empire, they populated the northern kingdom with non Israelitish people who were to become known as Samaritans.
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The Assyrian empire fell in 612 BC. The Medes took over its territory to the north and north west and the Babylonians the land to the south and south west.
Still remaining in the southern kingdom were the rest of the tribe of Judah, the tribe of Benjamin and most of the tribe of Levi. However, in 586 B, following a lengthy siege, Jerusalem fell to Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon. The Babylonians destroyed Solomon's Temple and carried all the treasure, artefacts and most of the people away to their own land. This captivity lasted for about 70 years when the Babylonian empire was overthrown by the Cyrus, King of the Persians. He then gave permission to those Judahites who wished to return, to do so. 48,000 Judahites, Benjaminites and Levites returned to the southern kingdom under Ezra and Nehemiah. Their lists of workers include none from Northern Israel.
So very few of the Judahites and none of the Israelites returned to the land of Israel and Judah. What happened to them is the subject of much speculation. Many modern scholars believe they were simply absorbed into the nations around them. But historical, archaeological and not least biblical evidence suggests a very different story. The bible makes it clear that Israel was to become a great multitude of people, a company of nations, but to go by another name and forget their true identity.
Much of the hard, secular historical evidence comes from the records of the Assyrians themselves. One of the earliest Assyrian references to Israel is found on a monolith of Shalmaneser III excavated in south western Turkey in 1861. This records his victory in 853 BC over a coalition of 12 kings, including Ahab the Israelite – Ahabbu-mat Sir ‘ilaia . This is the only Assyrian record that uses the name ‘Israel’.
Another monolith records later uprisings against Shalmaneser’s rule, including Jehu the successor to Ahab. However, this time the King of Israel is referred to as the ‘Son of Khumri’ (khum-ree) in reference to an earlier Israelitish King, usually transliterated into English as Omri. This is an important point because it is clear archaeological proof that the Assyrians referred to the Israelites as Khumri – even before they were taken into exile.
The inscription reads in Assyrian cuneiform script, transliterated into English, ‘The tribute of Jehu (Iaua) son of Khumri (Omri). The Hebrew name ‘Omri’ begins with the consonant ‘y’ called ‘Ayin’. This is pronounced with a guttural ‘h’ sound and is represented in the Assyrian script as characters transliterated into English as ‘Gh’ or ‘Kh’. The Israelites would have pronounced ‘Omri’ as something like ‘Ghomri’ or Khromri’, which became ‘Khumri’ in Assyrian.
The Assyrian name ‘Khumri’ used to denote the Israelites is also found in the records of King Tiglath-Pileser III concerning his invasion of Israel and deportation of its people. ‘The cities of Gilead and Abel-beth-maacah on the borders of the land of Khumri, and the widespread land Hazael to its whole extent, I brought within the territory of Assyria’. These cities and territories were on the eastern border of the Kingdom of Israel in present day Jordan and Syria. Many of the deportees were themselves Israelites who lived on the eastern side of the River Jordan.
Sargon II (722 – 705 BC) also mentions the ‘Khumri’ in his record of the capture of the northern Kingdom of Israel. He refers to himself as the conqueror of ‘Bit-Khumri’. This is the last mention of Israel by the name ‘Khumri’, but does not indicate that the Israelites simply vanished from history.
We pick up the story again when, in 1847, an English archaeologist called Austin Henry Layard discovered a series of clay ‘letters’ on the site of the palace at Nineveh – the capital of Assyria. Over 23,000 in all were found, although not all were complete. The earliest of these tablets are known as the ‘Royal letters’ and date from 708 – 707 BC. They were written by Assyrian spies on the border with Uratia – now known as Armenia. These letters report an attempted invasion of Assyrian lands by a large Uratian army – which was soundly defeated in an area they called Gamir. This land, lying to the immediate south east of Uratia, would have been in the territory of a people called the Mannai. These people were related to the Uratians and many of them had been deported westwards by the Assyrians when their lands were conquered and absorbed into the Assyrian Empire. The Uratians were, in effect, trying to recapture it. It can be no coincidence that after deporting the original inhabitants, this is the precise territory that the Assyrians placed the exiled Israelites and some of the Judahites captured at that time.
Another of these Royal letters reveals the name of the inhabitants of this land of Gamir as the Gimera’ or ‘Gamera’ and further identified them as ‘Cimmerians’. It certainly seems to be generally accepted these days that the people of Gamir are the Cimmerians. But who are these Cimmerians? According to the Greek historian Herodotus (c.484 – 425 BC), they originally inhabited the region north of the Caucasus mountains and the Black Sea in what is now Ukraine and Russia, in the 8th and 7th centuries BC. However, modern historians and archaeologists dispute this as there is no archaeological evidence of Cimmerians in this area. Whilst Herodotus’ view was widely accepted in the 19th Century, the discovery of the Royal Letters referred to above has caused a radical rethink. It now seems more generally accepted that the Cimmerians originate from south of the Caucasus in the area the Assyrian records place them.
The Assyrian records also make clear that the people they call the ‘Gimera’ were a displaced people and not native to the lands they were inhabiting. They also make clear that they were not related to the nearby Median people or the remaining Mannai. They made alliances with them – but were a separate ethnic and tribal group.
So we appear to have some strong evidence that the Cimmerians are one and the same with the displaced Israelites and Judahites. Originally called ‘Khumri’ by their Assyrian captors, this name changed to Gimera or Gamera some time around 707 BC. There are no references to Gimera or Gamera before this time and no references to ‘Khumri’ after wards. It is not such a major change in sound as the English transliteration suggests. Something along the lines of Khumri to Kimera. The ancient world is full of changing names or more accurately pronunciations of names.
However, the main bulk of the displaced Israelites and Judahites are not accounted for in the Cimmerian people. In other words, the Cimmerians were only part of the Israelitish and Judahite peoples. The answer to the question of what happened to the main body of these people can be found in the prayer tablets of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon. Here we find reference to a people called the ‘Iskuza’, who lived amongst the Mannai. It is generally accepted by modern historians that the ‘Iskuza’ were called ‘Shuthae’ by the Greeks and ‘Sacae’, ‘Saka’ or ‘Sakka’ by the Persians. Herodotus tells us that the Persians also called the ‘Sacae’ ‘Scythians’. It is postulated that this is based on the name ‘Isaac’, a name the Israelites used for themselves. Isaac would have been pronounced with the emphasis in the second syllable rather than the first as we tend to do today. So it is not an unreasonable speculation – especially in light of the other evidence linking these people with the Israelites, that the Persians would have known them by their own tribal name iSAAK or Sakka. The Assyrians called them by a different tribal name based on the name Omri.
It is worth noting the Behistun Rock at this point, although it actually belongs to a somewhat later time period in the story. However, this rock is in effect a massive record of tribes and nations conquered by Darius the Persian. It is important in the context f this discussion because the inscriptions are copied in three languages; Babylonian, Elamite and Persian. The inscriptions include a list of 23 nations over whom Darius ruled. What is interesting is that the Persian and Elamite scripts refer to the ‘Sakka’, but in the same spot in the Babylonian version they are called ‘Gimiri’. More proof that these are just two names for the same people - the exiled people of Israel and Judah.
History then records the migrations of the Cimmerians westwards into Europe where they become, or become associated with, the Celts. The Welsh word for themselves is Cymri, which is not dissimilar from Kimera and pretty much the same as Khumri. The Scythians take a similar route into Europe, but head further northwards where they form the basis of modern Germanic peoples.
In a future post, I will track the migrations of the Cimmerians and Scythians into Europe in more detail. But the next post will look at who was already living in Europe in these times. It certainly wasn’t uninhabited and the existence of an established European population does tend to undermine the theory that we are all descended from the lost tribes of Israel!
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