The fall of Samaria
Assyria destroys the kingdom of Israel and deports its people.
- When
- Known to
- ± 2 years
- Era
- Iron Age, Holocene
Sargon II takes Samaria in 722 BCE after a long siege, ending the northern kingdom of Israel and deporting a substantial part of its population into Mesopotamia while settling others in their place. The deportees do not return, and the ten northern tribes disappear from history — the origin of the lost tribes tradition. Judah in the south survives as an Assyrian vassal, which is why the biblical tradition is a southern one.