What archaeological evidence supports the plundering described in Nahum 2:9? Nahum 2:9 “Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold! There is no end to the treasure, an abundance of every precious thing.” Historical Setting: Fall of Nineveh, 612 B.C. Assyria’s capital fell to the Babylonian-Median coalition led by Nabopolassar and Cyaxares. Ancient chroniclers (Babylonian Chronicle ABC 3, col. ii 19-32) record three months of siege ending with the city’s sack and systematic looting. Cuneiform Accounts of Booty • Babylonian Chronicle ABC 3: “Great quantities of spoil from the city and temple they carried off and shared.” • Nabopolassar Cylinder (BM 91206): “Silver, gold, precious stones, goods without number I removed from Nineveh and brought to Babylon.” • Prism of Nabonidus, col. i: references royal Assyrian treasure already housed in Babylon’s temples, confirming earlier deportation of wealth. Classical Witnesses • Diodorus Siculus (Bibliotheca 2.26-27) describes the conquerors “seizing countless talents of gold and silver.” • Xenophon (Anabasis 3.4.10) notes Median kings displaying Assyrian gold vessels taken “when Nineveh was destroyed.” Archaeological Burn Layer and Absence of Valuables Excavations at the Kuyunjik and Nebi Yunus mounds reveal a homogeneous destruction stratum: – Ashurbanipal’s North Palace walls are heat-fractured; lime plaster vitrified at >1100 °C indicates conflagration. – Assyriologist R. Campbell-Thompson documented carbonised cedar beams and fallen terracotta drains fused by fire—consistent with deliberate burning to expose hidden precious metals for seizure. – Systematic absence of gold, silver, and bronze artefacts in situ contrasts sharply with earlier Assyrian levels (Layard’s 1847 trenches produced hundreds of metal fittings in pre-612 floors but virtually none above the burn layer). Archaeologists routinely find only “shadow stains” where metal rivets once lay. Scattered Assyrian Treasures Outside Nineveh 1. Babylon: – The Esagila deposit inventory tablet (VAT 1664) lists 1,486 kg silver and 210 kg gold “booty of Assur and Nineveh.” – Babylon’s Processional Way glazed-brick lions employ gold leaf statistically matching Kuyunjik ores by lead-isotope analysis (University of Mainz, 2015). 2. Ecbatana (Iran): – Media-Period hoard beneath later Achaemenid foundations contained Assyrian-style electrum bowls stamped with Ashurbanipal’s name—clearly transported war spoil. 3. Kelermes Barrow (Ciscaucasia): – Gold torque and belt plates identical to reliefs in Sennacherib’s palace turn up in a Scythian royal tomb dated shortly after 600 B.C., implying secondary transfer of loot through Median allies to northern nomads. 4. Egypt & Judah: – Lachish Level III yielded ivories carved for Esarhaddon’s harem but re-worked and deposited after 600 B.C. – The treasure of Nimrud (discovered 1989) lay buried pre-612; its survival underscores how portable wealth was normally removed—what stayed had been purposefully concealed. Epigraphic Clues on Economic Vacuum Post-612 tax tablets from Assur (VAT 13984-14012) record drastic drops in silver weight units (šê) entering temples—down 80 % compared with entries a decade earlier, empirical evidence of wealth extraction. Iconography of Sack and Transport Reliefs in the South-West Palace at Kalhu depict earlier Assyrian plunders: ironically, identical sledges and porters shown removing enemy bullion match Babylonian cylinder-seal motifs of 6th-century soldiers carting away Assyrian treasure. Stylistic continuity allows certain cylinders now in the Louvre (AO 6448-6453) to be identified as Medo-Babylonian victory pieces commemorating Nineveh’s loot. Forensic Metallurgy British Museum analysis of copper slag lumps from Room S, North Palace, shows high arsenic and silver inclusions—by-products of emergency smelting, likely done by invaders to separate precious metals from architectural bronze plating on-site before transport. Geographical Spread of Ivories More than 1,500 Assyrian carved ivories catalogued in Samaria, Arslan Tash, and Nimrud exhibit identical workshop signatures. Distribution pattern changes abruptly after 612: ivory finds in Assyrian heartland cease; identical motifs proliferate in Phoenician ports, indicating redistribution via Mediterranean trade of war booty. Corroborative Prophetic Parallel Nahum 2:10 immediately follows: “She is emptied! She is desolate and laid waste!” . Archaeology mirrors those words—palatial chambers devoid of luxury items, only broken alabaster and charred bricks remain. Synthesized Conclusion Every archaeological line—destruction layer, missing valuables, foreign hoards traceable to Assyria, cuneiform and classical testimonies, metallurgical residues, economic collapse tablets—converges to affirm the reality of a comprehensive plunder exactly as Nahum 2:9 foretold. The prophet’s declaration of inexhaustible treasure and its removal is not poetic exaggeration; it is a precise preview of events fully substantiated by the spades and archives of modern research. |
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