Sennacherib throne-room Slab 28 as Jerusalem (Compton 2025)

Overview

Slab 28 was one of the carved wall slabs of the throne room of Sennacherib's Southwest Palace at Nineveh. It showed a strongly walled city surrounded by the Assyrian army, with a single standing figure on top of a stately building inside, and, unusually for Assyrian siege reliefs, no fighting, looting or burning. Scholars had long taken the throne-room scene in this part of the room as the Assyrian fight at Eltekeh in 701 BCE. The slab was destroyed when Islamic State militants smashed the palace reliefs in Mosul in 2016; it survives only in Layard's mid-19th-century drawings and a 1990 photograph by J. M. Russell.

In the Journal of Near Eastern Studies (October 2025), Stephen Compton of the University of South Africa argued that Slab 28 shows Jerusalem, the city Sennacherib shut in but did not take, and that the figure on the building may be Hezekiah. His points, as reported, are: the lack of any assault; twice-corbelled towers; a wide space between the outer wall and the inner palace, which he reads as a dry moat; a view from the north; and the throne-room entrance bull inscriptions, which he says name only one Phoenician city (Ushu) and one Judahite city (Jerusalem). He proposes the throne-room sequence runs Ushu (Phoenicia), then Philistia, then Judah/Jerusalem, and that the relief previously given to Eltekeh belongs to that sequence differently: the 'misplaced city of Ushu' of his title.

The proposal is contested. Danel Kahn (University of Haifa) told the Times of Israel he thinks Compton is wrong: the flat setting fits a lowland city such as Ekron better than hill-country Jerusalem, the slab sits near the Eltekeh battle scene, and Jerusalem's submission is instead shown on seven slabs near the throne depicting captives against a mountain backdrop. Stefan Maul (Heidelberg) said he did not find the arguments persuasive. Christoph Uehlinger had raised the Jerusalem possibility about two decades earlier without reaching a conclusion.

In its own words

As for Hezekiah, the Jew, who had not submitted to my yoke, 46 of his strong, walled cities and the cities of their environs, which were numberless, I besieged, I captured, I plundered, as booty I counted them. Him, like a caged bird, in Jerusalem, his royal city, I shut up. Earthworks I threw up about it.Sennacherib, Bull Inscription (1) from the palace at Nineveh, Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia II (1927) §312, p. 143 (OCR 'Ishut up' corrected to 'I shut up'). The same bull text (§310) has the kings of Amurru bring tribute 'in the neighborhood of the city of Ushu'. The relief itself carries no reported caption.

What the evidence shows

• Slab 28 stood in Sennacherib's throne room, Southwest Palace, Nineveh (Times of Israel 2026, reporting Compton).
• It showed a walled city surrounded by the Assyrian army, a single standing figure atop a stately building, twice-corbelled towers, a wide space between outer wall and inner structure, and no battle, looting or burning (Times of Israel 2026, reporting Compton's description).
• Destroyed by Islamic State militants in 2016; now known from Layard's c. 1850 drawings and Russell's 1990 photograph (Times of Israel 2026).
• The long-standing identification of the throne-room scene was Eltekeh: 'scholars long ago concluded depicts the Assyrian siege of the Philistine city of Eltekeh' (Times of Israel 2026).
• Luckenbill's Bull Inscription (1) from Nineveh names, for the third campaign: Luli king of Sidon fleeing from Tyre to Cyprus; tribute of the kings of Amurru 'in the neighborhood of the city of Ushu'; Ashkelon; Ekron (Amkaruna); the battle in the plain of Altaka (Eltekeh); and Hezekiah shut up in Jerusalem (ARAB II §§309-312, pp. 142-143).
• Sennacherib's final-edition annals (ARAB II §§233 ff.) say of Hezekiah: 'Himself, like a caged bird, I shut up in Jerusalem, his royal city. Earthworks I threw up against him' (ARAB II §240, p. 120). No Assyrian text claims Jerusalem was taken.
• No label on Slab 28 identifying the city is reported in any source seen.

Open questions

• Which city Slab 28 shows. Compton (JNES 84:2, 2025: 191-219, as reported by Times of Israel 2026) reads Jerusalem because of the absence of assault, corbelled towers, a dry-moat gap and the bull inscriptions naming Ushu and Jerusalem. Kahn (University of Haifa, quoted by Times of Israel 2026) reads a lowland city, probably Ekron, because of the flat setting and the slab's position beside the Eltekeh battle, and puts Jerusalem's submission on seven slabs of captives with a mountainous backdrop near the throne. Maul (Heidelberg) is unpersuaded. The JNES article itself was not accessible for this entry (publisher access restriction).
• The bull-inscription argument. Compton is reported as saying the throne-room entrance bulls 'only name one Phoenician city, Ushu, and one Judahite city, Jerusalem.' In Luckenbill's translation of Bull Inscription (1) from Nineveh (ARAB II §§309-312), Sidon and Tyre also appear (as Luli's city and point of flight), and Ashkelon, Ekron and Eltekeh are named. Whether that is the same bull text as the throne-room entrance bulls Compton means, and whether he counts only captured cities, was not checked. This needs his article to settle.
• The figure on the building. Compton proposes Hezekiah. The drawings and one photograph cannot show identifying attributes beyond pose and placement; this is a reading, not something the slab states.

Since 2024

• 2025-10Compton's JNES article proposes Slab 28 shows Jerusalem. [1]
• 2026-01Times of Israel report brings the proposal to wide attention with objections from Danel Kahn (Haifa) and Stefan Maul (Heidelberg). [2]

Sources

1. Compton, S. 2025. "Sennacherib's Throne-Room Reliefs: On Jerusalem and the Misplaced City of Ushu." Journal of Near Eastern Studies 84(2): 191-219. doi:10.1086/737400 link study
2. Tercatin, R. "Smashed by ISIS, a 2,700-year-old carving may have been the earliest known depiction of Jerusalem." Times of Israel, 25 Jan 2026. link study
3. Luckenbill, D. D. 1927. Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. II: Historical Records of Assyria from Sargon to the End. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. §240 (p. 120) and Bull Inscription §§299-312 (pp. 140-143). link translation
4. Russell, J. M. 1998. The Final Sack of Nineveh: The Discovery, Documentation, and Destruction of King Sennacherib's Throne Room at Nineveh, Iraq. New Haven: Yale University Press. link study
5. Russell, J. M. 1991. Sennacherib's Palace without Rival at Nineveh. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. link study

Checked against new publications through 2026-09.