Primary sources
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Cowley, Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century B.C. (1923)
The classic edition of the Elephantine papyri: contracts, letters and legal documents from a Judaean community in Persian-period Egypt, and the closest thing we have to everyday documents from Judaeans of the fifth century BCE.
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Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. II (1927)
The 1927 English translation of the Assyrian royal inscriptions, out of copyright and freely readable — the version most quotations of Sennacherib on the open web ultimately derive from, for better and worse.
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Grayson, Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles (1975)
The standard critical edition of the Babylonian chronicle series in English, with transliteration, translation and commentary. The edition this site quotes the chronicles from.
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The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, BM 118885
The only surviving contemporary image that may depict a named king of Israel: the tribute epigraph naming Jehu, on an Assyrian monument of the ninth century BCE.
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The Kurkh Monolith of Shalmaneser III, BM 118884
The earliest external mention of a named king of Israel: Ahab, listed among the coalition that fought Shalmaneser III at Qarqar in 853 BCE.
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The Jerusalem Chronicle (ABC 5), BM 21946
The Babylonian record of Nebuchadnezzar’s capture of Jerusalem, dated to the day. The single most precise external fixed point for the chronology of the end of the kingdom of Judah.
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The Lachish Reliefs, Sennacherib’s palace at Nineveh
Carved wall panels from Sennacherib’s South-West Palace showing the siege and capture of the Judaean city of Lachish in 701 BCE — the attacker’s own picture of an episode the Bible also describes.
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The Taylor Prism of Sennacherib, BM 91032
Hexagonal clay prism listing the campaigns of Sennacherib, including the tribute received from Hezekiah of Judah in 701 BCE.
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The Cyrus Cylinder, BM 90920
Fired clay cylinder with a Babylonian account of the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus in 539 BCE. The external anchor for Cyrus in Isaiah 44-45.
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Wiseman, Chronicles of Chaldaean Kings (1956)
The critical edition of the Neo-Babylonian chronicle tablets in the British Museum, including B.M. 21901. Open access.