701 BC
Siege of Lachish
The setting
Lachish, Kingdom of Judah (modern Tell ed-Duweir, Israel)
Fortified hilltop city with walls and a gate complex; besieged via a constructed earthen assault ramp
Reveal the outcome
Recorded sideNeo-Assyrian Empire
Recorded resultcaptured the city by assault
Decisive Assyrian victory; Lachish was stormed and its population deported. Part of Sennacherib's 701 BC campaign against Hezekiah in which 46 Judean towns were taken.
How the atlas explains it
Assyrian siege engineering: a massive earthen ramp raised against the wall, wheeled battering rams/siege engines, archers and slingers providing covering fire, and coordinated assault columns overwhelmed the fortifications. Systematic terror (execution and deportation) followed to break resistance elsewhere.
What followed
Depicted in extraordinary detail on the Lachish reliefs from Sennacherib's palace at Nineveh, the single most informative surviving visual record of ancient siege warfare and Assyrian military method.