Samerina ( ''Samerina'') was the province of the

Neo-Assyrian Empire The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the fourth and penultimate stage of ancient Assyrian history. Beginning with the accession of Adad-nirari II in 911 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire grew to dominate the ancient Near East and parts of South Caucasus, Nort ...

established following the 722 BCE Assyrian conquest of Samaria by

Shalmaneser V Shalmaneser V (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , meaning "Salmānu is foremost"; Biblical Hebrew: ) was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 727 BC to his deposition and death in 722 BC. Though Shalmaneser V's brief reign is poorly known from conte ...

, which resulted in the dissolution of the Kingdom of Israel and annexation of

Samaria Samaria (), the Hellenized form of the Hebrew name Shomron (), is used as a historical and Hebrew Bible, biblical name for the central region of the Land of Israel. It is bordered by Judea to the south and Galilee to the north. The region is ...

into the empire as a full imperial

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

administered by a

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

. The rule of the expansive Neo-Assyrian Empire went largely unchallenged for the next century until the rise of the

Neo-Babylonian Empire The Neo-Babylonian Empire or Second Babylonian Empire, historically known as the Chaldean Empire, was the last polity ruled by monarchs native to ancient Mesopotamia. Beginning with the coronation of Nabopolassar as the King of Babylon in 626 BC a ...

brought about the total collapse of Assyrian power by 609, resulting in Assyrian properties, including the province of Samerina, passing into Babylonian control. Among other effects, Assyrian rule resulted in significant population transfers into and out of Samerina as part of the standing policy of resettlement within the Assyrian empire, and close to 30,000 inhabitants of Samerina were deported to other parts of the empire, with other peoples resettled in Samerina.

History

The Neo-Assyrian province of Samerina was established in the 720s by

following his conquest of Samaria, also known as the Kingdom of Israel or northern kingdom, which culminated in the capture of its capital city, which was also known as

. The siege of the city of Samaria has been tentatively dated to 725 or 724 BC, and its resolution in 722 BC, near the end of Shalmaneser's reign. The conquest of Samaria was the signature event of Shalmaneser V's reign, and is recorded in both the Babylonian Chronicles and in 2 Kings of the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Sargon II, who was credited with naming the province. This is also the first documented instance where a name derived from "Samaria", the capital city, was used for the entire region, although it is thought likely that this practice was already in place. Deportation of Jews by Assyrians

Following the Assyrian conquest, Sargon II claimed in Assyrian records to have deported 27,280 people to various places throughout the empire, mainly to Guzana in the Assyrian heartland, as well as to the cities of the Medes in the eastern part of the empire (modern-day Iran). The Medes were only conquered by Assyria in 716 BCE, six years after the fall of Samaria, suggesting that the relocation took years to plan before it was implemented. The deportations were part of a standard resettlement policy of the Neo-Assyrian Empire to deal with defeated enemy peoples. The resettled people were generally treated well as valued members of the empire and transported together with their families and belongings. At the same time, people from other parts of the empire were resettled in the depopulated Samerina. The resettlement is also called the Assyrian captivity in

Jewish history Jewish history is the history of the Jews, their Jewish peoplehood, nation, Judaism, religion, and Jewish culture, culture, as it developed and interacted with other peoples, religions and cultures. Jews originated from the Israelites and H ...

and provides the basis for the narrative of the

Ten Lost Tribes The Ten Lost Tribes were those from the Twelve Tribes of Israel that were said to have been exiled from the Kingdom of Israel (Samaria), Kingdom of Israel after it was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire around 720 BCE. They were the following ...

. With the Medo-Babylonian conquest of the Assyrian Empire, the end of the Assyrian monarchy with the 609 Fall of Harran, and the rise of the

, Samerina passed from Assyrian to Babylonian control.

Conflicting narratives

In several Babylonian inscriptions, Sargon II claims to have been the one who conquered Samaria, and various explanations have been proposed for this contradiction. A prominent explanation is that Sargon's inscriptions relating to Samaria may be referencing another incident in which Sargon was forced to put down a large revolt in Syria that also involved the population of Samaria. This revolt took place shortly after Sargon's failure to retake Babylonia from Marduk-apla-iddina in 720, and was led by Yahu-Bihdi, the Assyrian governor of Hamath who also rallied support from the cities of Arpad,

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

, Sumur and Samaria. The claim of conquest therefore might be related to the city of Samaria being captured a second time during this revolt. In addition to these revolts, Sargon may have had to deal with unfinished conflicts from Shalmaneser's reign. If the explanation of referral to two conquests is accepted however, then it becomes unclear which king was responsible for most of the resettlements, though it is clear from surviving inscriptions that Sargon took responsibility for it. It has also been suggested that Sargon might have finished the initial siege of Samaria, which had been slow, inefficient and still ongoing at the time of Shalmaneser's death.

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History

Conflicting narratives

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Further reading