Omride Palace, Sebastia (Samaria)

Wikipedia:

Omri is thought to have granted the Arameans the right to “make streets in Samaria” as a sign of submission (1 Kings 20:34). This probably meant permission was granted to the Aramean merchants to carry on their trade in the city. This would imply the existence of a considerable Aramean population, who called it Shamerain.^{[clarification needed][23]}

In 720 BCE, Samaria fell to the Neo-Assyrian Empire following a three-year siege, bringing an end to the Kingdom of Israel. After the fall of the kingdom, Samaria became an administrative center under Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, and Achaemenid (Persian) rule.^[20

Many important archeological discoveries were made at Ancient Samaria. These included a royal Israelite palace dating from the 9th and 8th centuries BCE.^[24][14] 500 pieces of carved ivory were found there,^[25] which led some scholars to identify the structure with the “palace adorned with ivory” mentioned in the Bible (1 Kings 22:39).

The Samaria Ostraca, a collection of 102 ostraca written in the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet were unearthed by George Andrew Reisner of the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East.^{[26][27][better source needed]}

University of Chicago

Archaeological evidence shows that, like the fate of the dynasty’s kings, their palaces in Samaria, Megiddo, and Jezreel suffered a termination that eradicated or entirely changed their presence in the landscape. Although this architectural turning point has been noted by many,⁷ its social and political implications have not been dealt with in a comprehensive manner. Not only have the palaces’ individual fates not been studied; their overall function as active symbols in the establishment and removal of the Omrides has been bypassed. We argue here that attention should be given to the meaning of the eradication of the Omride palaces. Was the razing of these bastions mere coincidence that stemmed from constructional needs, or were they intentional violent acts designed to erase all memory of the Omride dynasty?

Photo by Bukvoed