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Courtesy of K. Lawson Younger

Remnants of empire. Amid the ruins of the city of Shechem in northern Israel, which Shalmaneser V (726–722 B.C.E.) besieged and captured, excavators found an Assyrian seal depicting the warrior goddess Ishtar, on the left, with a supplicant, at right. Such tangible evidence of an Assyrian presence at Shechem helped archaeologists date the destruction of the site’s stratum VII to 724 B.C.E., the year of Shalmaneser’s campaign in the region.