Kurkh Monoliths
Monolito de Kurkh
- Date
- 1861 · confidence high
- Place
- Bismil, Diyarbakır, Turkey
- Credited to
- John George Taylor
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Two Assyrian stelae (c. 879 and 852 BC) recording the reigns of Ashurnasirpal II and Shalmaneser III, found at Kurkh (now Üçtepe Höyük, Turkey); one contains the first extrabiblical reference to Ahab, king of Israel.
Wikidata identifies the discoverer as "John Taylor (1770-1842)", but the actual discoverer was John George Taylor, a British consul active in the mid-19th century; Wikidata's birth/death dates belong to a different person and correct ones could not be confirmed.
What it led to
- Archaeological confirmation of biblical kings (Ahab of Israel)
- Study of 9th-century BC Assyrian chronology
- Assyrian collections at the British Museum