Sargon II in the context of "Sargonid dynasty"

Hybrid beasts are creatures composed of parts from different animals, including humans, appearing in the folklore of a variety of cultures as legendary creatures.

Winged genie is the conventional term for a recurring motif in the iconography of Assyrian sculpture.Winged genies are usually bearded male figures sporting birds' wings. The Genii are a reappearing trait in ancient Assyrian art, and are displayed most prominently in palaces or places of royalty. The two most notable places where the genies existed were Ashurnasirpal II’s palace Kalhu, and Sargon II’s palace Dur-Sharrukin.

The Sargon Stele was found in the autumn of 1845 in Cyprus on the site of the former city-kingdom of Kition, in present-day Larnaca to the west of the old harbour of Kition in the archaeological site of Bamboula. The language on the stele is Assyrian Akkadian.

The stele was placed there during the time Sargon II (r. 722–705 BC) ruled the Neo-Assyrian Empire (935–605 BC). It was offered for sale to the British Museum, which bid 20 £. Ludwig Ross offered 50 £ for the stele and it was shipped to a museum in Berlin where it remains at the Berlin State Museums. Together with the stele was found a gilded silver plakette, that today is located at the Louvre. A replica of the stele is on display in the Larnaca District Museum.

The Assyrian captivity, also called the Assyrian exile, is the period in the history of ancient Israel and Judah during which tens of thousands of Israelites from the Kingdom of Israel were dispossessed and forcibly relocated by the Neo-Assyrian Empire. One of many instances attesting Assyrian resettlement policy, this mass deportation of the Israelite nation began immediately after the Assyrian conquest of Israel, which was overseen by the Assyrian kings Tiglath-Pileser III and Shalmaneser V. The later Assyrian kings Sargon II and Sennacherib also managed to subjugate the Israelites in the neighbouring Kingdom of Judah following the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem in 701 BCE, but were unable to annex their territory outright. The Assyrian captivity's victims are known as the Ten Lost Tribes, and Judah was left as the sole Israelite kingdom until the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 587 BCE, which resulted in the Babylonian captivity of the Jewish people. Not all of Israel's populace was deported by the Assyrians; some of those who were not expelled from the former kingdom's territory eventually became known as the Samaritan people.

Kummuh was an Iron Age Neo-Hittite kingdom located on the west bank of the Upper Euphrates within the eastern loop of the river between Melid and Carchemish. Assyrian sources refer to both the land and its capital city by the same name. The city is identified with the classical-period Samosata (modern-day Samsat Höyük), which has now been flooded under the waters of a newly built dam. Urartian sources refer to it as Kummaha. The name is also attested in at least one local royal inscription dating to the 8th century BCE. Other places that are mentioned in historical sources as lying within Kummuh are lands of Kištan and Halpi, and cities of Wita, Halpa, Parala, Sukiti and Sarita(?). Kummuh bordered the kingdoms of Melid to the north, Gurgum to the west and Carchemish to the south, while to the east it faced Assyria and later Urartu.

Several indigenous rock inscriptions have been found in the region, all written in Hieroglyphic Luwian, attesting to the continuity of Hittite traditions. In his annals, the Assyrian king Sargon II referred to the Kummuh ruler as 'Hittite', and several rulers of Kummuh bore the same names as famous Hittite kings of the 2nd millennium BCE: Hattušili(?), Šuppiluliuma, and Muwattalli (in Assyrian sources Qatazilu, Ušpilulume, and Muttallu, respectively).

Shalmaneser V (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: Salmānu-ašarēd, meaning "Salmānu is foremost"; Biblical Hebrew: שַׁלְמַנְאֶסֶר‎ Šalmanʾeser) 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 contemporary sources, he remains known for the conquest of Samaria and the fall of the Kingdom of Israel, though the conclusion of that campaign is sometimes attributed to his successor, Sargon II, instead.

Shalmaneser V is known to have campaigned extensively in the lands west of the Assyrian heartland, warring not only against the Israelites, but also against the Phoenician city-states and against kingdoms in Anatolia. Though he successfully annexed some lands to the Assyrian Empire, his campaigns resulted in long and drawn-out sieges lasting several years, some being unresolved at the end of his reign. The circumstances of his deposition and death are not clear, though they were likely violent, and it is unlikely that Sargon II was his legitimate heir. It is possible that Sargon II was entirely unrelated, which would make Shalmaneser V the final king of the Adaside dynasty, which had ruled Assyria for almost a thousand years.

Hezekiah (/ˌhɛzɪˈkaɪ.ə/; Biblical Hebrew: חִזְקִיָּהוּ‎, romanized: Ḥizqiyyāhū), or Ezekias (born c. 741 BC, sole ruler c. 716/15–687/86), was the son of Ahaz and the thirteenth king of Judah according to the Hebrew Bible. He is described as "the best-attested figure in biblical history," due to the extensive documentation of his reign in biblical texts and external sources (notably Assyrian inscriptions). His reign was marked by his significant religious reforms and his revolt against the Assyrian Empire. He witnessed the destruction of the northern Kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians under Sargon II in c. 722 BC and later faced the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem by King Sennacherib in 701 BC.

Hezekiah's changes to the official Yahweh worship, especially his centralization of worship in Jerusalem and his efforts to rid Judah of the worship of other cult gods and goddesses, are a major focus of biblical accounts. He is considered a very righteous king in both the Second Book of Kings and the Second Book of Chronicles. His efforts to consolidate worship around the God of Israel and his destruction of other cult objects, such as the bronze serpent made by Moses, are seen as his way of consolidating power and temple resources during a turbulent time. His reign was marked by prophetic activity, with prophets such as Isaiah and Micah delivering their messages during his time.

Qatna (modern: Arabic: تل المشرفة, Tell al-Mishrifeh; also Tell Misrife or Tell Mishrifeh) was an ancient city located in Homs Governorate, Syria. Its remains constitute a tell situated about 18 km (11 mi) northeast of Homs near the village of al-Mishrifeh. The city was an important center through most of the second millennium BC and in the first half of the first millennium BC. It contained one of the largest royal palaces of Bronze Age Syria and an intact royal tomb that has provided a great amount of archaeological evidence on the funerary habits of that period.

First inhabited for a short period in the second half of the fourth millennium BC, it was repopulated around 2800 BC and continued to grow. By 2000 BC, it became the capital of a regional kingdom that spread its authority over large swaths of the central and southern Levant. The kingdom enjoyed good relations with Mari, but was engaged in constant warfare against Yamhad. By the 15th century BC, Qatna lost its hegemony and came under the authority of Mitanni. It later changed hands between the former and Egypt, until it was conquered and sacked by the Hittites in the late 14th century BC. Following its destruction, the city was reduced in size before being abandoned by the 13th century BC. It was resettled in the 10th century BC, becoming a center of the kingdoms of Palistin then Hamath until it was destroyed by the Assyrians in 720 BC, which reduced it to a small village that eventually disappeared in the 6th century BC. In the 19th century AD, the site was populated by villagers who were evacuated into the newly built village of al-Mishrifeh in 1982. The site has been excavated since the 1920s.