When was Shalmaneser III's 11th regnal year? What significant thing happened then? Can it in any way affect how Assyrian chronology and also Babylonian chronology should be dated? When we look at the current ancient chronology, we find that this date dates back to 848 BCE.
As stated in the introduction to this blog, this thesis uses the Bible's chronology as an aid in timing historical events.
The archaeological discovery Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III says the following:
"In the eleventh year of my reign, I crossed the Euphrates for the ninth time. I captured countless cities. I descended upon cities of the land of Hamath. I captured 89 cities. Hadad-ezer of Aram and twelve kings of the land of Hatti stood by each other. I was successful in overthrowing them.”*
History identifies three kings of Syria named Hadadezer. This was Hadadezer II or Benhadad II, King Hazael's predecessor, for Shalmanezer III tells what happened seven years later:
“Year 18: Hazael of Damascus attacked to do battle. I captured from him 1,121 of his chariots (and) 470 of his cavalry, together with his camp"*
The Bible identifies these kings as Israel's zealous opponents. It also tells the following about what happened at the end of Joram's reign:
"Joram and all Israel had been at Ramoth-Gilead to defend Israel against the attacks of Hazael, king of Syria."**
Here, Hazael had become the king of Syria. This happened shortly before Jehu became king of Israel in about 905 BCE, according to Bible chronology. Therefore, in this treatise Shalmaneser III's reign is dated to begin in 919 BCE. and his 11th regnal year was 908 BCE.
Here we notice very significant deviations from the old chronology. A short article called 'Searching for of Assyrian solar eclipse' was published earlier. It told about a pair of eclipses found in a 'special time'. It can be noted that this pair of eclipses supports this date of Shalmaneser III's reign to within a year.
** Bible, 2. Kings 9: 14
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