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Northern West Bank (biblical kingdom of Israel)

Samaria (Sebastia)

Documented
Samaria (Sebastia)
Library of Congress, Matson Photograph Collection, via Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain — source

Samaria was the royal capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, founded by King Omri on a commanding hill and later the site of Herod's Roman city of Sebaste. On the acropolis, excavators uncovered a large ashlar-built royal palace complex, raised on bedrock and enclosed by a casemate wall — attributed to Omri and his son Ahab and among the finest Iron Age masonry in the region. From the ruins came the Samaria ivories, hundreds of finely carved ivory inlays of Phoenician style, and the Samaria ostraca, inscribed potsherds recording deliveries of wine and oil. The ivories are often connected to the 'house of ivory' the Bible ascribes to Ahab. Together they attest a wealthy, administratively organized Omride court exactly where scripture places it.

Where it is
Northern West Bank (biblical kingdom of Israel)
Scripture
1 Kings 16:24 · 1 Kings 22:39 · Amos 6:4
What the evidence confirmsA monumental Omride royal acropolis existed at Samaria, and the ivory inlays and administrative ostraca physically document a wealthy, bureaucratic ninth–eighth-century Israelite court.
What it does not proveNo inscription names Omri or Ahab at the site itself, and the tie between the excavated ivories and the specific 'ivory house' of 1 Kings 22:39 is an inference, not a proven identification; the precise dating of the palace phases is still debated.
Sources & further reading
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