The Bible says that the Assyrian king Shalmaneser besieged and destroyed Samaria in the northern kingdom of Israel. This was in the 8th century B.C. This triumph is celebrated in Assyrian records, a series of inscriptions discovered by archaeologists in the Assyrian capital of Khorsabad. Written in the Akkadian cuneiform dialect, the inscriptions are now in the Louvre in Paris. (See image below.) They credit the Assyrian king Sargon II with the conquest of Samaria in the 8th century B.C. So which version is correct, the Assyrian one or the one in the Bible? As it turns out, both. It was indeed Shalmaneser V who besieged and pillaged Samaria. His successor was Sargon II, a usurper who seized the throne. And it was Sargon who continued the military campaign in Samaria and finally conquered the city. Once again, the historicity of Scripture is vindicated by archaeology.