For roughly a century, scholars studying the Assyrian Empire have relied on the Assyrian King List (AKL) as the standard record of the kingdom’s rulers and their chronological sequence, particularly during later historical phases. However, a study published in the Journal of Cuneiform Studies titled Three New Kings of Assyria
argues that the document is neither as complete nor as politically neutral as previously assumed.
New Study Reveals Omission of Three Rulers From Assyrian King List
The research was conducted by Eckart Frahm of Yale University and Alexander Johannes Edmonds of the University of Münster. By reexamining damaged cuneiform texts and comparing them with other ancient records, the pair identified three rulers who held the throne briefly during the 10th and 8th centuries B.C.E. but do not appear on the official list. Each ruler governed for less than two years and belonged to the royal family, adopting traditional royal names after seizing power.
A Rival King During a Solar Eclipse
The first overlooked ruler adopted the name Tiglath-pileser, apparently taking the name of an earlier Assyrian king. According to the Mirage News coverage, this Tiglath-pileser ruled concurrently with the officially recognized king Aššur-dān III, who was also his nephew. He attempted to depose Aššur-dān III following a solar eclipse in 763 BCE, an event that carried major political and religious significance in the ancient world.
Evidence for his administration is preserved on a clay tablet held by the British Museum that records a royal land grant. Scholars previously struggled to reconcile the text’s recorded year with the reigns of other known monarchs. Frahm and Edmonds determined that the grant was issued by this unknown prince, who likely ruled from roughly 763 to 762 BCE before eventually being defeated and deposed.
A Second Missing King and a Rewritten Stela
The evidence for a second forgotten ruler comes from a stela discovered in 1894 at Tell ‘Abta, Iraq. For years, researchers debated why the name of the Assyrian king originally associated with the monument was overwritten with the name of another Tiglath-pileser.
The study resolves this puzzle by proposing the existence of a king named Shalmaneser who ruled immediately before Tiglath-pileser III came to power, specifically between late 747 and 745 BCE. His reign coincided with widespread chaos across Assyria, including disloyal vassals and nomadic incursions, before he lost power to the future Tiglath-pileser III.
A Forgotten Aššur-uballiṭ and the Nature of the King List
The third case involves a ruler named Aššur-uballiṭ, who is suggested to have ruled from 913 to 912 BCE. A cuneiform text attributed to King Tukultī-Ninurta II references a libation vessel originally created by Tukultī-Ninurta I and later restored by Aššur-uballiṭ. However, the AKL lists no king by that name between the reigns of those two monarchs. His existence accounts for the reference on the tablet and may also explain the identity of a heavily damaged statue discovered at Aššur.
The discovery of these three hidden reigns indicates that early Neo-Assyrian political history was much more complex than previously recognized. Rather than functioning as an impartial chronographic work, researchers suggest the AKL operated as a legitimizing canon of kings that was periodically updated to remove short-lived or parallel rulers.