Samaria

Samaria was built by Omri, king of Israel, on a hill purchased from a man named Shemer, becoming the northern kingdom's capital in place of Tirzah. Ahab and later kings ruled from its fortified summit, and the city withstood two Syrian sieges before finally falling to Assyria after a three year siege under Shalmaneser V and Sargon II in 722 BC, when much of its population was deported. Excavations there uncovered a cache of inscribed potsherds, the Samaria Ostraca, recording shipments of wine and oil to the royal court and preserving personal names that match the biblical record. Herod the Great later rebuilt the city and renamed it Sebaste in honor of Augustus; in the New Testament, Philip preached there after the persecution that followed Stephen's death.