At https://popular-archaeology.com/article/siege-ramps-and-breached-walls-ancient-warfare-and-the-assyrian-conquest-of-lachish/ …. a 2021 article published by Popular Archaeology sheds some more light on the Assyrian capture of Lachish – with a source in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The Assyrian empire expanded with the development of military technologies that helped them not only in open battles but also in besieging cities. This included the siege ramp, an elevated structure that allowed battering rams to reach city walls. Assyrian soldiers poured through once the walls were breached.
The siege ramp at Lachish is a surviving physical example. Archaeologists have reconstructed how the Assyrian army bulit the ramp. Lachish was the second most important city in Judah when attacked by Sennacherib. The ramp was built to haul battering rams up to the hilltop city of Lachish in order to breach it walls and overrun the city. The ramp was made from small boulders. An estimation is that 3 million boulders were used in its construction – which accounts for its survival as a visible feature. They were quarried from a site close to where the ramp began. Human chains were probably used to move the stones. Some 160,000 stones a day were moved in order to account for the timetable. As the ramp approached the walls the Assyrians erected L shaped wicker shields to protect the work force. These were prisoners of war as well as a levy from the local population. Wooden beams were laid on top of the stones and the ram itself was a big wooden beam with a metal tip. No mention of an Assyrian camp – although one must have existed. Also, where were the workforce bedded and fed? They could not have allowed them to return to their homes each night.