Assyrians overrun the northern kingdom of Israel, initially under Shalmaneser V and then under Saragon II, father of Sennacherib. Shalmaneser V asserts in his Annals that he carried away 28,000 Israelite inhabitants from the Samaria region (central/northern Israel), i.e. “The Lost Ten Tribes.”
Saragon II repopulates the Samaria region with people from Cuthah in the Assyrian Mesopotamian area. These new inhabitants form a new Samaritan (or Samarian) population known as the Cuthim. The Cuthim Samaritans practice a hybrid religion—part Jewish, part Pagan; however, the Jewish theological component of the hybrid religion does not quite evolve apace with mainstream Judaism over the centuries to come. Thus, there is a time–lag between their practices and that of normative Judaism. Their temple sits on Mt. Gerizim, which is about 40 percent of the distance from Jerusalem to the Sea of Galilee in the northeast.