By the 8th century, the site saw a revival in settlement; the city expanded and many houses, public buildings, and storage areas were built. The newly expanded settlement was a contrast to the earlier 10th/9th century one; the existence of official buildings and the emergence of many satellite settlements surrounding Qatna suggest that the city was a local center in the kingdom of Hamath. The official buildings were violently destroyed, probably at the hands of the Assyrian king Sargon II (), who annexed the region in 720 BC. The site continued to be inhabited during the Iron Age III, following the Assyrian destruction, but the settlement shrank considerably, being reduced to a village comprising the central part of the acropolis. It was abandoned in the mid-6th century BC.