Survey of the Inscribed Objects

Compared to the dynasty's most famous ruler Nebuchadnezzar II, relatively few inscriptions of the last four native kings of Babylon exist today; there are far fewer texts for all four rulers combined than there are for Nebuchadnezzar alone. At present, eighty-seven inscriptions for the period from 561 to 539 are known: six from the time of Amēl-Marduk, eight from the reign of Neriglissar, and seventy-three from when Nabonidus sat on the throne; unsurprisingly, not a single inscription from the short, two- to three-month reign of Lâbâši-Marduk has come to light. These Akkadian compositions,^[[114]] which are written in the Standard Babylonian dialect and in contemporary and archaizing Neo-Babylonian script, are known from approximately 280 clay and stone objects, which originate from no less than sixteen different sites in Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. These objects come from archaeological excavations, as well as from antiquities markets. Many are now housed in museum collections, while some are either kept in private collections, were left in the field (or in situ), or have been lost forever. The majority of the still-accessible pieces are in the British Museum (London) and the Vorderasiatisches Museum (Berlin).

Provenances of the inscriptions of Amēl-Marduk, Neriglissar, and Nabonidus

Types of objects upon which the texts of Amēl-Marduk, Neriglissar, and Nabonidus are inscribed^[[115]]

Script of the inscriptions of Amēl-Marduk, Neriglissar, and Nabonidus

The extant texts are inscribed or stamped on eleven different types of clay and stone objects: bricks, clay cylinders, clay tablets, cliff faces, door sockets, paving stones, steles, stone beads (pearls), stone fragments (original object type uncertain), stone pedestals (for steles or anthropomorphic statues) and stone vessels (vases and bowls). Bricks and clay cylinders are the best attested media of Neo-Babylonian kings; these two object types make up approximately sixty-three percent of the corpus.^[[116]]

Six inscriptions of Amēl-Marduk are known today. They were inscribed on a paving stone and several alabaster vases, as well as stamped on a couple of bricks. The objects were discovered at Babylon and Susa. There are slightly more official texts for his immediate successor Neriglissar. To date, eight distinct inscriptions of his have been identified. These are known from bricks, clay cylinders, and an alabaster vase. Some of the objects bearing inscriptions of Neriglissar were discovered at Babylon, during R. Koldewey's excavations, while others originate from other sites, including Sippar and Susa.

There is little surprise that more inscriptions are known for Nabonidus than for his three immediate predecessors since Babylon's last native ruler sat on the throne for seventeen years, giving his scribes ample time to write numerous texts on his behalf. Sixty-one inscriptions can be certainly attributed to Nabonidus, while another nine might have been composed in his name. In addition, one further inscription was written in his mother Adad-guppi's name. In total, seventy royal inscriptions from 555–539 are currently known. These self-aggrandizing texts were written (or stamped) on several bricks, numerous clay cylinders (of various shapes, sizes, and formats), several single- and multi-column clay tablets, two cliff faces, a door socket, a few paving stones, several steles, a pearl, and a stone bowl. Most of the objects bearing his name come from modern-day southern Iraq (Babylon, Borsippa, Kish, Kissik, Larsa, Marad, Nasiriyeh, Seleucia, Sippar, Ur, and Uruk) and a handful come from Jordan (Selaʾ), Saudi Arabia (Padakku, Tēmā), and Turkey (Ḫarrān).

Clay Cylinders

The clay cylinder was the most widely used medium for inscribing narrative inscriptions of Babylonian kings.^[[117]] Although they are less numerous than inscribed or stamped bricks, inscribed cylinders are attested for most of the kings of the Neo-Babylonian Empire; five inscriptions of Neriglissar and at least thirty-two inscriptions of Nabonidus are known to have been written on this versatile medium.^[[118]] Babylonian cylinders are generally 'barrel-shaped,' rather than being a true 'cylinder,' they vary in both size and format, and can be hollow, pierced, or solid.^[[119]] Cylinders, depending on the length of the inscription written on them, distribute the text over one, two, three, or four columns. At present, only the two- and three-column formats are attested for Neriglissar's and Nabonidus' inscriptions.^[[120]] Most of those texts were written in contemporary Neo-Babylonian script. A few, however, were inscribed using archaizing sign forms or using both contemporary and archaizing scripts.^[[121]]

Some texts are known from a single exemplar, while other inscriptions are attested in several or numerous exemplars. For example, only one copy of the Tiara Cylinder of Nabonidus (text no. 25) has come to light, while approximately fifty-three copies of that same king's Eḫulḫul Cylinder (text no. 28) have been discovered.^[[122]] Although cylinders could differ considerably in size and format,^[[123]] cylinders bearing the same inscription tended to be homogeneous.^[[124]] Given the uniformity of most Neo-Babylonian royal compositions — although numerous orthographical variants, scribal errors, omissions, additions, and other textual variations can be shared by more than one exemplar — it is difficult to determine with any degree of certainty which copy (or copies) of an inscription should be regarded as the 'principal' or 'original' version of the composition, especially when more than one exemplar was found in situ, that is, deposited within the brick structure of a building.^[[125]] The distribution of text, the choice of individual signs, and grammatical forms vary from copy to copy. As far as we are aware, no two exemplars of any cylinder inscription are one hundred percent identical.

Cylinder inscriptions provide us with the most contemporary information about the numerous building activities of Neo-Babylonian kings (see above).^[[126]] Without these texts, a great deal of what we know about the reigns of these rulers would be lost as that information is often not recorded in other (contemporary and later) sources. However, since reports of construction in Neo-Babylonian building inscriptions are, as one expects, more concerned with royal ideology than with historical reality, their contents should not be taken at face value. Because construction projects are always presented as a fait accompli and because the details provided in the texts can be ambiguous, scholars often have to make assumptions about the nature and extent of a given building activity, especially when a king's claims cannot be confirmed from the archaeological record. Thus, it is not always clear whether a ruler is simply making minor repairs to part of the building or rebuilding it in its entirety from top to bottom and whether or not a project was actually carried out in full or whether only part of the work had been finished by the end of the king's reign. Despite the inherent problems with this genre of text, cylinder inscriptions nevertheless provide information on construction enterprises of Neriglissar and Nabonidus in no less than seventeen cities, including the capital of the Empire, Babylon.^[[127]] Bricks, paving stones, and door sockets support the claim that the former king sponsored construction at Babylon and give proof that the latter ruler undertook building at Babylon, Ḫarrān, Larsa, Seleucia (or Opis), Sippar, Ur, and Uruk, thereby giving credibility to some of the claims made by Neriglissar and Nabonidus in inscriptions written on multi-column clay cylinders.^[[128]]

Clay Tablets

Few Neo-Babylonian inscriptions are preserved on clay tablets and all of these were either drafts of new inscriptions, models of texts to be copied on other objects (i.e., cylinders and steles), archival copies of foundation records and monuments, or scribal exercises.^[[129]] Five or six tablets are inscribed with official inscriptions of Nabonidus.^[[130]] A short, ten-line text recording the fashioning and dedication of an inscribed musukkannu-wood offering table to the goddess Ištar written on an uʾiltu-tablet, a 'pillow-shaped' tablet, is a good example of a draft or scribal exercise.^[[131]] A multi-column clay tablet bearing an inscription recording Nabonidus' restoration of temples in Sippar, Larsa, Agade, and Sippar-Anunītu, a text also preserved on three clay cylinders, might have served as a model for the copies of that text written on foundation documents or was an archival copy of that inscription. The other tablets bearing Nabonidus inscriptions are not sufficiently preserved to comment on their precise nature or function.

Baked Bricks

Given the number of known building activities of Babylon's last native kings, it comes as no surprise that brick inscriptions are attested for every ruler of the 'dynasty,' with the exception of Lâbâši-Marduk, whose tenure as king lasted only two or three months. Approximately two hundred bricks bearing one inscription of Amēl-Marduk, two texts of Neriglissar, and at least ten different inscriptions of Nabonidus have been published.^[[132]] These originate not only from the capital Babylon, but also from Ḫarrān, Kissik, Larsa, Seleucia, Sippar, Ur, and Uruk, and these objects, like door sockets and paving stones, provide physical proof of some of the construction projects recorded in inscriptions written on clay cylinders and tablets. Most of the brick inscriptions edited in this volume were written in an archaizing script; the Nabonidus bricks from Ḫarrān were stamped using contemporary Neo-Babylonian sign forms. In general, the bricks from this time are inscribed in a stamped and ruled frame; in scholarly literature, these brick inscriptions are sometimes referred to as 'stamped bricks,' which is correct with regard to the inscribed area of the brick, but wrong when referring to the inscription itself, which is written. These texts were placed on the face or on the edge of the bricks.^[[133]]

Unlike the brick inscriptions of Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar II, whose inscriptions on bricks could be quite lengthy, brick inscriptions of Amēl-Marduk, Neriglissar, and Nabonidus tended to be short, usually between three to six lines in length. In general, inscriptions on bricks during this time just contain the king's name, his titles and epithets (most often, muddiš esagil u ezida "the one who renovates Esagil and Ezida") and the name of his father and, therefore, provide no chronological information or details about the structure in which they were placed.^[[134]] A few of Nabonidus' brick inscriptions from Ḫarrān and Ur, however, provide some information about the king's building activities. The Ḫarrān bricks mention the rebuilding of Eḫulḫul, while the Ur bricks state that the king worked on Egipar (the residence of the ēntu-priestess), Elugalgalgasisa (the ziggurat), and Enunmaḫ (a building inside the Ekišnugal complex).

Stone Paving Slabs

Very few Neo-Babylonian paving stones outside of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II were discovered during the German excavations at Babylon.^[[135]] At present, only one such object is presently attested and it bears a short, two-line proprietary inscription of Amēl-Marduk.^[[136]]

Stone Door Sockets

At present, only one inscribed Neo-Babylonian door socket has come to light and it is engraved with an inscription of Nabonidus discovered at Ur.^[[137]] This door socket commemorates the rebuilding of the Egipar temple, the age-old, traditional residence of the ēntu-priestess at Ur, and its discovery provides physical proof that this Neo-Babylonian king undertook construction on that building. The inscription itself is unusual since the cuneiform signs are not only written in an archaizing script, but the text is engraved on the door socket in an archaizing orientation, that is, the lines of the inscription are written vertically from top to bottom and horizontally from right to left; this was probably inspired by the ancient monuments known to Nabonidus' literary craftsmen.^[[138]]

Stone Steles and Pedestals for Monuments

Relatively few Neo-Babylonian steles are known today and all but one of them come from the reign of Nabonidus.^[[139]] The ten steles firmly attributed to Nabonidus, including two written in the name of his mother Adad-guppi, as well as one fragmentarily preserved monument comprising sixteen fragments, were discovered at various sites in Babylonia (Babylon, Larsa, and Uruk), at Ḫarrān in Turkey, and at Tēmā in Saudi Arabia.^[[140]] Nabonidus' steles, as far as we can tell, all had a rounded top and an image of the king, usually facing to the right,^[[141]] standing before symbols of the moon (Sîn), sun (Šamaš), and the planet Venus (Ištar) engraved on the top of the obverse face.^[[142]] Some of the monuments had curved, semi-circular backs, while others had flat backs.^[[143]] The former type was inscribed on the flat obverse face and the curved reverse surface and the latter stele type was generally only engraved on the obverse, although text was occasionally written on the narrow sides of the monument.^[[144]] In all instances, the inscription is divided into columns. Flat-back steles generally had three columns of text, while rounded-back monuments could have had as many as eleven columns of text. Like inscriptions written on cylinders, Nabonidus' steles usually provide information on the king's building activities; the Babylon Stele (Nabonidus 3) also gives information about historical events that took place before Nabonidus became king, starting at least in the time of the Assyrian king Sennacherib (704–681). In the case of the monuments of the king's mother, those steles give a pseudo-autobiographical account of the centenarian Adad-guppi.

Recently, two fragments of a rounded or oblong pedestal for a stele or statue were excavated at Tēmā in Saudi Arabia.^[[145]] At present, this is the only known inscribed, royal monument base. This sandstone pedestal, on which a stele or anthropomorphic statue stood, bears a one-line inscription of Nabonidus written in contemporary Neo-Babylonian script.

Rock Reliefs

Given the short duration of the reigns of Amēl-Marduk and Neriglissar, it is not a surprise that no rock reliefs from these two kings are known. However, Nabonidus had at least two such monuments carved during his seventeen years as king: one at Padakku (mod. al-Ḥāʾiṭ) in Saudi Arabia and one at Selaʾ in Jordan.^[[146]] Both rock reliefs are heavily weathered and little of their original texts survive today. The monuments were presumably commissioned to commemorate Nabonidus' activities in the region and the relief at Selaʾ might have recorded the king's conquest of Edom, an event mentioned in the Nabonidus Chronicle. The inscriptions are both carved in a rounded-top frame (in the shape of a stele) and are accompanied by an image of the king wearing traditional Babylonian royal attire, holding a staff, and standing before symbols of the moon (Sîn), sun (Šamaš), and the planet Venus (Ištar).

Vessels

A handful of fragmentarily preserved stone vases and bowls bearing inscriptions of Amēl-Marduk, Neriglissar and Nabonidus are known.^[[147]] Most were discovered in the Elamite/Persian city Susa, in modern-day Iran, presumably where they were deposited after Cyrus II captured Babylon in 539,^[[148]] while one is thought to have come from Babylon and another is believed to have come from Ḫarrān, as inferred from the text written on it. The Amēl-Marduk and Neriglissar vases are all inscribed with a short proprietary label, as well as the vessel's capacity. The Nabonidus bowl, however, is engraved with a longer, dedicatory inscription stating that the king had two vessels made for the moon-god at Ḫarrān.^[[149]]

Beads, Eyestones, and Pearls

Few inscribed beads, eyestones, and pearls from the Neo-Babylonian period are known today and most bear inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar II.^[[150]] One chalcedony bead (or pearl), now in a private collection, records that the moon-god Sîn requested a dagger of Nabonidus in a dream, which the king then had made for him.^[[151]] It is uncertain, because the provenance of the object is unknown, if the dagger, which presumably had this bead inlaid in its handle, was given to the god Sîn at Ur or the one at Ḫarrān.

114 To date, no Sumerian or bilingual Akkadian-Sumerian texts for the Neo-Babylonian dynasty have been discovered. However, Aramaic is sometimes used on bricks; see the commentaries of Nabonidus 7 and 8 for further details. For information about the language of the inscriptions (with references to earlier literature), see, for example Da Riva, GMTR 4 pp. 89–91; and M.P. Streck, Semitic Languages pp. 381–382 (for further bibliographical references).

115 Da Riva discusses the different material supports of Neo-Babylonian royal inscriptions in GTMR 4; see pp. 33–43 of that book.

116 Respectively, inscriptions written on bricks and cylinders make up approximately seventeen and forty-five percent of the known texts of Amēl-Marduk, Neriglissar, and Nabonidus.

117 This is in contrast to late Neo-Assyrian kings (721–612), who preferred clay prisms since that medium was better suited for inscribing long, detailed accounts of their military and building activities. To date, only one prism bearing an inscription of a Neo-Babylonian king is extant. For the Nebuchadnezzar II prism, see Da Riva, ZA 103 (2013) pp. 196–229.

118 These are Neriglissar 1–3 and 6–7; and Nabonidus 1–2, 10–16, 19, 21–26, 27 exs. 1–3, 28–29, 32–35, 41–42, and 46. In addition, five more fragmentarily preserved cylinder might preserve inscriptions of Nabonidus; these are Nabonidus 1001–1002, 1004, and 1006–1010. Ten cylinder inscriptions of Nabopolassar have been published and over fifty cylinder inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar II have been positively identified; see Da Riva, GMTR 4 pp. 116–117 §1.2 and pp. 118–122 §2.2. No cylinder inscriptions from the reigns of Amēl-Marduk and Lâbâši-Marduk have been discovered or identified.

119 For a summary of the various shapes and formats of cylinder, as well as the scholarly terminology for them, see Da Riva, GMTR 4 pp. 37–38; and Taylor, BBVO 26 pp. 44–59. CDLI refers to these objects as both barrels and cylinders. On the shape, R. Da Riva (GMTR 4 p. 37) states: "From a strictly geometrical point of view, the general term "cylinder" does not correspond to the physical appearance of the objects, for none of them is a cylinder. As noted above, they are rather barrel-shaped objects: symmetrical or asymmetrical ovoids with more or less flattened ends." Da Riva has pointed out (GMTR 4 p. 38) that hollow cylinders were made on a wheel and were "probably placed on wooden(?) supports inserted in a pole which was disposed horizontally, so that the cylinder could be rolled on its axis to be read"; cylinders pierced on one side were "placed on a pole disposed either vertically or horizontally"; and solid cylinders might have been "placed standing on one end, or in some other structure."

120 All of the known cylinders of Neriglissar are of the two-column format, while Nabonidus inscriptions were written on both two- and three column cylinders. Cylinders with four columns of text are known only from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II. The single column format is used by Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar II; note that the one attested one-column cylinder of Nebuchadnezzar might have been a scribal exercise (Da Riva, GMTR 4 p. 39).

121 Neriglissar 1 (Esagil Inscription) and Nabonidus 2 (Emašdari Cylinder) are known from copies written in both contemporary Neo-Babylonian and archaizing Neo-Babylonian scripts. It has been suggested that the Old Babylonian monumental script of the Codex Ḫammu-rāpi, even though it had been carried off to Susa by the Elamites in the twelfth century, had a strong influence on the script used for writing out Neo-Babylonian royal inscriptions; see, for example, Berger, NbK p. 95; Schaudig, Inschriften Nabonids p. 32 n. 133; and Da Riva, GMTR 4 p. 77 n. 77. As R. Da Riva has pointed out, the use of Old Babylonian sign forms is an archaism that diminishes that over the course of the Neo-Babylonian period. During the reigns of Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar II, archaizing scripts was more commonly used to write out royal inscriptions than it was during the reigns of their successors.

122 Respectively Nabonidus 25 (Tiara Cylinder) and 28 (Eḫulḫul Cylinder). H. Schaudig (Inschriften Nabonids pp. 412–414) catalogued seventy-five exemplars of the latter text, but that number of witnesses has been greatly reduced by joins made by the present authors (primarily Weiershäuser).

123 The cylinders edited in the volume range in size from 9.5 cm in length and 4.7 cm in diameter (Nabonidus 32 [Elugalgalgasisa Cylinder] ex. 4) to 24.7 cm in length and 15.4 cm in diameter (Nabonidus 27 ex. 2). The thickness of the clay of hollow cylinders vary from 6 mm to more than 2 cm.

124 As noted already by R. Da Riva (GMTR 4 p. 39).

125 Approximately one-third of the now-extant Neo-Babylonian cylinders originate from a secure archaeological context; seventy-five percent of those come from the early-twentieth century German excavations at Babylon. Given the general lack of a find spot, it should be stressed here that not all cylinders were intended to be 'foundation documents,' that is, to be deposited in the palace, temple, or wall whose construction they commemorate. R. Da Riva (GMTR 4 pp. 38–39) has already noted that some cylinders were clearly inscribed by an inexperienced scribe or student, as can be inferred from the high number of mistakes, that some were written to serve as an archival copy, and that others cylinders might have been displayed publicly.

126 As mentioned above, few Neo-Babylonian inscriptions record the military activities. See n. 112 above.

127 In alphabetical order, these are Agade, Babylon, Borsippa, Cutha, Dilbat, Ḫarrān, Kissik, Kish, Larsa, Marad, Seleucia, Sippar, Sippar-Anunītum, Tēmā, Ubassu, Ur, and Uruk.

128 For example, Nabonidus' work on the ziggurat at Ur, Elugalgalgasisa ("House of the King who Lets Counsel Flourish"), described in cylinder inscription Nabonidus 32 (Elugalgalgasisa Cylinder), can be confirmed from not only twenty-three bricks found in the structure of that building (Nabonidus 38), but also from the fact that five cylinders inscribed with that text were found in situ, buried upright in a brick capsule, in all four corners of the second tier of Ur's temple-tower. According to some scholars (for example, Da Riva, GMTR 4 p. 39), the upright orientation of these small, two-column cylinders indicates that they were intended to be read vertically.

129 Da Riva, GTMR 4 pp. 24–25 n. 111. As R. Da Riva (ibid.) has already pointed out, these tablets were never written to function as royal inscriptions, that is, to be placed into the foundation or the structure of a building or to be displayed publicly like a monument.

130 These are Nabonidus 6, 27 ex. 4, 30, 44–45, and 1011. Given the short duration of the reigns of Amēl-Marduk and Neriglissar, it comes as little surprise that no clay tablets bearing inscriptions of those two kings are presently known. A handful of inscriptions of Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar II on clay tablets are extant.

131 Nabonidus 5. For some details on the uʾiltu-tablet format (1:2 ratio), see Radner, Nineveh 612 BC pp. 72–73 (with fig. 8). As has been already pointed out by H. Schaudig (Inschriften Nabonids p. 476), this short text contains two scribal errors and, therefore, unlikely served as a model for the inscription that was physically engraved on the metal plating of that offering table.

132 These are Amēl-Marduk 1; Neriglissar 4–5; Nabonidus 7–9, 18, 20, 31, 37–39, 51, and 1005. The exact number of known bricks is currently not known since the actual count of the Nabonidus bricks discovered in the debris of the Islamic settlement of Ḫarrān has never been provided; V. Donbaz (ARRIM 9 [1991] pp. 11–12) indicates that about one hundred bricks and brick fragments bearing a four-line cuneiform inscription had been found. The excavation number of only one of those bricks has been published. Many more bricks of Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar II are known. For a survey of the seven Nabopolassar brick inscriptions and thirty-one brick inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar II, see Da Riva, GTMR 4 pp. 116–117 §§1.1 and 2.1.

133 Inscriptions on the face of the brick, unlike those on the narrow edge, were not visible after the brick had been set in place.

134 Da Riva, GTMR 4 p. 37.

135 Da Riva, GTMR 4 p. 124 §2.13.

136 Amēl-Marduk 2. The authors would like to thank O. Pedersén (personal communication, September 10th and October 14th, 2019) for pointing out that the object bearing the excavation number BE 41580 is actually inscribed with a well-attested inscription of Nebuchadnezzar II, rather than a hitherto, unpublished inscription of Nabonidus. See the introduction of Nabonidus 6 for further information.

137 Nabonidus 36. The Nebuchadnezzar door socket mentioned by R. Da Riva (GTMR 4 p. 124 §2.11) is actually a paving stone.

138 For further details on the archaizing orientation of this text, see Schaudig, Inschriften Nabonids pp. 82–83.

139 That stele dates to the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II and most likely originates from Babylon; see Da Riva, GTMR 4 p. 124 §2.19. No steles of Nabopolassar, Amēl-Marduk and Neriglissar have been discovered.

140 Nabonidus 3–4, 17, 40, 43, 47, 56, and 2001; Nabonidus 58–61 are probably fragments of one or more steles. It is uncertain if the fragments comprising the stele bearing Nabonidus 4 belong to one or two steles. Note that the original pieces are housed in the British Museum (London) and the Vorderasiatisches Museum (Berlin). For further information, see Schaudig, Inschriften Nabonids p. 537. The object edited in this volume as Nabonidus 1003 might have also been inscribed with a text of this Neo-Babylonian king. The text is not sufficiently preserved to assign this stele fragment to Nabonidus with any degree of certainty. It is tentatively included in this volume since it was edited in Schaudig, Inschriften Nabonids. Although the inscription written on the so-called Uruk Stele (Nabonidus 40 [Uruk Stele]) has been obliterated by a later ruler, the assignation to Nabonidus is based on the shape of the monument and the still-visible iconography.

141 On the two steles from Ḫarrān (Nabonidus 47 [Ḫarrān Stele]), the king faces to the left.

142 The iconography on the steles of Adad-guppi (Nabonidus 2001 [Adad-guppi Stele]) is, of course, different. The one monument whose upper portion is sufficiently preserved shows four people walking right to left, towards an alter; a similar image appears on the disk of Enḫeduana. The first two individuals are assumed to have been Nabonidus and Adad-guppi.

143 For example, Nabonidus 3 (Babylon Stele), 4, and 40 (Uruk Stele) had rounded backs, while Nabonidus 43 (Tarif Stele), 47 (Ḫarrān Stele), and 2001 (Adad-guppi Stele) had flat backs.

144 The Tarif Stele (Nabonidus 43) is inscribed on the right edge of the monument.

145 Schaudig in Hausleiter, ATLAL 25 p. 81 [Arabic section], pl. 2.20 figs. c–e and pp. 99–100.

146 Further details about the rock relief at Selaʾ will appear in several forthcoming publications of R. Da Riva, who examined the monument firsthand in September 2018. See Da Riva, BAR 45 (2019) pp. 25–32.

147 Amēl-Marduk 4–6, Neriglissar 8, and Nabonidus 52.

148 Da Riva, SANER 3 p. 32.

149 Interestingly, this inscription mentions a ziggurat as part of the Eḫulḫul complex, which is rather puzzling since no other extant cuneiform sources mention or refer to a temple-tower at Ḫarrān.

150 Da Riva, GMTR 4 p. 123 §§2.8–9.

151 Nabonidus 53.

Frauke Weiershäuser & Jamie Novotny

Frauke Weiershäuser & Jamie Novotny, 'Survey of the Inscribed Objects', RIBo, Babylon 7: The Inscriptions of the Neo-Babylonian Dynasty, The RIBo Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2022 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/ribo/babylon7/rinbe2introduction/surveyoftheinscribedobjects/]