Inscriptions of Nabonidus from Babylon and Borsippa

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Two almost completely preserved, barrel-shaped clay cylinders, as well as a small fragment of a third cylinder, bear an inscription of Nabonidus recording renovations made to Babylon's inner wall Imgur-Enlil ("The God Enlil Showed Favor"); the text is written in two columns. One cylinder (ex. 1) was purchased in Istanbul sometime before 1900, while the other (ex. 2) was discovered in situ by Iraqi archaeologists in 1978, in the brick structure of Imgur-Enlil, near the Ištar Gate, in a clay box together with two clay cylinders of Nabopolassar (also recording work on Babylon's inner wall); the fragment (ex. 3) is registered as coming from Sippar. The text, which is written in contemporary Neo-Babylonian script, states that Nabonidus rebuilt the dilapidated sections of Imgur-Enlil and raised the superstructure as high as a mountain. In addition, Nabonidus reports that he had inscriptions of an unnamed previous king of Babylon (undoubtedly Nabopolassar) placed in the brick structure of that wall alongside his own inscriptions; this claim can be confirmed from the archaeological record (see commentary below). Interestingly, the length of Imgur-Enlil is recorded in this text: 20 UŠ, which is approximately 7,200 m long (see the on-page note to i 22); according to A. George (BTT pp. 135–136), the actual length of the wall was 8,015 m. This text is referred to as "Nabonidus Cylinder II, 1," "[Nabonidus] Inscription A," and "the Imgur-Enlil Cylinder" in previous studies and editions.

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Commentary

Interestingly, the distribution of text on all three exemplars is identical. Although ex. 2 is fully intact and the ends of ii 4–16 of ex. 1 are missing, the master text is a conflation of exs. 1 and 2; preference is generally given to ex. 1. A score is presented on Oracc and the minor (orthographic) variants are given in the critical apparatus at the back of the book. The major variant in i 18, however, is provided in the on-page note to that line.

Nabonidus' description of Babylon's inner wall is very reminiscent of that of Nabopolassar, which is presently recorded on clay cylinder A Babylon 11; compare i 25–ii 4 to A Babylon 11 ii 6–iii 10, especially ii 8–12 (Da Riva, SANER 3 pp. 94–95). That passage in that text of Nabopolassar evidently served as inspiration for the description of Imgur-Enlil in this text. It is clear from Iraqi excavations at Babylon in 1978 and 1979 that Nabonidus' scribes had consulted foundation documents of Nabopolassar discovered in the brick structure of Babylon's wall (between the Ištar and Zababa Gates). Nabonidus had clay cylinders of his deposited with those of his predecessor in clay boxes. A Babylon 10 (ex. 2) was found in such a box together with two cylinders of Nabopolassar, A Babylon 11 (the aforementioned text) and A Babylon 12 (Da Riva, SANER 3 pp. 50–54 ex. 2).

Bibliography

Four barrel-shaped clay cylinders are inscribed with an inscription recording Nabonidus' rebuilding of Emašdari ("House of Animal Offerings"), the temple of the goddess Ištar of Agade at Babylon; three of the cylinders were found in situ, in the brick structure of the temple. The text is written in two columns and the script of two of the exemplars (exs. 1–2) is archaizing Neo-Babylonian, while the script of the two other exemplars (exs. 3–4) is contemporary Neo-Babylonian. The text includes (1) a hymnic list of Ištar's titles and epithets that emphasize her warlike aspects; (2) a passage in which Nabonidus portrays himself as a pious ruler who humbly and submissively follows the will of his divine patrons and who abundantly provides for their temples and shrines; (3) a building report recording the renovation of the Emašdari temple, which Nabonidus claims was in such bad repair that alkali had eroded its brickwork and that little remained standing; and (4) a prayer to the goddess Ištar, asking for her blessing and for her to speak well of Nabonidus in the presence of Marduk. This text is referred to as "Nabonidus Cylinder II, 3," "[Nabonidus] Inscription B," and the "Emašdari Cylinder" in previous editions and studies.

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Commentary

All of the extant exemplars were excavated at Babylon, in the Emašdari temple. This inscription of Nabonidus is unusual as it is the only known text of this Neo-Babylonian king with copies written in both archaizing Neo-Babylonian (exs. 1–2) and contemporary Neo-Babylonian (exs. 3–4) script; most are written in one or the other only. The master text and lineation follow ex. 1. A score is presented on Oracc and the minor (orthographic) variants are given in the critical apparatus at the back of the book. The major variants between the archaizing Neo-Babylonian and the Neo-Babylonian copies of the inscription are provided in the on-page notes.

The excavation number of ex. 2 is 79-B-91, despite the fact that "97-B-22" is erroneously written on it. The object is now housed in the Iraq Museum (Baghdad) and bears the collection number IM 95927. The cylinder was formerly in the Nebuchadnezzar Museum (Babylon), where it had it been assigned the museum number A Babylon 201.

Bibliography

This long, Akkadian inscription written in archaizing Neo-Babylonian script is known from a broken basalt stele that was discovered at Babylon before 1896; it has been suggested (Schaudig, Inschriften Nabonids p. 514) that the monument might have originally stood beside the Processional Street, before the Ištar Gate. The text, which is inscribed in eleven columns on its flat front side and its rounded reverse face, includes: (1) a detailed historical prologue of events that took place from Sennacherib' destruction of Babylon and abduction of the god Marduk in 689 to the deposing of Lābâši-Marduk in 556; (2) an account of Nabonidus' elevation to kingship; (3) a passage recording several dreams and visions that Nabonidus had after becoming king and his subsequent visits to sanctuaries of the gods Nabû and Marduk seeking their approval of him being king; (4) an account of the adornment and support of temples in Babylon, which included giving sumptuous gifts to the gods Marduk, Nabû, and Nergal during an akītu-festival and dedicating 2,850 prisoners from the land Ḫumē (Cilicia) to Nabû and Nergal; (5) reports about Nabonidus visiting important temples in Keš, Larsa, Ur, and Uruk; (6) a passage in which Marduk commissions Nabonidus to rebuild Eḫulḫul ("House Which Gives Joy"), the temple of the moon-god Sîn at Ḫarran, a venerated temple that had been destroyed fifty-four years earlier; (7) a statement reporting that a jasper seal inscribed by Assyria's last great king Ashurbanipal was restored to its rightful place in Esagil ("House Whose Head Is High") in Babylon; and (8) quotations of selected haruspical omens. As for the historical prologue, the section detailing events before Nabonidus took power from Neriglissar's son and successor Lābâši-Marduk, records the murder of Sennacherib by one of his sons (likely Uru-Mullissu), the fall of Assyria, and the restoration of temples in Uruk and Sippar-Annunītu by Nebuchadnezzar II and Neriglissar. Because the stele is not dated, there is no scholarly consensus on its date of composition; for example, P.-A. Beulieu (Reign of Nabonidus pp. 20–22 and 42) suggests that it was written in the middle of Nabonidus' first regnal year (555), while H.-P. Schaudig (Inschriften Nabonids p. 515) proposes that it was written after his thirteenth year (543) as king. In scholarly literature, the text is referred to as "Nabonid Stelen-Fragment XI", "[Nabonidus] Inscription 1," and the "Babylon Stele."

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Commentary

This inscription is one of the few texts of Nabonidus for which P.-A. Beaulieu (Nabonidus pp. 20–22 and 42) and H. Schaudig (Inschriften Nabonids p. 515) disagree about the date of composition. The former suggests that the text on the Babylon Stele was composed in the middle of the king's first regnal year (555), while the latter thinks that this text was written much later, sometime after Nabonidus' thirteenth year (543), when he returned from his sojourn in Arabia and undertook construction on Eḫulḫul, the temple of Sîn at Ḫarrān. Because the inscription is not fully preserved, it is extremely difficult to propose a convincing and universally-accepted date of composition. The lengthy description of events prior to Nabonidus ascending the throne (i 1´–iv 42´) and of his accession and first regnal years (v 1´–x 51) likely suggest that the text was composed near the beginning of Nabonidus' seventeen-year reign, as early as the middle of his first regnal year (555), as Beaulieu has already proposed. An early date of composition might be confirmed by the facts that only the king's intent to rebuild the temple of the moon-god is mentioned, with no reference at all to the building program itself, and that the Persian king Cyrus II's defeat of the Median ruler Astyages (Ištumegu) and his driving off the Ummān-manda hordes near Ḫarrān in Nabonidus' third year are not recorded, as they are in several later inscriptions commemorating the rebuilding of Eḫulḫul; compare text nos. 28 (Eḫulḫul Cylinder) and 46 (Ḫarrān Cylinder). Therefore, an early date of composition for this inscription, sometime between mid-555 and early 553, is preferred here. Of course, this cannot be proven since the text is not fully preserved.

It is unclear if the Babylon Stele was a standalone monument, like most Assyrian and Babylonian steles, or if it was part of a pair of monuments on which a complete text was written. Since the upper portions of all eleven columns are missing, it is impossible to precisely determine what principal achievement(s) of the king the inscription commemorated, especially as key passages in cols. i and xi are completely missing. Because the final lines of the stele (xi 1´–42´) contain a long list of favorable omens that the king's diviners had observed in an extispicy, it seems unlikely that these lines represent the actual end of the inscription, as one would expect the inscription to have ended in a more traditional fashion with the king petitioning his tutelary deities to grant him a long and prosperous reign. Therefore, it seems likely that the inscription continued on a second stele, which is no longer extant, unless some of the fragments of text nos. 4 or 1003 are parts of that now-missing monument. Evidence in support of this proposal comes from a comparison of the structure and contents of text no. 25 (Tiara Cylinder), which also includes lists of auspicious omens related to haruspical queries of Nabonidus to the lords of divination Šamaš and Adad. The fact that one inscription of Esarhaddon appears to have been written on a pair of steles erected in Babylon, at least according to the subscript of an archival copy of the "stele on the left, the first excerpt" (Leichty, RINAP 4 p. 109 Esarhaddon 48 lines 109–110); and that inscriptions of Sargon II and Sennacherib were often written on pairs of human-headed bull colossi (respectively Frame, RINAP 2 Sargon II 9; and Grayson and Novotny, RINAP 3/1 pp. 38–97 Sennacherib 40–43, 46, and probably 49–50) further supports this proposal.

In text no. 25 (Tiara Cylinder), the lists of omens are included between statements about the king requesting answers and him carrying out the action for which Šamaš and Adad had placed a "firm 'yes'" in his extispicies. That text, like all of this king's other cylinder inscriptions, ends with Nabonidus addressing the god(s) to act on his behalf, and not with a list of favorable omens that finally permitted Nabonidus to fashion the crown he wished to make for the sun-god at Sippar. The inscription written on the Babylon Stele and its partner monument, assuming the text was indeed written on two steles and not just one, therefore, might have included such list(s) halfway through its narrative, at the point where the inscribed surface of one monument ended and that of the second began. One possible occasion for the divination in question might have been the appointment of Nabonidus' daughter as the ēntu-priestess of Sîn at Ur. It is well-known from other sources (for example, text no. 34 [En-nigaldi-Nanna Cylinder]) that Nabonidus appointed his daughter for this position during his second regnal year (554) and that he had multiple extispicies performed regarding that appointment. It is possible that xi 1´–42´ lists the favorable omens observed by his diviners in the extispicy confirming Sîn's request for a new priestess at Ur or those endorsing his nomination of En-nigaldi-Nanna as the new ēntu. Alternatively, just like text no. 25 (Tiara Cylinder), these lines could record the gods' approval of Nabonidus' desire to make a crown with zarinnu (meaning uncertain) for Šamaš at Sippar, a deed of the king generally thought to have also taken place in 554. Should the Babylon Stele be the first of a pair of monuments and should the litany of omens inscribed on the final column of that stele (xi 1´–42´) be associated with En-nigaldi-Nanna's appointment as ēntu-priestess or Nabonidus' fashioning of a crown for Šamaš, then the earliest possible date of composition for the inscription would be 554, Nabonidus' second regnal year. Given the current state of preservation of the known stele fragments from Babylon, the suggestions tentatively given here cannot be proven, at least not until further pieces of the monument(s) are identified. Despite the meagerness of the Babylonian evidence for inscriptions being written across pairs of monuments, a two-stele, rather than a single-stele, inscription is preferred here.

The inscription was collated from several legible, high-resolution images found on the internet taken by Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin in the Eşki Şark Eserleri Müzesi (Istanbul), in September 2013. The present edition has greatly benefitted from access to these images.

Bibliography

Sixteen fragments of (a) semi-cylindrical diorite stele(s) discovered in 1899 by R. Koldewey at various spots in Babylon are inscribed with one or more inscriptions written in archaizing Neo-Babylonian script. The pieces, which probably originally come from more than one monument, are known from the original fragments, which are housed in the British Museum (London) and the Vorderasiatisches Museum (Berlin). The attribution of the fragments to Nabonidus is not entirely certain, apart from ex. 4 (BE 2728), which bears his name. Due to the fragmentary state of preservation of the pieces, it is uncertain from how many monuments these sixteen fragments stem and how many actually bear (an) inscription(s) of Nabonidus. In addition, it is unknown if any of these fragments belong to the same monuments as text nos. 3 (Babylon Stele) and 1003. The inscription(s) are not sufficiently preserved to be able to propose a date of composition. Following the edition of H. Schaudig (Inschriften Nabonids pp. 537–543), all sixteen stele pieces are edited together, despite the fact that they do not necessarily all come from one and the same object or all bear inscription(s) of Nabonidus.

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Commentary

The fragments were discovered in various spots in Babylon, between May and November 1899; see the catalogue and Schaudig, Inschriften Nabonids pp. 537–538 for further details. The excavators attributed all of the pieces to Nabonidus and assumed that they belonged to the same stele as EŞ 1327 (text no. 3 [Babylon Stele]). It should be stressed here that not all of these pieces necessarily bear inscription(s) of Nabonidus and that not all of the fragments belong to one and the same monument, as is clear from the distribution of the find spots and from the varying line heights on the individual fragments (see below). Although some pieces could belong to the same monuments as text nos. 3 (Babylon Stele; EŞ 1327) and 1003 (VA 3217), provisionally, all sixteen pieces are edited here, following Schaudig's edition. The 'exemplars' (= fragments) are arranged sequentially by excavation number, in ascending order. According to H. Schaudig (Inschriften Nabonids p. 539, quoting J. Marzahn), exs. 15 (VA Bab 4764; BE 46262) and 16 (VA Bab 4177; BE 47320) do not form part of a Nabonidus stele but rather belong to one of the lion statues of the procession street. A.R. Gallagher (AfO 48/49 [2001–02] p. 106) repeated this information about ex. 15. This information, however, is inaccurate since the two pieces most likely come from (a) Nabonidus stele(s) and, thus, they are included here with the other fourteen stele fragments.

According to Koldewey, Königsburgen 2 pp. 22–23, exs. 4, 8, and 12–13 were sent back to Berlin; ex. 13 was reported to have been stolen from the dig house in Babylon and recovered from the antiquities market in 1927. Exs. 4, 7, and 10 — all of which have been assigned the museum number BM 119298 (1928-2-11,1; 1928-2-11,1a; 1928-2-11,1b) — are now in the British Museum (London); see Reade, NABU 2000 no. 81. The remaining fragments — exs. 1–3, 5–6, 8–9, and 11–16 — are housed in the Vorderasiatisches Museum (Berlin) and these have been given the collection numbers VA Bab 4177, VA Bab 4760, VA Bab 4761, VA Bab 4762, VA Bab 4763, and VA Bab 4764. In addition, the fragments are also known from watercolor facsimiles (probably made by W. Andrae) and squeezes made by Koldewey in 1899; Schaudig's published copies (Inschriften Nabonids pp. 761–765 figs. 44–57) are drawn from the squeezes, which are in the Vorderasiatisches Museum.

Frgms. 1 and 11–12 come from the edge of the stele(s). Small portions of two columns are preserved on all three fragments, one from the flat obverse face and one from the curved side and reverse of the monument(s). Frgms. 2–10 are all from the curved, reverse face(s) of the stele(s). The heights of the lines vary on the individual pieces, which suggests that the fourteen fragments might not all belong to one and the same monument. The line heights are as follows: ca. 1.1 cm on ex. 10; ca. 1.1–1.4 cm on ex. 6; ca. 1.2 cm on exs. 5, 8–9, and 14; 1.2–1.9 cm on ex. 12; ca. 1.3–1.4 cm on exs. 2–3 and 7; ca. 1.5–1.7 cm on ex. 11; and ca. 1.7 cm on ex. 13. Exs. 2 and 3 might (indirectly) join, as might exs. 7 and 8. Because there is no apparent overlap between the fragments, no score is provided on Oracc and no minor (orthographic) variants are given at the back of the book.

Bibliography

This draft or archival copy of an Akkadian inscription recording the dedication of an offering table to the goddess Ištar is inscribed on a small, rectangular clay tablet. According to this text, Nabonidus had the table constructed from musukkannu-wood, a valuable hard wood (possibly Dalbergia sissoo) and had it plated with silver and gold. The tablet is not dated and there is not enough information in the inscription to suggest a date of composition.

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Commentary

BM 38770 is a crudely-fashioned uʾiltu-tablet, a horizontal, 'pillow-shaped' tablet (1:2 ratio); for details of this format, see Radner, Nineveh 612 BC pp. 72–73 (with fig. 8). In the Neo-Assyrian period, such tablets could be inscribed with first or early drafts of inscriptions, not all of which were approved by the king (or by his chief scribe, who likely vetted compositions in advance); see the comments in Grayson and Novotny, RINAP 3/2 pp. 5–7. The fact that the tablet is badly made and that the text includes mistakes suggests that BM 38770 was not a model used to directly copy its contents onto the metal plating of the musukkannu-wood table presented to Ištar and was not an archival copy of that inscription since those types of texts were commonly written on well-fashioned tablets. T.G. Lee (JAC 10 [1995] p. 69) suggests that BM 38770 was either an archival copy or a later copy, while H. Schaudig (Inschriften Nabonids p. 476) proposes that it might have served as a draft for the model of the final, approved inscription. While it is likely that this small tablet might have contained an early draft of a Nabonidus inscription, one should not rule out the possibility that BM 38770 and its text is a scribal exercise made by a student or a copy prepared by an inexperienced scribe.

Bibliography

A paving stone discovered near Tower 2 of the Euphrates embankment wall of Babylon is reported by F. Wetzel (Stadtmauern p. 51) to have been inscribed with a text already known from paving stones found in the processional street ("bekannte Inschrift der Pflasterplatten der Prozessionsstraße"). Because the object originated from the vicinity of the so-called 'Nabonidus Wall' and because Wetzel did not explicitly state the name of the royal author of the text, P.-R. Berger (NbK p. 345) assumed that the inscription on that paving stone (BE 41580) belonged to Nabonidus. P.-A. Beaulieu (Nabonidus p. 40) and H. Schaudig (Inschriften Nabonids p. 343) followed Berger's assignment of the text since no on-the-spot copy ("Fundkopie"), excavation photograph, transliteration, or translation of this alleged text of Nabonidus had been published. O. Pedersén, having carefully re-examined the German Excavation field journals, excavation photographs, and resulting publications, has pointed out (via personal communication) that BE 41580 (Bab ph 2154–2155) actually bears an inscription of Nebuchadnezzar II (Lb1 2), rather than a hitherto, unpublished inscription of Nabonidus. Thus, the text referred to as "Nabonidus Paving Stone U" and "[Nabonidus] Inscription H" in scholarly literature does not exist, so no edition of it is presented here.

Bibliography

Reports of the German excavations at Babylon record that bricks inscribed with either a three-, four-, or six-line 'Nabonidus stamp' were found in various locations in Babylon, including the so-called 'Nabonidus Wall' and the Emaḫ temple. To date, only the three- and six-line texts have been published; the four-line text, however, remains unpublished. The known three-, four-, or six-line inscriptions are edited in this volume as text nos. 8, 9, and 7 respectively. There are undoubtedly more Nabonidus bricks than the ones included in the catalogues of text nos. 7–9, but they are not included in this volume since (a) their contents and arrangement of the inscription are unknown and (b) since their excavation (and museum) numbers are not recorded. Some might be duplicates of text nos. 7–9, while others might bear hitherto, unique inscription(s) of this king of Babylon.

Bibliography

Several bricks bear a short Akkadian inscription of Nabonidus; the script, which is written in a stamped frame, is archaizing Neo-Babylonian. One of the bricks was found in Babylon at the banks of the Euphrates. The six-line text mentions Nabonidus' name, title, and filiation. This inscription is sometimes referred to as "Nabonidus Brick A I, 1" and "[Nabonidus] Inscription C" in scholarly literature.

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Commentary

Ex. 1 is now known only from the hand-drawn facsimile in Rawlinson 1 R (pl. 68 no. 3). The (composite) copy of the inscription was prepared from three squeezes (BM 236a–c) of brick(s) found in situ in the Euphrates embankment wall at Babylon. It is uncertain if these squeezes are still in the British Museum (London) or if they were destroyed by S. Smith on the grounds that they had outlived their usefulness. The size of the bricks has not been previously published and, therefore, that information remains unknown.

Ex. 2 (VA Bab 4743) has a short, two-word Aramaic text impressed beneath the six-line Akkadian inscription: bytʾl lwny, meaning "Bethel has accompanied me" or "Bethel, accompany me!" (see Sass and Marzahn, WVDOG 127 pp. 34, 48 and 166). For further information on Aramaic impressions on bricks, see the commentary to text no. 8 and Sass and Marzahn, WVDOG 127.

The master text and lineation follow ex. 1. No score of the inscription is given on Oracc since scores are not provided for texts on bricks (following the model of RIM and RINAP). In addition, no minor (orthographic) variants are given in the critical apparatus at the back of the book, as no such variants occur in exs. 2–3.

Bibliography

Six bricks from Babylon, one brick from Kish, and one brick from Seleucia-on-the-Tigris bear a short, three-line Akkadian inscription. The text, which was placed on either the face of the brick or on its edge, is written inside a stamped frame, in archaizing Neo-Babylonian script. The inscription, which is called "Nabonidus Brick Ap I, 1" and "[Nabonidus] Inscription D" in previous editions and studies, comprises only the king's name, title, and filiation.

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Commentary

Ex. 1 is now known only from the hand-drawn facsimile in Rawlinson 1 R (pl. 68 no. 2). The copy of this short Nabonidus text was prepared from a squeeze (BM 235) of a brick seen in the Euphrates embankment wall at Babylon. The present fate of the nineteenth-century squeeze is unknown. It might have been destroyed by S. Smith with other squeezes or it might still exist somewhere in the storerooms of the British Museum (London). The size of the bricks has not been previously published and, therefore, that information remains unknown. The rectangular-stamped area of ex. 7 (S 6784), as far as it is preserved, is 6.5 cm high and 10 cm wide.

The master text and lineation follow ex. 1. Like other brick inscriptions included in RINBE 2, no score of this inscription is given on Oracc. Moreover, as no minor (orthographic) variants occur in exs. 2–8, no variants are given in the critical apparatus at the back of the book.

Exs. 2–5 have a one-word Aramaic text nbwntn ("Nabû-natan," which means "the god Nabû has given") stamped on them. During the Neo-Babylonian Period, bricks stamped with Aramaic texts almost exclusively come from Babylon. The function of these auxiliary inscriptions is still a matter of discussion, but according to B. Sass and J. Marzahn (WVDOG 127 pp. 193–194), they could designate the place where the bricks were created or the destinations of the bricks, rather than being the names of people. Moreover, the people named in these Aramaic labels are otherwise unknown and the impression of a personal name beside the name of the king in the cuneiform Akkadian text, even if it were the name of a(n important) high official, might be viewed as problematic.

R. Koldewey (MDOG 38 [1908] p. 19; and WEB⁵ pp. 89 and 234) stated that bricks with both a three- or four-line cuneiform (Akkadian) inscription of Nabonidus and an impressed-Aramaic label reading nbwnʾd ("Nabonidus") were discovered in the floor of a house in the Merkes. P.-R. Berger (NbK pp. 23, 25 and 353) and H. Schaudig (Inschriften Nabonids p. 9 n. 14 and p. 343 no. 1.10 [ex. 2]) repeated this information, without having seen the bricks. Sass and Marzahn (WVDOG 127 p. 30 n. 37 and p. 80 [with n. 74]), in their careful and detailed examination of the Aramaic impression of Neo-Babylonian bricks available to them, were unable to verify Koldewey's claim that Nabonidus' bricks bore both an Akkadian and an Aramaic inscription, stating "Nabonidus four-liners with auxiliary Aramaic impressions are unknown to us among the bricks in Berlin and the published ones elsewhere." They tentatively suggest that Koldewey might have been "influenced by the royal name in the cuneiform impressions" and "read the Aramaic name nbwnʾd instead of nbwntn"; see Sass and Marzahn, WVDOG 127 p. 80 n. 74. An individual with the name Nabonidus (nbwnʾd), however, did have his name impressed on a brick from Babylon, but that brick clearly dates to the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II (Sass and Marzahn, WVDOG 127 p. 20 no. 3).

Bibliography

At least one brick in the Vorderasiatisches Museum (Berlin) bears an inscription of Nabonidus written in four lines of text. That brick may be one of the four-line bricks of this king mentioned in the Babylon excavation reports with a four-line 'Nabonidus stamp.' Since that brick has never been published and since it was not available to the authors of this volume, no edition is presented here. This still unpublished text is sometimes referred to in scholarly publications as "Nabonidus Brick U" and "[Nabonidus] Inscription E."

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Bibliography

Three clay cylinder fragments unearthed at Babylon each bear part of an Akkadian inscription describing Nabonidus' rebuilding of Eulmaš, the temple of the goddess Ištar at Agade. All three pieces most likely come from the middle column of a large, three-column cylinder; this is certainly the case for BE 32652 (text no. 10 [Eulmaš Cylinder]) and BE 12586 (text no. 11), but not necessarily for BE 40133 (text no. 12) since only the middle part of one column is preserved. The inscription(s) written on these fragments might have been similar to text nos. 27, 28 (Eḫulḫul Cylinder), and 29 (Eḫulḫul Cylinder) and, thus, might have included reports of three, or possibly four, building projects. Since each fragment preserves only a small portion of the original inscription, it is unclear what the other building activities of Nabonidus might have been. Because the pieces all come from Babylon, one could suggest that the inscription(s) likely recorded one of Nabonidus' building projects in that city. Given the small, fragmentary state of preservation of BE 32652, BE 12586, and for BE 40133, it is not yet possible to determine if the inscription written on them belong to one and the same text or to two or three different inscriptions. Since it is not yet possible to determine the relationship between the text(s) inscribed on these three pieces, it is best to edit the texts written on them separately. Therefore, BE 32652, BE 12586, and BE 40133 are edited respectively as text nos. 10 (Eulmaš Cylinder), 11, and 12 in the present volume.

Access the composite text [/ribo/babylon7/Q005407/] of Nabonidus 10.

Source

Commentary

Because the original was not available for study in the Eşki Şark Eserleri Müzesi (Istanbul), the present edition of BE 32652 is based on the published excavation photograph (Bab ph 1153), as well as on G. Frame's hand-drawn facsimile of that photograph.

For a complete account of Nabonidus' rebuilding of the Eulmaš temple at Agade, from which the present text has been restored, see text no. 27 ii 28–iii 25.

Bibliography

A second fragment of a three-column clay cylinder found at Babylon (BE 12586; B 39 [formerly D 274]) preserves part of an Akkadian inscription recording Nabonidus' restoration of the temple of the goddess Ištar at Agade, Eulmaš; the script is contemporary Neo-Babylonian. The extant text records that the Neo-Babylonian king's workmen, after much effort, discovered the foundations of Eulmaš laid by the Sargonic king Narām-Sîn (2254–2218), the grandson of Sargon of Agade. Like text no. 10 (Eulmaš Cylinder), this inscription was probably also written during or after Nabonidus' seventh regnal year (549).

Access the composite text [/ribo/babylon7/Q005408/] of Nabonidus 11.

Source

Bibliography

A small piece of a multi-column clay cylinder discovered at Babylon preserves part of an Akkadian inscription recording the rebuilding of Eulmaš, the temple of the goddess Ištar at Agade; the script is contemporary Neo-Babylonian. Because the extant text describes the discovery of the (original) foundations of the temple laid by Narām-Sîn of Agade (2254–2218), the inscription was almost certainly composed in the name of Nabonidus, rather than in that of some other Neo-Babylonian king. The proposed attribution is further supported by the fact that the king claims to have become distressed upon discovering the ancient foundations of Eulmaš; the wording aplaḫ akkud naqutti aršêma ("I became frightened, worried, (and) anxious") is presently known only from inscriptions of Nabonidus. For these reasons, the inscription written on BE 40133 is included in the present volume as a certain text of Nabonidus. Like text no. 10 (Eulmaš Cylinder), this inscription was probably also written during or after Nabonidus' seventh regnal year (549).

Access the composite text [/ribo/babylon7/Q005409/] of Nabonidus 12.

Source

Commentary

The authors would like to thank G. Frame for bringing this inscription to their attention and to O. Pedersén for providing them with information about the piece. BE 40133 (B 29; former D 264) was collated from Bab ph 2074.

Bibliography

A purchased, damaged two-column cylinder, probably from Borsippa, is inscribed with an Akkadian text of Nabonidus recording the rebuilding of the walls surrounding Nabû's temple and ziggurat, Ezida ("True House") and Eurmeiminanki ("House which Gathers the Seven Mes of Heaven and Netherworld"). The text, which is written in archaizing Neo-Babylonian script, records that construction on these walls was started during the reign of Nabonidus' predecessor Neriglissar, but that the work remained unfinished. In typical Mesopotamian fashion, Nabonidus boasts that he completed the work and made those walls more impressive than the previous ones. H. Schaudig called this inscription the "Ezida Cylinder."

Access the composite text [/ribo/babylon7/Q005410/] of Nabonidus 13.

Source

Bibliography

Frauke Weiershäuser & Jamie Novotny

Frauke Weiershäuser & Jamie Novotny, 'Inscriptions of Nabonidus from Babylon and Borsippa', 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/rulers/nabonidus/texts113babylonborsippa/]