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164-642: Nabonidus ( Babylonian cuneiform : [REDACTED]    Nabû-naʾid , meaning "May Nabu be exalted" or "Nabu is praised") was the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire , ruling from 556 BC to the fall of Babylon to the Achaemenian Empire under Cyrus the Great in 539 BC. Nabonidus was the last native ruler of ancient Mesopotamia , the end of his reign marking the end of thousands of years of Sumero - Akkadian states, kingdoms and empires . He

328-529: A "king of the sea" (i.e. southernmost Babylonia) and a letter from the Assyrian king Sinsharishkun describing him as "of the lower sea" (also southernmost Babylonia), there is no source that ascribes him a specific ethnic origin. Since the Chaldeans lived in southernmost Mesopotamia, many historians have identified Nabopolassar as Chaldean, but others have referred to him as Assyrian or Babylonian . The issue

492-401: A completely unknown writing system in 19th-century Assyriology . It was successfully deciphered by 1857. The cuneiform script changed considerably over more than 2,000 years. The image below shows the development of the sign SAĜ "head" (Borger nr. 184, U+12295 𒊕 ). Stages: The cuneiform script was developed from pictographic proto-writing in the late 4th millennium BC, stemming from

656-522: A conqueror, is open to interpretation. The end of Nabonidus's reign is sometimes alternatively dated to Babylon's fall to the Persians on 12 October, a day earlier than the last tablet dated to Nabonidus's reign, or to Cyrus's entry into the city, when Cyrus formally became king. Ancient accounts differ as to the fate of Nabonidus after the fall of Babylon. The 5th/4th-century BC Greek historian Xenophon wrote that Ugbaru (or ' Gobryas ') killed Nabonidus upon

820-560: A crescent, a star and a winged disk (reminiscent of religious motifs in Babylonia). The reason for the Arabian campaign in the first place is not difficult to ascertain, as it probably represents the next step in the growing expansionism of Babylonia in the west. Babylonian forces had first come into contact with the Arabian kingdoms proper with the conquest of the Levant from Assyria, and the campaign

984-469: A decade, not returning to Babylon until September or October of 543 or 542 BC. October 543 BC is the return date most supported by surviving Babylonian documentation. The purpose for this prolonged stay, effectively self-exile, in Tayma are unclear and debated, with no proposed explanation having universal support. The history of this period is poorly known and cannot be reconstructed in great detail, on account of

1148-577: A different wife. Thus, Labashi-Marduk's rise to the throne might have signified a true break in the dynasty of Nebuchadnezzar II and might as such have aroused opposition from the Babylonian populace. Although Berossus refers to Labashi-Marduk as a child, it is possible that he became king as an adult since commercial texts from two years earlier indicate that Labashi-Marduk was in charge of his own affairs at that time. Though Nabonidus in his inscriptions claims that he had few supporters and that he did not covet

1312-550: A given sign could have various meanings depending on context. The sign inventory was reduced from some 1,500 signs to some 600 signs, and writing became increasingly phonological . Determinative signs were re-introduced to avoid ambiguity. Cuneiform writing proper thus arises from the more primitive system of pictographs at about that time, labeled the Early Bronze Age II epoch by historians. The earliest known Sumerian king, whose name appears on contemporary cuneiform tablets,

1476-460: A lack of sources. Entries in several royal chronicles for this period are completely, or nearly completely, missing. According to the Verse Account of Nabonidus , a biased document probably written in the reign of Cyrus the Great (who ultimately deposed Nabonidus), Nabonidus conducted extensive building work at Tayma, fortifying it with new walls, embellishing it with new buildings and constructing

1640-577: A language structure typical of the non-Indo-European agglutinative Sumerian language . The first tablets using syllabic elements date to the Early Dynastic I–II periods c.  2800 BC , and they are agreed to be clearly in Sumerian. This is the time when some pictographic element started to be used for their phonetic value, permitting the recording of abstract ideas or personal names. Many pictographs began to lose their original function, and

1804-452: A more objective account of Babylonian history, records the king as being absent from Babylon for years on end, and the resulting suspension of the New Year's festival, but does not pass any judgement on these events. In his history of Babylonia, Berossus presents Nabonidus as a usurper, which Nabonidus himself admitted to being, but reports nothing that could be construed as negative assessment of

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1968-514: A name in their lists of kings, the Achaemenid Empire that succeeded the reign of Nabonidus in Babylonia viewed his rule as an example that should never be emulated. The Achaemenids did not consider Nabonidus's more traditional work, restoring temples etc., to be important, but emphasised in their historiography the points when Nabonidus went contrary to what was expected of a Babylonian king. Cyrus

2132-588: A phonetic complement. Yet even in those days, the Babylonian syllabary remained a mixture of logographic and phonemic writing. Elamite cuneiform was a simplified form of the Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform, used to write the Elamite language in the area that corresponds to modern Iran from the 3rd millennium BC to the 4th century BC. Elamite cuneiform at times competed with other local scripts, Proto-Elamite and Linear Elamite . The earliest known Elamite cuneiform text

2296-432: A pointed stylus, sometimes called "linear cuneiform". Many of the early dynastic inscriptions, particularly those made on stone, continued to use the linear style as late as circa 2000 BC. In the mid-3rd millennium BC, a new wedge-tipped stylus was introduced which was pushed into the clay, producing wedge-shaped cuneiform. This development made writing quicker and easier, especially when writing on soft clay. By adjusting

2460-632: A prominent political family in Uruk, which would explain how Nabopolassar could rise to power, and the names of his relatives correspond to names later given to Nabopolassar's descendants, possibly indicating a familial relationship through patronymics . As Nabopolassar spent his reign fighting the Assyrians, calling himself a "son of a nobody" instead of associating himself with a pro-Assyrian governor might have been politically advantageous. Nabopolassar's descendants ruled Babylonia until his grandson, Amel-Marduk ,

2624-431: A prominent resident of that city, and possibly of Assyrian or Aramean origin. Frauke Weiershäuser and Jamie Novotny speculated that Nabu-balatsu-iqbi could have been an Aramean chief. Stephen Herbert Langdon theorised that Nabu-balatsu-iqbi was a son of Esarhaddon ( r.   681–669 BC) and thus one of Ashurbanipal's brothers, but there is no concrete evidence for this relation. Per Nabonidus's own inscriptions and

2788-477: A resemblance to Old Japanese , written in a Chinese-derived script, where some of these Sinograms were used as logograms and others as phonetic characters. This "mixed" method of writing continued through the end of the Babylonian and Assyrian empires, although there were periods when "purism" was in fashion and there was a more marked tendency to spell out the words laboriously, in preference to using signs with

2952-447: A royal palace similar to, but likely considerably smaller than, his royal palace at Babylon, essentially rebuilding the city in a Babylonian fashion. Modern archaeological excavations at Tayma has revealed that the city underwent considerable expansion during the 6th century, including the construction of an extensive irrigation system. Some motifs on some of the ruins point towards a clear Babylonian influence, such as an offering table with

3116-548: A sharpened reed stylus or incised in stone. This early style lacked the characteristic wedge shape of the strokes. Most Proto-Cuneiform records from this period were of an accounting nature. The proto-cuneiform sign list has grown, as new texts are discovered, and shrunk, as variant signs are combined. The current sign list is 705 elements long with 42 being numeric and four considered pre-proto-Elamite. Certain signs to indicate names of gods, countries, cities, vessels, birds, trees, etc., are known as determinatives and were

3280-559: A slightly different way. From the 6th century, the Akkadian language was marginalized by Aramaic , written in the Aramaic alphabet , but Akkadian cuneiform remained in use in the literary tradition well into the times of the Parthian Empire (250 BC–226 AD). The last known cuneiform inscription, an astronomical text, was written in 75 AD. The ability to read cuneiform may have persisted until

3444-404: A son of Nabonidus and took the name Nebuchadnezzar IV . Arakha was actually the son of a man by the name of Haldita and was not a native Babylonian, but rather a Urartian ( Armenian ). No other Neo-Babylonian king has been characterised in as varied a manner as Nabonidus. Though some Classical authors forgot, or omitted, details of Nabonidus in their accounts of Babylonia, only preserving him as

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3608-502: A son-in-law of Nebuchadnezzar II, the throne had been inherited in April 556 BC by Neriglissar's son Labashi-Marduk . Berossus erroneously wrote that Labashi-Marduk ruled for nine months (though this might be attributable to a scribal error) and stated that Labashi-Marduk's "evil ways" led to his friends plotting against him, eventually resulting in the "child king" being beaten to death. The plotters then agreed that Nabonnedos (Nabonidus), one of

3772-607: A stylus. Writing is first recorded in Uruk , at the end of the 4th millennium BC, and soon after in various parts of the Near-East . An ancient Mesopotamian poem gives the first known story of the invention of writing : Because the messenger's mouth was heavy and he couldn't repeat [the message], the Lord of Kulaba patted some clay and put words on it, like a tablet. Until then, there had been no putting words on clay. The cuneiform writing system

3936-468: A troubled conscience and questioning if his accession was legitimate: The heart of Marduk, my lord, calmed down. Reverently I praised (him) and sought after his sanctuary with prayers and supplications. Thus I addressed (my) prayers to him, telling him what was in my heart: Let me indeed be a king who pleases your heart, I who, not knowing, had no thought of kingship for myself, when you, O lord of lords, have entrusted me with (a rulership) more important than

4100-489: A wrapped cloak in his depictions, absent in those of other Neo-Babylonian kings but present in Assyrian art) and attempted to link himself to the Sargonid dynasty, there is "no evidence whatsoever that Nabonidus was related to the Sargonid dynasty". According to Beaulieu, that Adad-guppi did not explicitly claim any royal ancestors herself points to a humble origin. As inscriptions by female relatives of kings are relatively rare, it

4264-428: Is Enmebaragesi of Kish (fl. c.  2600 BC ). Surviving records became less fragmentary for following reigns and by the arrival of Sargon, it had become standard practice for each major city-state to date documents by year-names, commemorating the exploits of its king. Geoffrey Sampson stated that Egyptian hieroglyphs "came into existence a little after Sumerian script , and, probably, [were] invented under

4428-514: Is a logo - syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East . The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era . Cuneiform scripts are marked by and named for the characteristic wedge-shaped impressions ( Latin : cuneus ) which form their signs . Cuneiform is the earliest known writing system and

4592-552: Is a treaty between Akkadians and the Elamites that dates back to 2200 BC. Some believe it might have been in use since 2500 BC. The tablets are poorly preserved, so only limited parts can be read, but it is understood that the text is a treaty between the Akkad king Nāramsîn and Elamite ruler Hita , as indicated by frequent references like "Nāramsîn's friend is my friend, Nāramsîn's enemy is my enemy". The most famous Elamite scriptures and

4756-579: Is an adaptation of the Old Assyrian cuneiform of c. 1800 BC to the Hittite language and was used from the 17th until approximately the 13th century BC. More or less the same system was used by the scribes of the Hittite Empire for two other Anatolian languages , namely Luwian (alongside the native Anatolian hieroglyphics ) and Palaic , as well as for the isolate Hattic language . When the cuneiform script

4920-429: Is called gunû or "gunification"; if signs are cross-hatched with additional Winkelhaken , they are called šešig ; if signs are modified by the removal of a wedge or wedges, they are called nutillu . "Typical" signs have about five to ten wedges, while complex ligatures can consist of twenty or more (although it is not always clear if a ligature should be considered a single sign or two collated, but distinct signs);

5084-405: Is compounded by the fact that Nabopolassar never wrote of his ancestry, going as far as identifying himself as a " son of a nobody ". This is almost certainly a lie since an actual son of a nobody, i.e. an obscure figure, would have been unable to gather enough influence to become king of Babylon. There is several pieces of evidence that links Nabopolassar and his dynasty to the city of Uruk (which

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5248-475: Is considered to have been a learned man, one who knew how to write, and who quarreled with numerous priests and scholars, it is possible that he was a courtier at the royal court before he became king; however, no records of a prominent courtier by his name are known. Nabonidus rose to the throne in the aftermath of the collapse of the direct dynastic line of the Chaldean dynasty. After the brief reign of Neriglissar,

5412-423: Is dated to 13 October, which is usually considered the end date of his reign. Shield-bearing Persian troops were assigned to guard the temples of Babylon, so that priests in safety could continue their services and rituals. On 29 or 30 October, Cyrus himself entered Babylon as its new king. He received the acclamation of the people, though whether it was as a liberator from oppression, as Cyrus presented himself, or as

5576-526: Is disputed. Subsequent Babylonians appear to have remembered Nabonidus as unorthodox and misguided, though not insane or necessarily a bad ruler. Belshazzar never became king and Babylon ultimately fell under Nabonidus's leadership, as Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid Empire invaded Babylonia in 539 BC and put an end to the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The fates of Nabonidus and Belshazzar are not known. Nabonidus may have been allowed to live and retire but it

5740-631: Is given the epithet "god of gods", the highest known epithet ever given to a Mesopotamian deity. Concrete evidence surrounding Nabonidus's religious ideas is relatively scarce and no surviving documents contain any theological foundations for the king's faith and beliefs. Not all historians share the view that Nabonidus was a religious reformer. According to Donald Wiseman , Nabonidus "did not seek to create any exclusive role for [Sîn] in Babylon". Wiseman characterises Nabonidus as deeply religious and in support of Marduk, as all other Babylonian kings. In addition to

5904-577: Is however probable, according to Wilfred G. Lambert , that Adad-guppi was of some high status. According to Herodotus, an official by the name Labynetus (the same name used for Nabonidus in ancient Greek sources) was present as a mediator and witness on behalf of Babylon at the negotiations conducted between the Median and Lydian kingdoms after the Battle of the Eclipse in 585 BC. It is possible that this ambassador

6068-635: Is known, may also have been either Assyrian or Babylonian. Some historians have speculated that either Adad-guppi or Nabu-balatsu-iqbi were members of the Sargonid dynasty , rulers of the Neo-Assyrian Empire until its fall in 609 BC. Nabonidus was, to his own apparent surprise, proclaimed king after the deposition and murder of Labashi-Marduk ( r.   556 BC) in a plot likely led by Nabonidus's son Belshazzar . Throughout his reign, inscriptions and later sources suggest that Nabonidus worked to increase

6232-406: Is no evidence that Adad-guppi was a high-ranking priestess, as the only titles she claims in her inscriptions are "mother of Nabonidus" and "worshipper of Sîn, Ningal , Nusku and Sadarnunna ". Adad-guppi's association with Harran, and that she had likely married Nabu-balatsu-iqbi early in her life (as was the custom in ancient Mesopotamia), would mean that Nabu-balatsu-iqbi was most probably also

6396-573: Is not given a connection to any Babylonian king in Nabonidus's inscriptions, it is typically assumed to indicate that Nabonidus was not closely connected to Babylonia's ruling dynasty (the Chaldean dynasty ). In his inscriptions, Nabonidus refers to those who preceded him as kings of Babylon, but he does not claim descent from any of them. In no inscription does Nabonidus elaborate on his father's origin and ethnicity, merely mentioning his name and writing that he

6560-436: Is noteworthy that the festival was suspended in Nabonidus's absence given that it was effectively an annual reinstatement of Marduk's authority and was conducted to ensure the well-being of Babylon. The threat of Cyrus loomed ever closer. Though the records are too fragmentary to tell with certainty, it appears that there was already a confrontation between Persian and Babylonian troops in the winter of 540/539 BC, near Uruk. After

6724-516: Is often assumed to have come from the major city Harran in northern Mesopotamia (where she later lived), and as having been of Assyrian ancestry. According to Canadian Assyriologist Paul-Alain Beaulieu , Nabonidus's later intense interest in Harran, a peripheral city of his empire, can only be explained if he and his mother had originated in Harran. The Dynastic Prophecy , a later document written after

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6888-432: Is probable that Nabonidus, like Neriglissar, was also married to a daughter of Nebuchadnezzar II and that this was the method in which he had secured a claim to the throne. This would also explain later traditions that Belshazzar was a descendant of Nebuchadnezzar II. Nabonidus appears to have been a devotee of the god Sîn , though the extent to which he might have attempted to elevate Sîn over Babylon's national deity Marduk

7052-437: Is probable that the chief orchestrator behind the conspiracy against Labashi-Marduk was Nabonidus's son, Belshazzar. Belshazzar was the chief beneficiary of the entire affair, as he became the designated heir to the throne, and also inherited the large private estates of Labashi-Marduk, becoming one of the richest and most prominent men in Babylonia overnight. Belshazzar could not have claimed the throne for himself while his father

7216-590: Is reattributed to Nebuchadnezzar II. The accusation of insanity is not found in any cuneiform sources. The Verse Account is highly critical of Nabonidus, especially his religious policies, and though it presents Cyrus the Great as a liberator rather than conqueror, it makes no direct claim that Nabonidus was insane. The Dynastic Prophecy and the Cyrus Cylinder offer similar accounts, criticising Nabonidus and his policies, but not characterising him as mad. Some Babylonian sources are more neutral. The Babylonian Chronicle ,

7380-408: Is typically assumed that Belshazzar was killed. Broadly follows Wiseman (1983). The reconstruction of Nabopolassar's ancestry follows Jursa (2007), Neriglissar's ancestry follows Wiseman (1991) and the children of Nebuchadnezzar II follow Beaulieu (1998) and Wiseman (1983). It is not clear whether Labashi-Marduk and Gigitum were Neriglissar's children by Kashshaya, or by another wife unrelated to

7544-497: Is unknown, though it might have been due to disagreements with the Babylonian clergy and oligarchy. Belshazzar acted as regent in Babylonia during this period, while Nabonidus continued to be recognised as the king. When Nabonidus returned to Babylonia in 543/542 BC, he escalated his religious efforts and rebuilt the Ekhulkhul, the temple dedicated to Sîn in the major northern city of Harran . Nabonidus's reign came to an abrupt end with

7708-415: Is unlikely that king Nabonidus would have failed to mention being a son of Nebuchadnezzar II. If they are the same person, and the document does not call him the son of the king, his office listed in the document, ša muḫḫi āli (an official in charge of a city) would mean that the date of Nabonidus's birth has to be pushed back further, to before 620 BC, to account for the age necessary to hold that office. If

7872-453: The Iron Age (c. 10th to 6th centuries BC), Assyrian cuneiform was further simplified. The characters remained the same as those of Sumero-Akkadian cuneiforms, but the graphic design of each character relied more heavily on wedges and square angles, making them significantly more abstract: Babylonian cuneiform was simplified along similar lines during that period, albeit to a lesser extent and in

8036-729: The Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin , the Louvre , the Istanbul Archaeology Museums , the National Museum of Iraq , the Yale Babylonian Collection (approx. 40,000), and Penn Museum . Most of these have "lain in these collections for a century without being translated, studied or published", as there are only a few hundred qualified cuneiformists in the world. The decipherment of cuneiform began with

8200-520: The Winkelhaken impressed vertically by the tip of the stylus. The signs exemplary of these basic wedges are: Except for the Winkelhaken , which has no tail, the length of the wedges' tails could vary as required for sign composition. Signs tilted by about 45 degrees are called tenû in Akkadian, thus DIŠ is a vertical wedge and DIŠ tenû a diagonal one. If a sign is modified with additional wedges, this

8364-468: The "last great queen" of the Babylonian Empire as Nitocris , but neither that name, nor any other name, is attested in contemporary Babylonian sources. Herodotus's description of Nitocris contains a wealth of legendary material making it difficult to determine whether he uses the name to refer to Nabonidus's wife or mother. William H. Shea proposed in 1982 that Nitocris may tentatively be identified as

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8528-401: The 23rd century BC ( short chronology ). The Akkadian language being East Semitic , its structure was completely different from Sumerian. The Akkadians found a practical solution in writing their language phonetically, using the corresponding Sumerian phonetic signs. Still, many of the Sumerian characters were retained for their logographic value as well: for example the character for "sheep"

8692-504: The 3rd millennium Sumerian script. Ugaritic was written using the Ugaritic alphabet , a standard Semitic style alphabet (an abjad ) written using the cuneiform method. Between half a million and two million cuneiform tablets are estimated to have been excavated in modern times, of which only approximately 30,000 –100,000 have been read or published. The British Museum holds the largest collection (approx. 130,000 tablets), followed by

8856-473: The Akkadian period, at the time of the Uruk ruler Lugalzagesi (r. c. 2294–2270 BC). The vertical style remained for monumental purposes on stone stelas until the middle of the 2nd millennium. Written Sumerian was used as a scribal language until the first century AD. The spoken language died out between about 2100 and 1700 BC. The archaic cuneiform script was adopted by the Akkadian Empire from

9020-489: The Assyrian kings Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal with universal rule. Sîn also replaced Marduk's role of calling rulers forth for kingship. One inscription states that Nabonidus had been destined for kingship by the deities Sîn and Ningal (Sîn's consort) in his mother's womb. The exaltation of Sîn reached its height after the rebuilding of the Ekhulkhul and Nabonidus's latest known text containing religious elements goes as far as to refer to Marduk's traditional dwellings in Babylon,

9184-466: The Babylonian defeat at Opis as so decisive that further resistance was pointless. Evidently there was some confusion at the time given that a tablet from Sippar, dated to 11 October (the day after the city's fall) was still dated to the reign of Nabonidus. On 12 October, the Persian army, led by the governor Ugbaru, entered Babylon without a fight. The last tablet dated to Nabonidus's reign is from Uruk and

9348-501: The Elhulkhul temple, Nabonidus is also recorded in inscriptions as having conducted restoration work at temples in Babylon itself, Larsa, Sippar and Nippur. Wiseman attributes the opposition by religious official towards Nabonidus to that the king had introduced a new royal cash box in temples and sanctuaries, wherein some of the income of the temples was to be provided to the king, under the supervision of royal officials, and notes that Cyrus

9512-403: The Great in late 522 BC and was proclaimed as Babylon's king, took the name Nebuchadnezzar III and claimed to be a son of Nabonidus. Nidintu-Bêl's real father was a man named Mukīn-zēri from the local prominent Zazakku family. Less than a year after Nidintu-Bêl's defeat, Babylon rebelled against Darius again in 521 BC. This time, the leader was Arakha, who like Nidintu-Bêl proclaimed himself to be

9676-481: The Great justified his conquest of Babylon by presenting himself as a champion divinely ordained by Marduk and by writing accounts of Nabonidus's "heretical" acts. After the fall of Babylon, a legend of Nabonidus having been mad, on account of his religious policies, gradually formed, which would eventually find its way into Hellenistic and Jewish tradition. Some believe that in the Book of Daniel, Nabonidus's supposed madness

9840-434: The Great's later documents referring to Nabonidus as irreverent in regards to Marduk could be propaganda. Though Nabonidus uses uncharacteristically high epithets for Sîn in many inscriptions, Weiherhäuser and Novotny pointed out that a majority of these epithets are generally limited to inscriptions and texts that document work on the Ekhulkhul temple in Harran, Sîn's cultic centre. Thus, Weiherhäuser and Novotny do not consider

10004-462: The Medes, and had even allied with him, seeing as the beginning of Nabonidus's stay in Tayma coincides with the beginning of Cyrus's reign. Per, Beaulieu: "unless one assumes that the king was totally devoid of strategic ability, it seems hard to believe that he would have engaged a significant part of the Babylonian army in a long campaign to Arabia without making sure that the northern and eastern borders of

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10168-422: The Nabonidus mentioned is not Nebuchadnezzar II's son, then the document does not name the father of this Nabonidus, which suggests that he was of high rank (fathers and grandfathers were otherwise usually mentioned for distinguishing purposes), and he could then conceivably be the same person as the later king. The wording could be interpreted as "the son of a man of the king" (i.e. a prince), rather than "the son of

10332-496: The New Year's festival, Nabonidus embarked on a short trip to southern Babylonia, visiting the cities of Kish , Larsa , Uruk and Ur . At Uruk, he conducted detailed reorganisations of the Eanna temple, making adjustments to the scheme of sacrificial offerings, and restored some offerings that had been interrupted under Neriglissar's reign. One inscription suggests that Nabonidus went on a second successful campaign to Cilicia in 555 BC, on

10496-542: The Old Persian text. Because Elamite is unlike its neighboring Semitic languages , the script's decipherment was delayed until the 1840s. Elamite cuneiform appears to have used far fewer signs than its Akkadian prototype and initially relied primarily on syllabograms, but logograms became more common in later texts. Many signs soon acquired highly distinctive local shape variants that are often difficult to recognise as related to their Akkadian prototypes. Hittite cuneiform

10660-403: The Persians a short distance north of Sippar, and removing the statue from Sippar could have been construed as Nabonidus not having faith in his own victory. Shortly after the last gods had entered Babylon, Cyrus invaded Babylonia. Despite Nabonidus's preparations, Babylonia fell to the Persians relatively quickly, the conflict lasting less than a month. It seems probable that the Persian invasion

10824-471: The Sumerian signs of the terms in question, added as a guide for the reader. Proper names continued to be usually written in purely "logographic" fashion. The first inscribed tablets were purely pictographic, which makes it technically difficult to know in which language they were written. Different languages have been proposed, though usually Sumerian is assumed. Later tablets dating after c.  2900 BC start to use syllabic elements, which clearly show

10988-510: The Sumerians was not intuitive to Semitic speakers. From the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age (20th century BC), the script evolved to accommodate the various dialects of Akkadian: Old Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian. At this stage, the former pictograms were reduced to a high level of abstraction, and were composed of only five basic wedge shapes: horizontal, vertical, two diagonals and

11152-455: The attempt to elevate Sîn met with failure. This failure is because the exaltation of Sîn met with considerable opposition within Babylonia itself, and because the invasion and conquest by the Persians put an end to the political means with which the exaltation could be completed. In addition to building inscriptions, the Verse Account of Nabonidus also alludes to attempts to establish Sîn as

11316-565: The beginning of his reign that the date of the temple's destruction was a strange coincidence: it had been destroyed exactly 54 years before he became king. 54 years is three 18-year cycles, or a complete cycle of the moon . Though the Elhulkhul was not restored until after Nabonidus returned from a long period of staying in Tayma in Arabia , it is possible that construction work started considerably earlier and it appears to have been his goal since he assumed

11480-414: The beginning, similar-sounding words such as "life" [til] and "arrow" [ti] were written with the same symbol (𒋾). As a result, many signs gradually changed from being logograms to also functioning as syllabograms , so that for example, the sign for the word "arrow" would become the sign for the sound "ti". Syllabograms were used in Sumerian writing especially to express grammatical elements, and their use

11644-515: The capture of Babylon, but it is possible that Xenophon meant Belshazzar, whose death at the fall of Babylon is also recorded in the Biblical Book of Daniel. Berossus wrote that Nabonidus surrendered to Cyrus at Borsippa after the fall of Babylon who dealt with him "in a gracious manner", sparing his life and allowing him to retire, or possibly appointing him to be a governor, in Carmania (approximately

11808-418: The celebration of the New Year's festival in 539 BC, Nabonidus had the statues of the gods of Uruk, Akkad, Kish, Marad and Khursagkalamma brought to the capital for safety, the conventional first step in anticipation of attacks from the north-east. This suggests that Nabonidus expected a Persian attack and was making preparations several months before it came. Though this was the conventional method to protect

11972-578: The city of Opis . The battle of Opis was a decisive Persian victory, inflicting heavy casualties on the Babylonians and forcing the Babylonian forces to retreat beyond the Median Wall. Shortly thereafter, on 10 October 539 BC, Sippar was taken by Cyrus without a fight and Nabonidus retreated to Babylon. Why Sippar surrendered without a fight is not clear. It is possible the authorities at Sippar were disgruntled with Nabonidus's religious policies or else viewed

12136-431: The compound IGI.A (𒅆𒀀) – "eye" + "water" – has the reading imhur , meaning "foam"). Several symbols had too many meanings to permit clarity. Therefore, symbols were put together to indicate both the sound and the meaning of a symbol. For instance, the word 'raven' (UGA) had the same logogram (𒉀) as the word 'soap' (NAGA), the name of a city (EREŠ), and the patron goddess of Eresh (NISABA). To disambiguate and identify

12300-417: The conquest of Babylonia by Alexander the Great centuries later, corroborates that Nabonidus would have originated in Harran, as it regards Nabonidus as the founder, and sole representative, of the "dynasty of Harran". According to Beaulieu, Adagoppe may have been Aramean, rather than Assyrian, as her name "seems to be Aramean". In Harran , Adad-guppi served as a priestess devoted to the moon god, Sîn . There

12464-447: The cuneiform logo-syllabary proper. The latest known cuneiform tablet dates to 75 AD. Cuneiform was rediscovered in modern times in the early 17th century with the publication of the trilingual Achaemenid royal inscriptions at Persepolis ; these were first deciphered in the early 19th century. The modern study of cuneiform belongs to the ambiguously named field of Assyriology , as the earliest excavations of cuneiform libraries – in

12628-508: The decipherment of Old Persian cuneiform in 1836. The first cuneiform inscriptions published in modern times were copied from the Achaemenid royal inscriptions in the ruins of Persepolis , with the first complete and accurate copy being published in 1778 by Carsten Niebuhr . Niebuhr's publication was used by Grotefend in 1802 to make the first breakthrough – the realization that Niebuhr had published three different languages side by side and

12792-545: The development of Egyptian hieroglyphs, with the suggestion the former influenced the latter. But given the lack of direct evidence for the transfer of writing, "no definitive determination has been made as to the origin of hieroglyphics in ancient Egypt". Others have held that "the evidence for such direct influence remains flimsy" and that "a very credible argument can also be made for the independent development of writing in Egypt..." Early cuneiform inscriptions were made by using

12956-400: The divine statues in times of war (victorious enemies typically stole cultic statues), transport of statues in this fashion caused considerable disruption in the cults of the gods transported. For instance, the transport of the statue of Ishtar from Uruk to Babylon probably meant that offerings of food and drink had to be carried from Uruk to Babylon to give to the statue, to ensure that the cult

13120-446: The early Achaemenid rulers from the 6th century BC down to the 4th century BC. Because of its simplicity and logical structure, the Old Persian cuneiform script was the first to be deciphered by modern scholars, starting with the accomplishments of Georg Friedrich Grotefend in 1802. Various ancient bilingual or trilingual inscriptions then permitted to decipher the other, much more complicated and more ancient scripts, as far back as to

13284-512: The empire would be secure, at least for a certain number of years". As the stay in Tayma continued, Cyrus the Great consolidated a vast empire under his rule. Belshazzar as regent became acutely aware of the threat presented by Cyrus's growing Achaemenid Empire , as he is recorded as having expended resources at projects in Sippar and nearby defenses. Nabonidus has typically been characterised as attempting religious reforms in Babylonia, wishing to raise

13448-580: The epithets granted to Marduk and Sîn throughout his reign varied considerably. Even early in his reign, the epithets granted to Marduk were only the minimum, epithets such as "king of the gods", "lord of lords" and "leader of the gods", a notably smaller array of titles than usual. In contrast Sîn is granted a large array of epithets, including some previously unheard of, with examples such as "shining god", "light of mankind", "exalted god" and "exalted lord". Nabonidus could hardly have moved to issue religious reforms early in his reign, especially as he had only taken

13612-554: The evidence strong enough to support the idea that Nabonidus fanatically promoted Sîn, and sought to fully replace Marduk, within Babylonia itself. It is unclear why Nabonidus returned to Babylon from Tayma. Potential explanations include fearing the growing power of Cyrus the Great or perhaps serious disagreements with Belshazzar on religion and the extent of his authority. Upon his return, he also swiftly began to seriously institute his intended religious reforms, perhaps expending so much effort because of his advanced age and wanting to see

13776-483: The explanation of Sippar and the other cities refusing to send their gods to Babylon seems unlikely. Zawadzki offered several possible explanations, including that Sippar wished to celebrate its traditional cultic rituals, which were close in time to the Persian invasion, and that there thus was not any time to transfer the statue to Babylon, or that perhaps Nabonidus himself had ordered the statue to remain in Sippar. Nabonidus might have ordered this since he intended to stop

13940-501: The foremost god of the Mesopotamian pantheon. The publication of the Verse Account in 1924 saw scholarly attention being given to other inscriptions and records concerning Nabonidus. Notably, many of his inscriptions fail to acknowledge Marduk as the head of the pantheon, or omit him entirely, and they often contain disproportionate praise for Sîn. It seems probable that Nabonidus's devotion to Sîn steadily increased throughout his reign, as

14104-560: The gods" and "father and creator of the gods" to Sîn, for instance this inscription concerning building work at the Ebabbar temple in Larsa (not the same temple as the one of the same name at Sippar), attributes Marduk's traditional titles to Sîn: As for the Ebabbar, the temple of Šamaš at Larsa, because in distant days Sîn, the king of the gods, the lord of the gods and goddesses dwelling in heaven and

14268-488: The gods", "lofty king of the gods", "lord of everything" and "king of heaven and the underworld". These inscriptions stand in sharp contrast to inscriptions by Nabonidus in the years after his return to Babylon, wherein Sîn is repeatedly exalted and Marduk is more or less ignored, with the exception of one inscriptions where he appears merely as Sîn's companion. It is possible that the return to orthodoxy during Nabonidus's time in Tayma

14432-413: The influence of the latter", and that it is "probable that the general idea of expressing words of a language in writing was brought to Egypt from Sumerian Mesopotamia". There are many instances of Egypt-Mesopotamia relations at the time of the invention of writing, and standard reconstructions of the development of writing generally place the development of the Sumerian proto-cuneiform script before

14596-524: The inscriptions by Adad-guppi, wherein Nabonidus is called her "only son" several times, it can be confidently ascertained that Nabonidus was an only child. It is probable that Adad-guppi first came to Babylon as a prisoner after the Babylonians and Medes sacked Harran in 610 BC during the Medo-Babylonian conquest of the Assyrian Empire . By 610 BC, she was already 39 years old. Presumably, Nabonidus

14760-463: The king", which in that case, would explain Nabonidus' references to his father as a prince, in his royal inscriptions. There is also another letter from some point between the early 590s BC and the 570s BC, wherein a Nabonidus is described as having requested the levies of a particular region to be raised. Whether this Nabonidus is the same person as the future king is also unclear. The lack of confident mentions of Nabonidus in sources before his rise to

14924-504: The king's religious beliefs, makes no mention of any religious activities at Tayma, which it surely would have done had the campaign and prolonged stay been religiously motivated. During Nabonidus's stay at Tayma, his son and heir Belshazzar was put in charge of ruling in Babylon as regent. It is possible that the prolonged stay in Tayma was the result of a political struggle with a faction, possibly led by his own son Belshazzar, opposing Nabonidus's reformist religious stance, and an agreement

15088-433: The king. As such, it is clear that contemporary views of Nabonidus were not completely negative. Had the Babylonians universally dismissed Nabonidus as an incompetent and impious heretic, it is also unlikely that two later Babylonian rebels would have claimed to be his sons. Cuneiform sources suggest that the Babylonians remembered Nabonidus as unorthodox and misguided, but not insane. Babylonian cuneiform Cuneiform

15252-456: The kingship reluctantly. Though a reluctance to accept royal power is often used as a form of royal propaganda, there are several inscriptions by Nabonidus, some dated more than a decade into his reign (at a point when he no longer needed to justify his rule with legitimacy) wherein he points out that he did not covet the throne. In one inscription, Nabonidus describes himself as visiting the sanctuaries of Marduk and Nabû in search for guidance, with

15416-415: The last tablet dated to Labashi-Marduk's reign at Babylon itself is from 24 May. The earliest tablet dated to Nabonidus at Babylon itself is from 14 July. This evidence can be reconciled by positing that Nabonidus may have been recognised in the Babylonian heartland, including Nippur and Babylon, already on 25 May, whereas some outlying cities continued to recognise Labashi-Marduk (even though he quite possibly

15580-407: The ligature KAxGUR 7 consists of 31 strokes. Most later adaptations of Sumerian cuneiform preserved at least some aspects of the Sumerian script. Written Akkadian included phonetic symbols from the Sumerian syllabary , together with logograms that were read as whole words. Many signs in the script were polyvalent, having both a syllabic and logographic meaning. The complexity of the system bears

15744-838: The local priesthoods were disgusted by Nabonidus's attempt at religious reform and thus refused. Smith later proposed an alternative hypothesis, wherein he postulated that Sippar, Borsippa and Cutha were in the Babylonian heartland, protected by strong fortifications and the Median Wall (built under Nebuchadnezzar II to protect against attacks from the north), and as such would not have needed to send their statues to Babylon for protection, whereas more outlying cities such as Uruk were not as well-protected. This seems unlikely given that Kish and Khursagkalamma were closer to Babylon than Sippar was. Furthermore, Stefan Zawadzki demonstrated in 2012 that Sippar did send certain gods to Babylon, just not their main statue of their patron deity Shamash. This means that

15908-443: The meaning and the other the pronunciation (e.g. 𒅗 ka 'mouth' was combined with the sign 𒉣 nun 'prince' to express the word 𒅻 nundum , meaning 'lip', formally KA×NUN; cf. Chinese phono-semantic compounds ). Another way of expressing words that had no sign of their own was by so-called 'Diri compounds' – sign sequences that have, in combination, a reading different from the sum of the individual constituent signs (for example,

16072-560: The mid-19th century – were in the area of ancient Assyria . An estimated half a million tablets are held in museums across the world, but comparatively few of these are published . The largest collections belong to the British Museum ( approx. 130,000 tablets), the Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin , the Louvre , the Istanbul Archaeology Museums , the National Museum of Iraq , the Yale Babylonian Collection ( approx. 40,000 tablets), and Penn Museum . Writing began after pottery

16236-447: The modern Kerman Province in Iran), where Nabonidus lived out the rest of his life. The royal chronicle simply states that Nabonidus was captured in Babylon after retreating, leaving his subsequent fate unclear. The Dynastic Prophecy corroborates Berossus's account, by stating that Nabonidus was removed from his throne and settled "in another land". If Berossus is believed, Nabonidus lived into

16400-449: The moon god Sîn to the status of supreme deity and demoting the Babylonian national deity Marduk. The elevation of Sîn was similar to how the deity Inanna was elevated to a prominent position in Uruk during the time of the Akkadian Empire , more than a thousand years prior, or how Marduk had originally been elevated in Babylonia under Nebuchadnezzar I ( r.   c. 1125–1104 BC). In contrast to these earlier successful exaltations,

16564-559: The name of Nabonidus's wife and Belshazzar's mother. In her inscriptions, Adad-guppi also claimed that Nabonidus was from the dynastic line of Ashurbanipal ( r.   669–631 BC), king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire . According to her inscriptions, Adad-guppi was born in Ashurbanipal's twentieth year as king. At the time of her birth, Harran had been a major Assyrian stronghold and when the Neo-Assyrian Empire fell in 609 BC, Harran

16728-463: The near eastern token system used for accounting. The meaning and usage of these tokens is still a matter of debate. These tokens were in use from the 9th millennium BC and remained in occasional use even late in the 2nd millennium BC. Early tokens with pictographic shapes of animals, associated with numbers, were discovered in Tell Brak , and date to the mid-4th millennium BC. It has been suggested that

16892-470: The ones that ultimately led to its decipherment are the ones found in the trilingual Behistun inscriptions , commissioned by the Achaemenid kings. The inscriptions, similar to that of the Rosetta Stone 's, were written in three different writing systems. The first was Old Persian , which was deciphered in 1802 by Georg Friedrich Grotefend . The second, Babylonian cuneiform, was deciphered shortly after

17056-422: The plotters, should rule. The reason for the coup against Labashi-Marduk is unknown. It is possible that despite Labashi-Marduk and his father being well-connected and wealthy, they were ultimately seen as commoners, lacking noble blood. Though Labashi-Marduk may have been the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar II through his mother, making him part of the royal bloodline, it is also possible he was the son of Neriglissar and

17220-412: The quick victory over his empire by Cyrus the Great in 539 BC. After the decisive battle of Opis , the Persians entered Babylon without a fight. Several sources state that Nabonidus was captured but spared, and possibly allowed leave to the region of Carmania . He may have been alive in exile as late as the reign of Darius the Great ( r.   522–486 BC). The origins of Nabonidus are obscure, with

17384-433: The recognition of the word "king". Chaldean dynasty The term "Chaldean dynasty", and the corresponding "Chaldean Empire", an alternate historiographical name for the Neo-Babylonian Empire , derives from the assumption that the dynasty's founder, Nabopolassar, was of Chaldean origin. Though contemporary sources suggest an origin in southern Mesopotamia , such as the Uruk prophecy text describing Nabopolassar as

17548-466: The reforms through before he died. The major project of Nabonidus's later reign was the completion of the building projects at the Ekhulkhul in Harran, with the temple rebuilt directly on top of its original foundation. Nabonidus himself considered the rebuilding of the temple to be the major achievement of his reign. Building work was also conducted in Ur, Larsa, Sippar and Akkad . Some evidence suggests that there

17712-442: The region and Nabonidus was a devotee of the moon god Sîn, it seems unlikely that such a large endeavour would have been motivated solely by faith. Per Wiseman, any religious explanations for the prolonged stay at Tayma can be discarded as no sources mention the presence or construction of Babylonian temples, or a temple dedicated to Sîn, in the city. Beaulieu also points out that the Verse Account of Nabonidus, otherwise very focused on

17876-414: The reign of Darius the Great ( r.   522–486 BC), outliving both Cyrus and Cyrus's son and successor Cambyses II , given that Berossus claims that "King Darius, however, took away a part of his province for himself". Given the age of his mother at the time of her death, it is not impossible that Nabonidus too would have lived for over a century. The fate of Belshazzar is unknown, given that none of

18040-449: The relative position of the stylus to the tablet, the writer could use a single tool to make a variety of impressions. For numbers, a round-tipped stylus was initially used, until the wedge-tipped stylus was generalized. The direction of writing was from top-to-bottom and right-to-left. Cuneiform clay tablets could be fired in kilns to bake them hard, and so provide a permanent record, or they could be left moist and recycled if permanence

18204-610: The restoration of the Ekhulkhul, and the city of Harran surrounding it, may also have been politically motivated. Since the downfall of Assyria, political hegemony in the Near East had been divided between Babylonia and the Medes, an issue that remained unresolved by the time of Nabonidus. As Nabonidus often refers to, and likens himself to, his predecessors Nebuchadnezzar II and Neriglissar, both conquerors and warriors, and several inscriptions allude to Nabonidus being preoccupied with military matters in his accession year, it seems that Nabonidus

18368-592: The royal family) but it would also explain later historical traditions in which Nabonidus's son, Belshazzar , is described as Nebuchadnezzar II's descendant; as in the Book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible , where Belshazzar is referred to as Nebuchadnezzar II's (grand)son. The claim of Belshazzar being Nebuchadnezzar II's descendant however, could also alternatively derive from royal propaganda, rather than true genealogical information. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus names

18532-413: The rulerships which have been exerted in the past by other kings whom you have called. Lengthen my days, may my years become old, let me fulfill the function of the provider. It is thus possible that whereas Nabonidus was a prominent figure in the group of conspirators that deposed and killed Labashi-Marduk, he had no intention of assuming the throne himself but was convinced to by the other conspirators. It

18696-458: The scarce available details about him leaving much room for interpretation and speculation. In one of his inscriptions, Nabonidus states the following: I am Nabonidus, the only son, who has nobody. In my mind there was no thought of kingship. Nabonidus's father was a man by the name Nabu-balatsu-iqbi , whom Nabonidus refers to in his inscriptions as a "learned counsellor", "wise prince", "perfect prince" and "heroic governor". That Nabu-balatsu-iqbi

18860-507: The sources describe what happened to him. It is typically assumed that Belshazzar was killed by the Persians at Babylon when the city fell, on 12 October, though he may alternatively already have been killed at the battle of Opis , captured and executed, or exiled together with his father. Details on Nabonidus's family are scarce. He likely had a large family even prior to becoming king, seeing as his mother Adad-guppi in her inscriptions claims that she had great-great-grandchildren, and Nabonidus

19024-492: The status of the moon god Sîn and decrease the status of Babylon's traditional national deity Marduk . While some have suggested that Nabonidus wished to go as far as to completely replace Marduk with Sîn as the head of the Mesopotamian pantheon , the extent to which Nabonidus's devotion to Sîn led to religious reforms is debated. Nabonidus was in self-imposed exile in Tayma , Arabia from 552 to 543/542 BC. The reason for this

19188-415: The syllable [ɡu] had fourteen different symbols. The inventory of signs was expanded by the combination of existing signs into compound signs. They could either derive their meaning from a combination of the meanings of both original signs (e.g. 𒅗 ka 'mouth' and 𒀀 a 'water' were combined to form the sign for 𒅘 nag̃ 'drink', formally KA×A; cf. Chinese compound ideographs ), or one sign could suggest

19352-480: The temples Esagila and Ezida, as the temples and dwellings of Sîn. Though it does not appear that the Esagila was ever "usurped" by Sîn, replacing Marduk in the temple by Sîn was a plan seriously considered by Nabonidus, who justified it by pointing out that there was lunar symbolism in temple through it being marked with a crescent symbol, which must have meant that it was originally intended for Sîn. In one inscription, Sîn

19516-424: The third century AD. The complexity of cuneiforms prompted the development of a number of simplified versions of the script. Old Persian cuneiform was developed with an independent and unrelated set of simple cuneiform characters, by Darius the Great in the 5th century BC. Most scholars consider this writing system to be an independent invention because it has no obvious connections with other writing systems at

19680-744: The throne could suggest the possibility that Nabonidus was not his birth name, but an assumed regnal name, however the meaning of the name, i.e., "may Nabû be exalted", weakens that possibility. The Babylonian historian Berossus , active centuries later during the Hellenistic period , wrote that Nabonidus had been a 'priest of Bêl '. A religious function could possibly explain Nabonidus's absence of mention in earlier documents. In her inscriptions, Adad-guppi claims to have introduced her son Nabonidus to king Nebuchadnezzar II and king Neriglissar, and that Nabonidus thereafter performed duties for them "day and night" and "regularly did whatever pleased them". As Nabonidus

19844-600: The throne himself, he must have been a leading figure in the conspiracy that led to the deposition and death of Labashi-Marduk. Nabonidus enjoyed consistent support from the Babylonian military throughout his reign and it is possible that the army played a role in his rise to the throne. Though Berossus claimed Labashi-Marduk ruled for nine months, the Uruk King List only gives Labashi-Marduk a reign of three months and contract tablets from Babylonia suggest that he might have ruled as briefly as just two months. It appears that there

20008-519: The throne through usurpation. His early inscriptions are ostensibly orthodox, though point towards intentional restraint in glorifying Marduk and intentional disproportionate glorification of Sîn. Inscriptions from the time Nabonidus spent in Tayma seem to suggest that the king returned to "orthodoxy" during this period, with inscriptions no longer glorifying Sîn to a disproportionate degree (the deity barely being mentioned) and instead giving Marduk more elaborate and appropriate epithets, such as "foremost of

20172-552: The throne. Nabonidus's inscriptions also mention that the Medes threatened Harran, "surrounding" it, and it is possible that building work was postponed until later in his reign due to the threat of Median raiders disturbing the building efforts. According to his inscriptions Nabonidus had been ordered to restore the temple by both Marduk and Sîn in a dream, and the gods had assured him that the Medes would eventually be restored so that construction could begin without being threatened by raids. In addition to Nabonidus's own religious beliefs,

20336-406: The time of Adad-guppi's death, Nabonidus could not have been born later than c. 615 BC, however he could very well have been born earlier. It is possible as well that Nabonidus married one of Nebuchadnezzar II's daughters, a marriage which could potentially have been secured through his mother's influence. Not only would such a connection explain Nabonidus's rise to the throne (being connected to

20500-432: The time, such as Elamite , Akkadian, Hurrian , and Hittite cuneiforms. It formed a semi-alphabetic syllabary, using far fewer wedge strokes than Assyrian used, together with a handful of logograms for frequently occurring words like "god" ( 𐏎 ), "king" ( 𐏋 ) or "country" ( 𐏌 ). This almost purely alphabetical form of the cuneiform script (36 phonetic characters and 8 logograms), was specially designed and used by

20664-652: The token shapes were the original basis for some of the Sumerian pictographs. Mesopotamia's "proto-literate" period spans roughly the 35th to 32nd centuries BC. The first unequivocal written documents start with the Uruk IV period, from circa 3,300 BC, followed by tablets found in Uruk III, Jemdet Nasr , Early Dynastic I Ur and Susa (in Proto-Elamite ) dating to the period until circa 2,900 BC. Originally, pictographs were either drawn on clay tablets in vertical columns with

20828-514: The trade route, authority would have had to be enforced by a strong, local Babylonian force. However, stationing a Babylonian force at Tayma and leaving a governor in charge would have sufficed, the king would not have needed to stay in Arabia for ten years in order to pacify the region. Furthermore, beyond economical gains, the Tayma region was not of much strategic use. The Arabs were not a threat to Babylon, or any other power at this time, and though Egypt

20992-585: The two languages are related, their writing systems seem to have been developed separately. For Hurrian, there were even different systems in different polities (in Mitanni , in Mari , in the Hittite Empire). The Hurrian orthographies were generally characterised by more extensive use of syllabograms and more limited use of logograms than Akkadian. Urartian, in comparison, retained a more significant role for logograms. In

21156-408: The underworld, became angry with that city and temple, big heaps of sand accumulated over it and its chapel could not be seen anymore. Some inscriptions also point towards an attempt at historical revisionism, with the successes of Nebuchadnezzar II being attributed to in inscriptions not to Marduk, but to Sîn, and one inscription describing Sîn, rather than the Assyrian deity Ashur, as having entrusted

21320-416: The visit may have been political, given that Sippar recognised Labashi-Marduk as king just two weeks prior, nearly a month after Nabonidus had been proclaimed king. In the fall of 556 BC, Nabonidus led the Babylonian army on a campaign to Hume, eastern Cilicia , where Neriglissar had campaigned in 557 BC. That Nabonidus campaigned there so shortly after Neriglissar's campaign could suggest that Syria , which

21484-456: The way perhaps attacking the city Hama in Syria, but the record is fragmentary. Though Nabonidus made the traditional royal donations to the temples in Babylon, the major building effort of his reign, proclaimed as his intention shortly after he became king, was restoring the temple Ekhulkhul , the temple dedicated to Sîn in Harran, which had been destroyed by the Medes in 610 BC. Nabonidus noted at

21648-565: The word more precisely, two phonetic complements were added – Ú (𒌑) for the syllable [u] in front of the symbol and GA (𒂵) for the syllable [ga] behind. Finally, the symbol for 'bird', MUŠEN (𒄷) was added to ensure proper interpretation. As a result, the whole word could be spelt 𒌑𒉀𒂵𒄷, i.e. Ú.NAGA.GA (among the many variant spellings that the word could have). For unknown reasons, cuneiform pictographs, until then written vertically, were rotated 90° counterclockwise, in effect putting them on their side. This change first occurred slightly before

21812-554: Was Adad-guppi , born in c. 648/649 BC. Although once assumed to have been part of the Babylonian royal harem , no evidence exists to date that Adad-guppi was indeed the concubine of Nabonidus's predecessors. She was, however, influential at the royal Babylonian court, according to her own inscriptions claiming that she wielded influence with the kings Nabopolassar ( r.   626–605 BC), Nebuchadnezzar II ( r.   605–562 BC) and Neriglissar ( r.   560–556 BC). While no conclusive evidence currently exists, Adad-guppi

21976-412: Was a period of either confusion, after a discrete palace coup, or a brief civil war. Per contract tablets, Labashi-Marduk was still recognised as king at Uruk up until at least 19 June, and in the city of Sippar until at least 20 June. The earliest tablet dated to the reign of Nabonidus at Sippar is from 26 June. However, a tablet written as early as 25 May from Nippur is dated to Nabonidus's reign and

22140-674: Was a potentially powerful adversary, dealing with the Egyptians through fortifying a city isolated deep in Arabia, rather than fortifying and garrisoning the Babylonian lands in Palestine, would have been an unlikely strategy. Due to the remote and inaccessible location of Tayma, an argument that Nabonidus intended to move the centre of gravity of his empire westwards, through constructing a new capital there, has no basis. Though Nabonidus could have been motivated to stay in Tayma for religious reasons, given that there were several prominent lunar deities in

22304-561: Was adapted to writing Hittite, a layer of Akkadian logographic spellings, also known as Akkadograms, was added to the script, in addition to the Sumerian logograms, or Sumerograms, which were already inherent in the Akkadian writing system and which Hittite also kept. Thus the pronunciations of many Hittite words which were conventionally written by logograms are now unknown. The Hurrian language (attested 2300–1000 BC) and Urartian language (attested 9th–6th century BC) were also written in adapted versions of Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform. Although

22468-450: Was already born at this point, though his exact year of birth is yet unknown. In one of her inscriptions, Adad-guppi claims to have seen her descendants down to her great-great-grandchildren (i.e. Nabonidus's great-grandchildren) in her lifetime, totalling four generations of descendants. If the time between generations is estimated at approximately 20–25 years, and assuming that her great-great-grandchildren were approximately five years old by

22632-469: Was also the last independent king of Babylon . Regarded as one of the most vibrant and individualistic rulers of his time, Nabonidus is characterised by some scholars as an unorthodox religious reformer and as the first archaeologist . The origins of Nabonidus, his connection to previous royalty, and subsequently what claim he had to the throne remain unclear, given that Nabonidus made no genealogical claims of kinship to previous kings. This suggests that he

22796-573: Was because Babylonia was under the regency of Belshazzar, who might have convinced Nabonidus to stay away from Babylonia and instituted a clear return to orthodoxy, fearing confrontation with the oligarchy and clergy. Inscriptions from the time after Nabonidus's return to Babylon suggest he was no longer hesitant to exalt Sîn, and that he began imposing a religious reform that went as far as to reject Marduk, who had been Babylon's undisputed supreme deity for at least six centuries. Several inscriptions attribute Marduk's traditional titles, for instance "king of

22960-463: Was campaigning in Arabia, fighting against the king of Dadanu . By March or April, Nabonidus had defeated the king of Dadanu, and had captured other cities in Arabia, including the city of Tayma, which he had established as a provisionary seat for himself by the summer of 552 BC. Babylonian sources state that Nabonidus conquered Arabian lands as far south as Medina (called Yatribu at this time). After conquering Tayma, Nabonidus would stay there for about

23124-402: Was courageous, wise and devout. Curiously, no person named Nabu-balatsu-iqbi who can reasonably be identified as Nabonidus's father appears in documents prior to Nabonidus's reign, thus making his father's status and position unclear. The repeated references of Nabu-balatsu-iqbi as "prince" in Nabonidus's inscriptions suggests some sort of noble status and political importance. Nabonidus's mother

23288-412: Was dead at the time on account of a possible palace coup) as king until June. By the end of June 556 BC, tablets dated to Nabonidus are known from across Babylonia. On account of his mother's age, and Nabonidus having had a long career in royal service before 556 BC, he must have been relatively old by the time he became king. It appears that Nabonidus had not intended to become king, and that he accepted

23452-497: Was deposed by the general and official Neriglissar in 560 BC. Neriglissar was powerful and influential prior to becoming king, but was not related to the dynasty by blood, instead likely being of Aramean origin, probably of the Puqudu clan. He was not completely unconnected to the Chaldean dynasty, however, having secured his claim to the throne through marriage to one of Nebuchadnezzar II's daughters, possibly Kaššaya . Neriglissar

23616-445: Was famine in Babylonia during Nabonidus's later reign. Nabonidus appears to have attributed it to a sign of Sîn's wrath that the people were not responsive to the king's religious reforms, whereas the populace likely attributed it to Marduk's wrath with the king's heretical faith. The New Year's festival, suspended during the king's absence in Tayma, was celebrated in its traditional manner annually once again after Nabonidus returned. It

23780-406: Was further developed and modified in the writing of the Akkadian language to express its sounds. Often, words that had a similar meaning but very different sounds were written with the same symbol. For instance the Sumerian words 'tooth' [zu], 'mouth' [ka] and 'voice' [gu] were all written with the original pictogram for mouth (𒅗). Words that sounded alike would have different signs; for instance,

23944-448: Was in use for more than three millennia, through several stages of development, from the 31st century BC down to the second century AD. The latest firmly dateable tablet, from Uruk, dates to 79/80 AD. Ultimately, it was completely replaced by alphabetic writing , in the general sense, in the course of the Roman era , and there are no cuneiform systems in current use. It had to be deciphered as

24108-478: Was invented, during the Neolithic , when clay tokens were used to record specific amounts of livestock or commodities. In recent years a contrarian view has arisen on the tokens being the precursor of writing. These tokens were initially impressed on the surface of round clay envelopes ( clay bullae ) and then stored in them. The tokens were then progressively replaced by flat tablets, on which signs were recorded with

24272-554: Was located south of Babylon), prominently that several of Nabopolassar's descendants lived in the city and that his son and successor, Nebuchadnezzar II , worked as a priest there before becoming king. In 2007, the Assyriologist Michael Jursa identified Nabopolassar as the son of Nebuchadnezzar (or Kudurru), a governor of Uruk who had been appointed by the Neo-Assyrian king Ashurbanipal . This Nebuchadnezzar belonged to

24436-408: Was most likely intended to expand the Babylonian Empire westwards. Due to the many trade routes passing through Arabia, the region was incredibly wealthy and represented an appealing target. It is possible that the intention of conquering Tayma was to control these important trade routes that ran through the city (including the major trade route from Egypt to Babylon). To efficiently reap the benefits of

24600-438: Was neither related nor connected to the Chaldean dynasty of Babylonian rulers. However, he is known to have had a prominent career of some kind before he became king. It is possible that he was connected to the Chaldean kings via marriage, possibly having married a daughter of Nebuchadnezzar II ( r.   605–562 BC). Nabonidus's mother, Adad-guppi , was of Assyrian ancestry. His father, Nabu-balatsu-iqbi , of whom little

24764-469: Was not interrupted. The gods of some cities close to Babylon, such as Cutha , Sippar and Borsippa , were not brought to the capital. The reason for this is not known, but speculative explanations have been proposed. Sidney Smith , who published the translation of the Nabonidus Cylinder , suggested in 1924 that Nabonidus could have summoned the statues of those cities to the capital as well, but that

24928-451: Was not needed. Most surviving cuneiform tablets were of the latter kind, accidentally preserved when fires destroyed the tablets' storage place and effectively baked them, unintentionally ensuring their longevity. The script was widely used on commemorative stelae and carved reliefs to record the achievements of the ruler in whose honor the monument had been erected. The spoken language included many homophones and near-homophones, and in

25092-706: Was originally developed to write the Sumerian language of southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq ). Over the course of its history, cuneiform was adapted to write a number of languages in addition to Sumerian. Akkadian texts are attested from the 24th century BC onward and make up the bulk of the cuneiform record. Akkadian cuneiform was itself adapted to write the Hittite language in the early second millennium BC . The other languages with significant cuneiform corpora are Eblaite , Elamite , Hurrian , Luwian , and Urartian . The Old Persian and Ugaritic alphabets feature cuneiform-style signs; however, they are unrelated to

25256-432: Was part of the conspiracy, Nabonidus had not intended, nor expected, to become king himself and he was hesitant to accept the nomination. Nabonidus's rise to the throne put Belshazzar first in the line of succession (it would not have been suitable for him to have become king himself while his father was still alive) and also made him one of the wealthiest men in Babylonia as he inherited Labashi-Marduk's family's estates. It

25420-400: Was preceded by a revolt by a man by the name Ugbaru , who might have been the appointed Babylonian governor of the region of Gutium . Ugbaru revolted against Nabonidus, joined Cyrus, and was made the primary general in the Babylonian campaign. Depending on when it took place, Ugbaru's revolt may have been one of the factors that made Nabonidus return from Tayma. Cyrus's first move was to attack

25584-678: Was preparing to resolve the matter. In May 553 BC, Nabonidus departed to campaign in Arabia, initially to suppress a rebellion in the Anti-Lebanon Mountains . The Babylonians achieved victory relatively quickly, and Nabonidus still remained near the Anti-Lebanon Mountains in August, overseeing the transport of supplies back to Babylon. After a period of illness, Nabonidus then moved on Amurru and Edom and captured an otherwise unknown city. By December 553 BC or January 552 BC, Nabonidus

25748-464: Was presumably Adad-guppi's only child. Adad-guppi having great-great-grandchildren means that Nabonidus would have had great-grandchildren early in his reign, though the names, lineage, number and genders of these descendants are not mentioned. The known children of Nabonidus are: Some later Babylonians would lay claim to descent from Nabonidus. Nidintu-Bêl, who rebelled against the Achaemenid king Darius

25912-413: Was reached to go into self-imposed exile while Belshazzar ruled as regent in Babylon. In his own inscriptions, Nabonidus attributes his stay at Tayma to the "impiety of the Babylonians". Nabonidus probably only campaigned in the west after making sure that the Medes in the north were no longer a threat. Beaulieu believes it possible that Nabonidus had encouraged Cyrus the Great to rebel and wage war against

26076-406: Was retained, but was now pronounced immerum , rather than the Sumerian udu . Such retained individual signs or, sometimes, entire sign combinations with logographic value are known as Sumerograms , a type of heterogram . The East Semitic languages employed equivalents for many signs that were distorted or abbreviated to represent new values because the syllabic nature of the script as refined by

26240-424: Was still alive, but by placing his father on the throne, an old man (meaning that his reign could be expected to be transitional, only lasting a few years), Belshazzar thought the throne secured for himself in the future. The earliest recorded activity of Nabonidus as king was visiting the city of Sippar on 4 July 556 BC, where he donated three minas of gold in the city's temple, the Ebabbar temple. The purpose of

26404-553: Was succeeded by his son, Labashi-Marduk , who was deposed shortly thereafter. Why Labashi-Marduk was deposed is not known, but it is possible that he was the son of Neriglissar and a wife other than Nebuchadnezzar II's daughter, and thus completely unconnected to the Chaldean dynasty. The leader of the coup to depose Labashi-Marduk was likely the courtier Belshazzar , who in Labashi-Marduk's place proclaimed Nabonidus , Belshazzar's father, as king. The sources suggest that while he

26568-423: Was the capital of its government in exile . On account of her claims in regards to Nabonidus being of Sargonid (Ashurbanipal's dynasty) ancestry, Stephanie Dalley in 2003 considered it "almost certain" that Adad-guppi was a daughter of Ashurbanipal. Michael B. Dick opposed Dalley's conviction in 2004, pointing out that even though Nabonidus did go to some length to revive some old Assyrian symbols (such as wearing

26732-420: Was the same person as the Nabonidus who later became Babylon's king. The name of Nabonidus is otherwise poorly attested in sources prior to his reign. A Nabonidus is listed as the head witnesses in a 597 BC legal document; however, it is unclear whether this is the same person as the later king, especially given that the text could be interpreted as referring to Nabonidus as a son of Nebuchadnezzar II. However, it

26896-420: Was under Bablyonian suzerainty, was threatened by raiders from Cilicia, or could point towards Nabonidus, in general, being concerned about the security of the empire. This initial campaign was successful and prisoners, gifts and booty were brought back to Babylon to use in the annual New Year's festival . Babylonian records give the number of prisoners later distributed as temple slaves as 2,850. After celebrating

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