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152-523: The Ryōgūzan Kofun is a zenpō-kōen-fun ( 前方後円墳 ) , which is shaped like a keyhole, having one square end and one circular end, when viewed from above. It is part of the Ryōgūzan Kofun cluster (also known as the Nishi-Takatsuki Kofun cluster) which consists of four keyhole-shaped tombs and two scallop-shaped tombs, including this one. Built in the latter half of the 5th century, or the middle of

304-498: A dumpy level or total station by relation to the site temporary benchmark (abbr. T.B.M). Samples of deposits from contexts are sometimes also taken, for later environmental analysis or for scientific dating . Digital tools used by field archaeologists during excavation include GPS , tablet computers , relational databases , digital cameras , 3d laser scanners , and unmanned aerial vehicles . After high quality digital data have been recorded, these data can then be shared over

456-544: A site plan , and then partially excavating those features ( sampling ). The approach is undertaken when a site is to be destroyed by development and no satisfactory method of preserving archaeological remains in situ can be devised or adequate funding and time have not been factored into development project planning to allow for a full archaeological investigation. This describes the use in excavations of various types and sizes of machines from small backhoes to heavy duty earth-moving machinery. Machines are often used in what

608-451: 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 is considered to have been

760-523: A building such as church to produce a "phase." A less rigorously defined combination of one or more contexts is sometimes called a feature . Phase is the most easily understood grouping for the layman as it implies a near contemporaneous Archaeological horizon representing "what you would see if you went back to a specific point in time". Often but not always a phase implies the identification of an occupation surface "old ground level" that existed at some earlier time. The production of phase interpretations

912-438: 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

1064-524: 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

1216-549: 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

1368-474: 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

1520-432: A diameter of about 20 meters and a height of about 5 meters. This smaller tumulus also originally had a double moat, although it appears that part of its outer moat was shared with that of the Ryōgūzan Kofun. Currently, only the round rear part of the mound remains, but excavations confirmed the front part once existed. As with the Ryōgūzan Kofun, no fukiishi and haniwa have been found. It is estimated to have been built in

1672-579: 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

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1824-414: A grouping of contexts and their associations are the purpose of the photography. Finds from each context are bagged and labeled with their context number and site code for later cross-reference work carried out post-excavation. The height above sea level of pertinent points on a context, such as the top and bottom of a wall are taken and added to plans sections and context sheets. Heights are recorded with

1976-510: 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

2128-484: 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, a son-in-law of Nebuchadnezzar II,

2280-417: A man of the king" (i.e. a prince), rather than "the son of 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

2432-452: 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

2584-514: 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

2736-438: 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 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

2888-517: A pigsty onto it and drained the pigsty into the nettle patch. Later still, the original wall blew over and so on. Each event, which may have taken a short or long time to accomplish, leaves a context . This layer cake of events is often referred to as the archaeological sequence or record . It is by analysis of this sequence or record that excavation is intended to permit interpretation, which should lead to discussion and understanding. The prominent processual archaeologist Lewis Binford highlighted

3040-434: 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

3192-417: 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 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

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3344-449: 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

3496-409: A site into these basic, discrete units, archaeologists are able to create a chronology for activity on a site and describe and interpret it. Stratigraphic relationships are the relationships created between contexts in time representing the chronological order they were created. An example would be a ditch and the back-fill of said ditch. The relationship of "the fill" context to the ditch "cut" context

3648-410: A site. There are two basic types of modern archaeological excavation: There are two main types of trial excavation in professional archaeology both commonly associated with development-led excavation: the test pit or trench and the watching brief. The purpose of trial excavations is to determine the extent and characteristics of archaeological potential in a given area before extensive excavation work

3800-410: 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

3952-413: A son of Nebuchadnezzar II. However, it 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

4104-426: A sub-group could be the three contexts that make up a burial: the grave cut, the body and the back-filled earth on top of the body. In turn sub-groups can be clustered together with other sub-groups by virtue of their stratigraphic relationship to form groups which in turn form " phases ". A sub-group burial could cluster with other sub-group burials to form a cemetery or burial group which in turn could be clustered with

4256-617: A threat to Babylon, or any other power at this time, and though Egypt 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

4408-488: A time during a project and can be conducted over a few weeks to several years. Excavation involves the recovery of several types of data from a site. This data includes artifacts (portable objects made or modified by humans), features (non-portable modifications to the site itself such as post molds, burials, and hearths), ecofacts (evidence of human activity through organic remains such as animal bones, pollen, or charcoal), and archaeological context (relationships among

4560-458: A trench cut for a gas pipe in a road. In the US, a method of evaluation called a Shovel test pit is used which is a specified half meter square line of trial trenches dug by hand. Archaeological material tends to accumulate in events. A gardener swept a pile of soil into a corner, laid a gravel path or planted a bush in a hole. A builder built a wall and back-filled the trench. Years later, someone built

4712-469: 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

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4864-542: 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

5016-437: Is "the fill" occurred later in the sequence, i.e., you have to dig a ditch first before you can back-fill it. A relationship that is later in the sequence is sometimes referred to as "higher" in the sequence and a relationship that is earlier "lower" though the term higher or lower does not itself imply a context needs to be physically higher or lower. It is more useful to think of this higher or lower term as it relates to

5168-409: Is an unrepeatable process, since the same area of the ground cannot be excavated twice. Thus, archaeology is often known as a destructive science, where you must destroy the original evidence in order to make observations. To mitigate this, highly accurate and precise digital methods can be used to record the excavation process and its results. Single context recording was developed in the 1970s by

5320-412: Is called salvage or rescue archaeology in developer-led excavation when there are financial or time pressures. Using a mechanical excavator is the quickest method to remove soil and debris and to prepare the surface for excavation by hand, taking care to avoid damaging archaeological deposits by accident or to make it difficult to identify later precisely where finds were located. The use of such machinery

5472-445: Is from Uruk and 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

5624-635: 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

5776-546: 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

5928-635: 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

6080-472: Is largely based on the Law of Superposition . The Law of Superposition indicates that layers of sediment further down will contain older artifacts than layers above. When archaeological finds are below the surface of the ground (as is most commonly the case), the identification of the context of each find is vital to enable the archaeologist to draw conclusions about the site and the nature and date of its occupation. It

6232-407: 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

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6384-523: 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

6536-536: Is not good practice. After removing a context or if practical a set of contexts such as the case would be for features, the "isolate and dig" procedure is repeated until no man made remains are left on site and the site is reduced to natural . "Strip, map and sample" is a method of excavation applied in the United Kingdom to preserve archaeological remains by record in the face of development threats. It involves machine stripping an area, plotting observed features onto

6688-438: 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

6840-518: 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

6992-481: Is often routine (as it is for instance with the British archaeological television series Time Team ) but can also be controversial as it can result in less discrimination in how the archaeological sequence on a site is recorded. One of the earliest uses of earth-moving machinery was at Durrington Walls in 1967. An old road through the henge was to be straightened and improved and was going to cause considerable damage to

7144-404: Is one of the first goals of stratigraphic interpretation and excavation. Digging "in phase" is not quite the same as phasing a site. Phasing a site represents reducing the site either in excavation or post-excavation to contemporaneous horizons whereas "digging in phase" is the process of stratigraphic removal of archaeological remains so as not to remove contexts that are earlier in time "lower in

7296-414: Is possible that this ambassador 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

7448-545: 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 was also the last independent king of Babylon . Regarded as one of

7600-437: 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

7752-592: 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 ,

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7904-414: Is the archaeologist's role to attempt to discover what contexts exist and how they came to be created. Archaeological stratification or sequence is the dynamic superimposition of single units of stratigraphy or contexts. The context (physical location) of a discovery can be of major significance. Archaeological context refers to where an artifact or feature was found as well as what the artifact or feature

8056-421: Is the role of specialists to provide spot dating information on the contexts being removed from the archaeological record. This can provide advance warning of potential discoveries to come by virtue of residual finds redeposited in contexts higher in the sequence (which should be coming offsite earlier than contexts from early eras and phases). Spot dating also forms part of a confirmation process, of assessing

8208-428: Is undertaken. This is usually conducted in development-led excavations as part of Project management planning. The main difference between Trial trenching and watching briefs is that trial trenches are actively dug for the purpose of revealing archaeological potential whereas watching briefs are cursory examination of trenches where the primary function of the trench is something other than archaeology, for example

8360-497: 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

8512-569: Is unknown. The dimensions of the tumulus appear to be based on a two-fifths scale of the Daisenryō Kofun (tomb of Emperor Nintoku in Sakai, Osaka ), and indicates that the person buried at the Ryōgūzan Kofun was an influential person with strong ties to theYamato kingdom. To the north of the Ryōgūzan Kofun is a baizuka ancillary burial mound, the Wada Chausuyama Kofun ( 和田茶臼山古墳 ) , with

8664-555: The museum of London (as well as earlier in Winchester and York) and has become the de facto recording system in many parts of the world and is especially suited to the complexities of deep urban archaeology and the process of Stratification . Each excavated context is given a unique "context number" and is recorded by type on a context sheet and perhaps being drawn on a plan and/or a section . Depending on time constraints and importance contexts may also be photographed, but in this case

8816-543: 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 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

8968-468: 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

9120-490: 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,

9272-450: 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

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9424-502: 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

9576-404: 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

9728-483: 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

9880-435: 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

10032-491: The Kofun period, the Ryōgūzan Kofun has a surrounding moat and a total length of 206 meters. An archaeological excavation from 2002 to 2004 discovered a new moat around the outside of the surrounding moat, revealing that the original construction had a double moat. Including the two surrounding moats, the total length of the burial mound reaches 349 meters on the main axis. The outer moat is buried under surrounding paddy fields , but

10184-500: 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

10336-408: 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

10488-405: The age necessary to hold that office. If 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

10640-513: The archaeology. Rosemary Hill describes how Geoffrey Wainwright "oversaw large, high-speed excavations, taking bulldozers to the site in a manner that shocked some of his colleagues but yielded valuable if tantalising information about what Durrington had looked like and how it might have been used." Machines are used primarily to remove modern overburden and for the control of spoil . In British archaeology mechanical diggers are sometimes nicknamed "big yellow trowels". Archaeological excavation

10792-566: 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

10944-412: The benefits of 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

11096-407: The campaign 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

11248-516: 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

11400-423: 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

11552-527: 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

11704-420: 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

11856-433: The contexts position in a Harris matrix , which is a two-dimensional representation of a site's formation in space and time. Understanding a site in modern archaeology is a process of grouping single contexts together in ever larger groups by virtue of their relationships. The terminology of these larger clusters varies depending on practitioner, but the terms interface, sub-group, group and land use are common. An example of

12008-575: 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, 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

12160-400: 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

12312-557: 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

12464-473: The excavation process and in turn, limit the site's potential for revealing information for post-excavation specialists. Or anomalous information could show up errors in excavation such as "undercutting". Dating methodology in part relies on accurate excavation and in this sense the two activities become interdependent. Nabonidus Nabonidus ( Babylonian cuneiform : [REDACTED]    Nabû-naʾid , meaning "May Nabu be exalted" or "Nabu

12616-532: 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

12768-479: The fact that the archaeological evidence left at a site may not be entirely indicative of the historical events that actually took place there. Using an ethnoarchaeological comparison, he looked at how hunters amongst the Nunamiut Iñupiat of north central Alaska spent a great deal of time in a certain area simply waiting for prey to arrive there, and that during this period, they undertook other tasks to pass

12920-482: The future king is also unclear. The lack of confident mentions of Nabonidus in sources before his rise to 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

13072-562: 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

13224-570: 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 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

13376-428: 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 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

13528-404: The inner moat is still filled with water (and is used as a reservoir for agriculture). The tumulus itself is about 120 meters wide at the anterior rectangular portion, 100 meter in diameter at the posterior circular portion, and about 20 meters high at both portions. No fukiishi or haniwa have been found. Since the tumulus itself has not been excavated, the details of the burial chamber are

13680-525: 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

13832-417: The internet for open access and use by the public and archaeological researchers. Digital imaging or digital image acquisition is digital photography , such as of a physical scene or of the interior structure of an object. The term is often used to include the processing, compression, storage, printing, and display of the images. Finds and artifacts that survive in the archaeological record are retrieved in

13984-598: 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 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

14136-439: 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 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

14288-456: 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

14440-432: The latter half of the 5th century. The tumulus is about 10 minutes by car from JR West Seto Station . The Bizen Kokubun-ji ruins are located on the west side of Ryōgūzan Kofun. Archaeological excavation In archaeology , excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at

14592-839: 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

14744-446: The main by hand and observation as the context they survive in is excavated. Several other techniques are available depending on suitability and time constraints. Sieving (screening) and flotation are used to maximize the recovery of small items such as small shards of pottery or flint flakes, or bones and seeds. Flotation is a process of retrieval that works by passing spoil onto the surface of water and separating finds that float from

14896-452: 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

15048-401: 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

15200-561: 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

15352-452: The other types of data). Before excavating, the presence or absence of archaeological remains can often be suggested by, non-intrusive remote sensing , such as ground-penetrating radar . Basic information about the development of the site may be drawn from this work, but to understand finer details of a site, excavation via augering can be used. During excavation, archaeologists often use stratigraphic excavation to remove phases of

15504-660: The past. Meticulous and methodical archaeological excavation took over from antiquarian barrow-digging around the early to mid-nineteenth century and is still being perfected today. The most dramatic change that occurred over time is the amount of recording and care taken to ensure preservation of artifacts and features. In the past, archaeological excavation involved random digging to unearth artifacts. Exact locations of artifacts were not recorded, and measurements were not taken. Modern archaeological excavation has evolved to include removal of thin layers of sediment sequentially and recording of measurements about artifacts' locations in

15656-436: The phase in the strata, for example modern pipework or the 16th-century bottles left by treasure-hunters at Sutton Hoo . Excavation initially involves the removal of any topsoil . A strategy for sampling the contexts and features is formulated which may involve total excavation of each feature or only portions. In stratigraphic excavation, the goal is to remove some or, preferably, all archaeological deposits and features in

15808-424: 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

15960-430: 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 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

16112-412: 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

16264-471: 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

16416-415: 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

16568-558: 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 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

16720-610: 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

16872-411: The reverse order they were created and construct a Harris matrix as a chronological record or "sequence" of the site. This Harris matrix is used for interpretation and combining contexts into ever larger units of understanding. This stratigraphic removal of the site is crucial for understanding the chronology of events on site. Stratigraphic excavation involves a process of cleaning or "troweling back"

17024-594: 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

17176-415: 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

17328-462: 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

17480-426: The sequence" before other contexts that have a latter physical stratigraphic relationship to them as defined by the law of superposition . The process of interpretation in practice will have a bearing on excavation strategies on site so "phasing" a site is actively pursued during excavation where at all possible and is considered good practice. An "intrusion" or " intrusive object " is something that arrived later to

17632-691: The site completely in three-dimensional space. The first instance of archaeological excavation took place in the sixth century BC when Nabonidus , the king of Babylon, excavated a temple floor that was thousands of years old. During early Roman periods, Julius Caesar's men looted bronze artifacts, and by the medieval period, Europeans had begun digging up pots that had partially emerged from erosion, and weapons that had turned up on farmlands. Antiquarians excavated burial mounds in North America and North-West Europe, which sometimes involved destroying artifacts and their context, losing information about subjects from

17784-428: The site one layer at a time. This keeps the timeline of the material remains consistent with one another. This is done usually though mechanical means where artifacts can be spot dated and the soil processed through methods such as mechanical sieving or water flotation. Afterwards, digital methods are then used record the excavation process and its results. Ideally, data from the excavation should suffice to reconstruct

17936-513: 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

18088-440: The spoil which sinks. This is especially suited to the recovery of environmental data stored in organic material such as seeds and small bones. Not all finds retrieval is done during excavation and some, especially flotation, may take place post-excavation from samples taken during excavation. The use of sieving (screening) is more common on research-based excavations where more time is available. Some success has been achieved with

18240-492: 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

18392-404: The surface of the site and isolating contexts and edges which are definable as either: Following this preliminary process of defining the context, it is then recorded and removed. Often, owing to practical considerations or error, the process of defining the edges of contexts is not followed and contexts are removed out of sequence and un-stratigraphically. This is called "digging out of phase". It

18544-482: 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

18696-400: 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 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

18848-468: 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

19000-456: 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

19152-554: 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,

19304-476: 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 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

19456-407: 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

19608-471: The time, such as the carving of various objects, including a wooden mould for a mask, a horn spoon and an ivory needle, as well as repairing a skin pouch and a pair of caribou skin socks. Binford notes that all of these activities would have left evidence in the archaeological record, but that none of them would provide evidence for the primary reason that the hunters were in the area; to wait for prey. As he remarked, waiting for animals to hunt "represented 24% of

19760-439: The total man-hours of activity recorded; yet there is no recognisable archaeological consequences of this behaviour. No tools left on the site were used, and there were no immediate material "byproducts" of the "primary" activity. All of the other activities conducted at the site were essentially boredom reducers." In archaeology, especially in excavating, stratigraphy involves the study of how deposits occurs layer by layer. It

19912-409: 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

20064-416: The use of cement mixers and bulk sieving. This method allows the quick removal of context by shovel and mattock yet allows for a high retrieval rate. Spoil is shoveled into cement mixers and water added to form a slurry which is then poured through a large screen mesh. The speed of this technique is offset by the damage it does to more fragile artifacts. One important role of finds retrieval during excavation

20216-412: The validity of the working hypothesis on the phasing of site during excavation. For example, the presence of an anomalous medieval pottery sherd in what was thought to be an Iron Age ditch feature could radically alter onsite thinking on the correct strategy for digging a site and save a lot of information being lost due to incorrect assumptions about the nature of the deposits which will be destroyed by

20368-418: 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

20520-461: 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

20672-452: 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 was because Babylonia was under the regency of Belshazzar, who might have convinced Nabonidus to stay away from Babylonia and instituted

20824-558: 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

20976-450: 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

21128-465: 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

21280-406: 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

21432-415: 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

21584-448: 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

21736-406: Was located near. Context is important for determining how long ago the artifact or feature was in use as well as what its function may have been. The cutting of a pit or ditch in the past is a context, whilst the material filling it will be another. Multiple fills seen in section would mean multiple contexts. Structural features, natural deposits and inhumations are also contexts. By separating

21888-438: 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

22040-471: 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

22192-401: 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

22344-679: 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

22496-471: 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

22648-413: 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 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

22800-425: 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

22952-425: 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

23104-423: 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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