Nebuchadnezzar II (r. 604–562 BC)

East India House

BM 129397, a large stone tablet that bears a long Akkadian inscription that is now commonly referred to as the "East India House Inscription." This text records some of Nebuchadnezzar II's building projects, especially those at Babylon and Borsippa. Image adapted from the British Museum Collection website. Credit: Trustees of the British Museum.

During his very long reign, Nebuchadnezzar II, the son and immediate successor of the founder of the Neo-Babylonian Empire (Nabopolassar), sponsored building activities in at least thirteen Babylonian cities. The transformation of Babylon into an imperial megacity was by far his greatest achievement. In his capital, building on what his father had started, Nebuchadnezzar is known to have worked on no less than thirteen temples, as well as the massive ziggurat; renovated one palace and constructed an additional two royal residences; completed and expanded the inner and outer city walls, together with their embankment walls; redug and improved at least one major canal; and raised and repaved the Processional Way. Presumably, he did more at Babylon, which he transformed in an "object of wonder," than what is presently known from available cuneiform sources and from the archaeological record. This Neo-Babylonian ruler was undoubtedly one of the most active Mesopotamian builders. From extant textual sources, mostly royal inscriptions, Nebuchadnezzar's main building projects are:

Babylon 1859

A map of Babylon and its surroundings prepared by William Selby in the late 1850s. The traces of a wall south of the eastern outer wall (above the purple line) might be the remains of a cross country defensive wall. Image: W.B. Selby, William and W. Collingwood, Plan of the supposed ruins of Babylon.

In addition, Nebuchadnezzar's inscriptions record that he had at least two other walls (or earthen ramparts with baked-brick sides) constructed. The first stretched from Babylon to Kish and then from Kish to Kar-Nergal and then rot the Tigris river. The second — which has been partial excavated and surveyed — was built just north of Sippar and it also ran the entire stretch between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, from Sippar to Up. The latter has been partial excavated and surveyed. An Akkadian inscription written on clay cylinders records the following:

In order to strengthen the protection of Esagil (so that) no evil doer and murderer can come near Babylon, I heaped up large earthworks from the border of Babylon to the interior of Kish (and) from the opposite side of Kish to Kār-Nergal, a distance of four and two-thirds leagues, and had the city surrounded with far-reaching water. In order to prevent dike breaks in them, I constructed their embankment(s) with bitumen and baked brick (to be) strong embankment(s). Above Babylon, (on) the opposite side of Sippar of the god Šamaš, I regularly heaped up large earthen dikes from the bank of the Tigris River to the bank of the Euphrates River, a distance of five and leagues, and had the land for twenty leagues distance surrounded with far-reaching water, like the roiling sea (Tiāmat). In order that those earthen dikes that I set up not be carried away by the battering of the furious waves, I constructed their embankment(s) with bitumen and baked brick (to be) strong embankment(s).

Perhaps in connection with this work, or the rebuilding of the Nergal temple Emeslam, this Neo-Babylonian king had a water-filled moat (Akkadian hirītu) dug around the city of Cutha.

Moreover, archaeological evidence from other sites have yielded evidence for Nebuchadnezzar undertaking construction in those Babylonian cities. These include Abu Qubur (not to be identified with ancient Durbissu), Hursagkalama (modern Tell Ingharra), Jemdet Nasr (or its surroundings), Kissik (modern Tell al-Laḥm), Seleucia, and Sippar-Anunītu (modern Tell ed-Der).

Jamie Novotny & Niclas Dannehl

Jamie Novotny & Niclas Dannehl, 'Nebuchadnezzar II (r. 604–562 BC)', Babylonian Temples and Monumental Architecture online (BTMAo), The BTMAo Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, [http://oracc.org/btmao/StructuresbyBuilder/Neo-BabylonianEmpire/NebuchadnezzarII/]

 
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BTMAo 2019-. BTMAo is based at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Historisches Seminar (LMU Munich, History Department) - Alexander von Humboldt Chair for Ancient History of the Near and Middle East. BTMAo is part of the four-year project Living Among Ruins: The Experience of Urban Abandonment in Babylonia (September 2019 to October 2023), which is funded by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung as part of the program "Lost Cities. Wahrnehmung von und Leben mit verlassenen Städten in den Kulturen der Welt," coordinated by Martin Zimmermann and Andreas Beyer. Content released under a CC BY-SA 3.0 [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/] license, 2007-.
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