The arrangement of the Nebuchadnezzar II inscriptions from Babylon included in RINBE 1/1 differs from the typical ordering in this publication series. One would have expected the sequence to have been texts on clay cylinders, clay prisms, stone steles, and then inscriptions written on the parts of buildings (stone blocks, paving stones, door sockets, glazed-brick panels, bricks, etc.). Because Nebuchadnezzar is one of the most famous and widely-known Mesopotamian king today and because the annotated editions of these texts have been accessible online since December 2019 via the "Babylon 7" sub-project of the open-access Royal Inscriptions of Babylonia online (RIBo), and, therefore, likely to be regularly cited in scholarly publications long before the appearance of the printed version of RINBE 1/1,[[97]] the RINBE team decided that it was prudent to establish the order of the texts as early as possible. Thus, a slightly unorthodox arrangement of the inscriptions has been set for Nebuchadnezzar's texts from Babylon and thus it is necessary to provide some details on the organization of that material.
Establishing the order of texts early in the preparation of the present volume was not without its problems, especially since new texts can turn up at any time, even at the last minute, as was the case with RINBE 2, when two inscriptions of Nabonidus were discovered shortly before the submission of the final camera-ready manuscript to the publisher. To ensure that RINBE 1/1 texts could be reliably cited in scholarly literature (both in print and online) well in advance of the publication of the physical book, the authors (in consultation with the RINBE Editorial Board and Advisory Committee) decided on a logical order for the published and previously unpublished Nebuchadnezzar II texts. Since the authors were aware that there were numerous previously-unpublished inscriptions written on clay cylinders from Babylon — some now housed in the Vorderasiatisches Museum (Berlin), some in the collections of the Eşki Şark Eserleri Müzesi of the Arkeoloji Müzerli (Istanbul), and some known only from Babylon excavation photographs — they felt it best to present the published/previously-known material first and then the unpublished objects. Because most of the "new" sources are written on clay cylinders, it was necessary to change the usual/expected sequence of Nebuchadnezzar II inscriptions in RINBE 1/1. Thus, texts written on stone, rather than clay, appear first. Therefore, the so-called "Tower of Babel Stele" and the "East Indian House Inscription," are Nbk. 1 and 2 respectively. These two inscriptions are then followed by those on the physical parts of buildings made of stone (blocks and paving stones). The published/previously-known "foundation inscriptions" are edited next, starting with the only extant royal inscription of a Neo-Babylonian king written on a clay prism (the "Hofkalender") since it would be rather odd to place that text between the published and unpublished texts written on clay cylinders. The twenty-six previously known cylinder inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar are, when possible, generally arranged according to the subject of the "main" building report. The order is as follows: (1) the city walls and defensive constructions (especially Imgur-Enlil, the main wall of Babylon's inner city); (2) the palaces (the South, North, and Summer Palaces); (3) Babylon's ziggurat and temples (including Etemenanki, Emaḫ, and Eniggidrukalamasuma); (4) Babylon's processional streets; and (5) the Lībil-ḫegalla canal. As to be expected, the complete and near complete inscriptions for each structure are presented first and the fragmentary texts are given last. Finally, the "new"/previously-unpublished Nebuchadnezzar cylinders from Babylon are presented. The order of this material follows that of published cylinder inscriptions, when possible.
Included in the "new" material is a damaged multi-column cylinder discovered at Babylon, VA Bab 611 (BE 43333). This fragmentarily-preserved text, as mentioned in RINBE 2, might be attributed to Nebuchadnezzar II, rather than Nabonidus, since it recorded the restoration of Eḫursagsikila ("House, Pure Mountain"; the temple of the goddess Ninkarrak) or Esabad ("House of the Open Ear"; the temple of Gula) at Babylon. At that time, the authors had originally planned to edit that inscription in RINBE 1/2, as a 1000-number of Nebuchadnezzar II. Closer examination of the text, however, suggests that it should be attributed to Nebuchadnezzar and, thus, edited in the present volume as a certain inscription of this king, as Nbk. 49.
97 See already Pedersén, Babylon; and Da Riva and Novotny, IOS Annual 22 (2022) pp. 3–29.
Jamie Novotny & Frauke Weiershäuser
Jamie Novotny & Frauke Weiershäuser, ' Organization of the Contents of RINBE 1/1', RIBo, Babylon 7: The Inscriptions of the Neo-Babylonian Dynasty, The RIBo Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2024 [/ribo/babylon7/RINBE11Introduction/OrganizationoftheContentsofRINBE11/]