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A fragment of a clay cylinder found at Ḫarrān preserves part of an inscription of Nabonidus commemorating his renovation of Eḫulḫul ("House which Gives Joy"), the temple of the moon-god Sîn in that city. The extant text, which is written in contemporary Neo-Babylonian script, contains part of a dialogue between Nabonidus and Marduk, the patron god of Babylon, discussing the rebuilding of Eḫulḫul, which had lain in ruins for fifty-four years, and the return of the statues of its deities (Sîn, Ningal, Nusku, and Sadarnunna); this text is presently one of the few extant inscriptions of Nabonidus that specifically mention the statues of these four deities. Because the inscription records work at Ḫarrān, it is fairly certain that the text was composed after Nabonidus' thirteenth regnal year (543), possibly in his sixteenth (540) year as king; see Schaudig, Inschriften Nabonids p. 48. In previous editions and studies, this text is referred to as "[Nabonidus] Fragment 3" and the "Ḫarrān Cylinder." For other inscriptions recording the renovation of Eḫulḫul, see text nos. 28–29 (Eḫulḫul Cylinder), 47 (Ḫarrān Stele), and 2001 (Adad-guppi Stele).
Access the composite text [/ribo/babylon7/Q005443/] of Nabonidus 46.
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Commentary
In earlier scholarly literature, Hr 85/46 is erroneously said to have been a fragment of a clay tablet; see Yardımcı, AnSt 36 (1986) p. 194. Moreover, the excavation number is Hr 85/46, not Hr 85/76, as reported in Donbaz, Varia Anatolica 1 p. 19. Because the original object was not available for study, since the present whereabouts of the cylinder fragment is not known, the edition presented here is based on V. Donbaz's published, hand-drawn facsimile of the inscription.
As for the date this still-incomplete text was composed, P.-A. Beaulieu (Nabonidus pp. 240–241) and H. Schaudig (Inschriften Nabonids p. 48) disagree. The former suggests that it was written during Belshazzar's regency (553–543), while the latter proposes that it was composed only after Nabonidus' thirteenth regnal year (543), probably during his sixteenth year as king (540). Beaulieu argues that the inscription written on Hr 85/46 was composed before Nabonidus' return to Babylon since "among the monumental inscriptions of Nabonidus, only those written during Belshazzar's regency fully acknowledge Marduk as supreme god with a befitting array of titles and epithets, while relegating Sîn to a subordinate position." While there is little doubt that the cylinder to which Hr 85/46 belongs was intended to be deposited in the structure of Eḫulḫul during its reconstruction, it is less certain when that took place. This may have been after 543, perhaps in 540, as Schaudig proposes, or earlier, in 549 or 548, as Beaulieu suggests. Beaulieu further explains his dating as follows: "rebuilding the temple was entirely Belshazzar's responsibility and was completed while the king was still in Teima, or it was initiated by Belshazzar but completed by Nabonidus after his return to Babylon. The second alternative has the advantage of harmonizing the contradictory data of the Eḫulḫul inscriptions in that it explains how Nabonidus could claim in inscription 13 [= text no. 47 (Ḫarrān Stele)] to have restored the Eḫulḫul after he left Teima, while at the same time the funerary stela of Adad-guppi [= text no. 2001] could insist that she witnessed the rebuilding before her death in the middle of Belshazzar's regency." Beaulieu further proposes that the inscription written on Hr 85/46 might have been a Vorlage (model) to all of the 'Eḫulḫul Inscriptions,' that is text nos. 17 (Larsa Stele), 28 (Eḫulḫul Cylinder), 43 (Tarif Stele), 47 (Ḫarrān Stele), and 2001 (Adad-guppi Stele). Given the poor state of preservation of this inscription and the uncertainties about exactly when Nabonidus had Eḫulḫul rebuilt, it is difficult to assign a firm date of composition to this text. Tentatively, Schaudig's suggested date is followed here.
Bibliography
This Akkadian inscription of Nabonidus is engraved on two rounded-top, basalt steles that were later reused to build the Great Mosque at Ḫarrān. The upper parts of both monuments are engraved with an image of the king standing before symbols of the moon (Sîn), sun (Šamaš), and the planet Venus (Ištar); the king faces left on both steles. This three-column text, which is written in contemporary Neo-Babylonian script, gives an account of the ten years that Nabonidus spent on the Arabian peninsula and states that after he returned to Babylon he rebuilt Eḫulḫul ("House which Gives Joy"), the temple of the moon-god Sîn at Ḫarrān, and returned that holy building's divine statues. With regard to his long stay in Tēmā, this text records that it was the god Sîn who made Nabonidus live there because the citizens of Babylon were so sinful towards the moon-god. Moreover, unlike text nos. 28 (Eḫulḫul Cylinder) and 46 (Ḫarrān Cylinder), this inscription states that it was Sîn, not Marduk (Babylon's tutelary deity), who spoke to Nabonidus in his dreams about restoring Eḫulḫul and returning its divine occupants from Babylon. Because the inscription explicitly states that the project was undertaken after the king's return to Babylon after his ten-year sojourn in Tēmā, the date of composition can be securely assigned to after the month Tašrītu (VII) of Nabonidus' thirteenth (543) regnal year. As little information is given on the reconstruction of Eḫulḫul, some scholars generally think that the steles were engraved during his fourteenth (542) or fifteenth (541) year as king; for this opinion, see Beaulieu, Nabonidus p. 42 and Schaudig, Inschriften Nabonids p. 48. This well-known text is referred to as "Nabonidus Stele Fragments III, 1," "[Nabonidus] Inscription 13," and the "Ḫarrān Stele."
Access the composite text [/ribo/babylon7/Q005444/] of Nabonidus 47.
Sources
| (1) Şanlıurfa Archaeology and Mosaic Museum — [/ribo/sources/P519077/] | (2) Şanlıurfa Archaeology and Mosaic Museum — [/ribo/sources/P519078/] |
Commentary
The line arrangement, when possible, follows ex. 1; the distribution of text varies between the two copies of the inscription. Ex. 2 cols. i and ii begin respectively with ex. 1 i 41 and ii 40. Neither exemplar of this inscription is complete and, therefore, the master text is a conflation of exs. 1 and 2; preference is given to ex. 1, the better preserved exemplar. A score is presented on Oracc and the minor (orthographic) variants are given in the critical apparatus at the back of the book.
Bibliography
Part of one line of an inscription of Nabonidus written in contemporary Neo-Babylonian script is preserved on a small fragment of a piece of plaster found at Ḫarrān in 1959. The text is presently known only from H.W.F. Saggs' published edition, which he prepared from a squeeze made in the field. The inscription most likely dates to the last years of Nabonidus' reign, sometime after his return from the Arabian peninsula in the month Tašrītu (VII) of his thirteenth (543) regnal year. Because the original object was not available for study, the edition presented here is based on Saggs' edition.
Access the composite text [/ribo/babylon7/Q005445/] of Nabonidus 48.
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A stone fragment discovered at Ḫarrān in 1959 preserves parts of three lines of an Akkadian inscription of Nabonidus. The text, which is written in contemporary Neo-Babylonian script, is presently only known from the published copy and edition of H.W.F. Saggs, which he prepared from a squeeze made in the field. The inscription states that Nabonidus rebuilt Eḫulḫul ("House which Gives Joy"), the temple of the moon-god at Ḫarrān. Because the reconstruction of Sîn's temple took place after Nabonidus returned to Babylon after his ten-year sojourn in Tēmā, the inscription's date of composition can be securely assigned to after the month Tašrītu (VII) of his thirteenth (543) regnal year. As the present whereabouts of this stone fragment are not known, the edition presented in this volume is based on Saggs' copy and edition.
Access the composite text [/ribo/babylon7/Q005446/] of Nabonidus 49.
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A small inscribed piece of limestone was discovered during the third campaign of British excavations at Ḫarrān in 1959. Little of the text remains (only one word can be positively identified) and the attribution to Nabonidus is based on the fact that the inscription is written in contemporary Neo-Babylonian script and that other inscriptions of his were unearthed at the same time. If the identification proves correct, then the object was probably inscribed sometime after the month Tašrītu (VII) of Nabonidus' thirteenth (543) regnal year, when Eḫulḫul ("House which Gives Joy"), the temple of Sîn, was being rebuilt. Because the current whereabouts of the original object are not known, the present edition is based on H.W.F. Saggs' published copy and edition.
Access the composite text [/ribo/babylon7/Q005447/] of Nabonidus 50.
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About one hundred bricks found in the debris of the Islamic settlement of Ḫarrān are stamped with a four-line Akkadian inscription of Nabonidus stating that he rebuilt Eḫulḫul ("House which Gives Joy"), the temple of the moon-god Sîn. The script is contemporary Neo-Babylonian. Although the bricks do not bear a date, they were clearly made when Nabonidus was having Sîn's temple renovated, which, according to text no. 47 (Ḫarrān Stele), took place after he returned to Babylon in Tašrītu (VII) of his thirteenth regnal year (543). Therefore, this text was stamped on bricks sometime after that date. In scholarly literature, this inscription is sometimes referred to as "[Nabonidus] Fragment 2."
Access the composite text [/ribo/babylon7/Q005448/] of Nabonidus 51.
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Commentary
Of the bricks discovered at Ḫarrān in 1985, 1989, and 1990, the excavation number for only one of them has ever been published: Hr 85/75. All of the partially-baked bricks, of which there appear to have been two different types (square and rectangular), are reported to have had the same four-line inscription on their faces. Four different stamps of equal size were used to impress the inscription; in most cases, the text was very faintly pressed into the face of the bricks. The square bricks measure 33.5×33.5×7 cm and the rectangular bricks measure 33.5×16.5×7 cm; the damaged brick Hr 85/75 measures 24×6×7 cm. The dimensions of the stamps themselves are not known.
The current whereabouts of the bricks used to build Eḫulḫul are unknown, but it is assumed that most were left in the field. The present edition is generally based on V. Donbaz's facsimile of the inscription (ARRIM 9 [1991] p. 12 and fig. 1), which is a composite made from over one hundred different bricks. The text could be partially collated from the published photograph of Hr 85/75 (Donbaz, Varia Anatolica 1 [1987] p. 21). From that photo it is clear that the name of Nabonidus' father in line 2 should be read as mdMUATI-ba-lat-su-iq-bi ("Nabû-balāssu-iqbi"), and not mdnusku-ba-lat-su-iq-bi ("Nusku-balāssu-iqbi") as copied and transliterated by Donbaz; for this reading of the name, see already Schaudig, Inschriften Nabonids p. 342.
No score of the inscription is given on Oracc and no minor (orthographic) variants are given in the critical apparatus at the back of the book. In the case of this text, this is because the inscription is known only from a composite copy and a photograph of a single exemplar.
Bibliography
This bowl, which is said to have been made of alallu-stone (a light reddish brown stone that is 65 percent dolomite and 30 percent calcite), is inscribed with an Akkadian text of Nabonidus stating that he had this bowl and another bowl (a šulpu-vessel) dedicated to Sîn at Ḫarrān; the script is contemporary Neo-Babylonian. Both vessels were reported to have been used for hand-washing rituals performed at the ziggurat of Eḫulḫul ("House which Gives Joy"); this is the only cuneiform text mentioning a temple-tower at Ḫarrān. The present edition is based on the published photograph.
Access the composite text [/ribo/babylon7/Q005449/] of Nabonidus 52.
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This inscribed chalcedony bead, which is now in a private collection, was possibly found at Ḫarrān (or Ur). According to its Akkadian inscription, the bead was part of a dagger that Nabonidus dedicated to the statue of Sîn, after that god made this request in a dream. The script is presumed to have been contemporary Neo-Babylonian. Because the present whereabouts of the object are not known, the edition presented here is based on the published transliteration of A.L. Oppenheim. This text is sometimes referred to in scholarly publications as the "Nabonidus Pearl" and "[Nabonidus] Inscription F."
Access the composite text [/ribo/babylon7/Q005450/] of Nabonidus 53.
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Commentary
H. Schaudig (Inschriften Nabonids pp. 48 and 545) suggests that the text was written in connection with the rebuilding of Eḫulḫul and the renovation of its divine statues and, therefore, postulates that this short inscription of Nabonidus was composed after that king's return to Babylon in his thirteenth regnal year (543). P.-A. Beaulieu (Nabonidus p. 40), on the other hand, notes that there "is no evidence to its date," since it original provenance is unknown. If the dagger in which this pearl was inlaid was indeed closely connected with this king's activities at Ḫarrān, then a late date of composition is expected. However, since Nabonidus was actively engaged with Sîn-related activities and construction at Ur starting in his second year as king (554), when he consecrated his daughter En-nigaldi-nanna as ēntu-priestess of the moon-god there, and since the dagger requested by Sîn to Nabonidus might have been associated with work at Ur, it is best not to assign a firm date of composition to this text. Tentatively, following Schaudig, the Pearl Inscription of Nabonidus is edited here together with that king's Ḫarrān inscriptions, rather than with those from Ur.
Bibliography
Frauke Weiershäuser & Jamie Novotny
Frauke Weiershäuser & Jamie Novotny, 'Inscriptions of Nabonidus from Harran', RIBo, Babylon 7: The Inscriptions of the Neo-Babylonian Dynasty, The RIBo Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2022 [/ribo/babylon7/Rulers/Nabonidus/Texts46-53Harran/]