Babylonian Chronicles

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The Babylonian Chronicles are series of tablets recording major events in Babylonian history. They are thus one of the first steps in the development of ancient historiography. The Babylonian Chronicles were written over a very long period of time, from the reign of Nabonassar up to the Parthian Period, by Babylonian astronomers ("Chaldaeans"), who probably used the Astronomical Diaries as their source.

Almost all of the tablets are currently in the possession of the British Museum.

List of Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles

  • Chronicle of the Kassite and Isin Dynasties, also known as Walker's Chronicle (called "Chronicle 25", but not available in ABC) (translation)
  • Chronicle of the Market Prices (ABC 23) (translation)
  • Late Reign of Nabopolassar Chronicle (ABC 4) (translation)
  • Third year of Neriglissar Chronicle (ABC 6) (translation)
  • Bagayasha Chronicle (BCHP 18)

Literature

  • Leo Oppenheim's translation of the Nabonidus Chronicle can be found in J. B. Pritchard (ed.) Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (= ANET; 1950, 1955, 1969).
  • The standard edition is A.K. Grayson, Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles (= ABC; 1975)
  • A translation of Chronicle 25, discovered after the publication of ABC, was published by C.B.F. Walker "Babylonian Chronicle 25: A Chronicle of the Kassite and Isin Dynasties", in G. van Driel e.a. (eds.): Zikir Šumim: Assyriological Studies Presented to F.R. Kraus on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday (= Fs. Kraus; 1982).
  • John Brinkman revises Grayson's reading of ABC 1 in: "The Babylonian Chronicle revisited" in T. Abusch, J. Huehnergard, P. Steinkeller (eds.): Lingering over words. Studies in ancient Near Eastern literature in honor of William L. Moran (1990 Atlanta)
  • Fragments of the chronicles that are relevant to the study of the Bible, can be found in William W. Hallo (ed.), The Context of Scripture, volume 1 (2003 Leiden and Boston). This book also contains the Weidner Chronicle.
  • A recent update of ABC is Jean-Jacques Glassner, Mesopotamian Chronicles (2004, French version 1993)
  • An even more recent update of ABC is Amélie Kuhrt, The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources of the Achaemenid Period (Routledge, 2007)
  • The publication of I. Finkel & R. J. van der Spek, Babylonian Chronicles of the Hellenistic Period (= BCHP) has been announced.

External links

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  • This page was last modified on 26 September 2008, at 18:39.

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