Evidence
Artifact explorer
Babylonian Chronicle tablet BM 21946 (ABC 5)
Clay tablet (cuneiform chronicle) · 595 BC
Chronicle covering Nebuchadnezzar II's first eleven years: Carchemish (605), the accession, Levantine campaigns, and the capture of "the city of Judah" (597). Date of writing given as c. 595 BC by Wikipedia.
- Findspot
- Unprovenanced: purchased from a dealer in 1896; original excavation unknown.
- Holding institution
- British Museum, London · BM 21946 (1896,0409.51 / 96-4-9, 51)
Text: Babylonian Chronicle ABC 5 (Jerusalem Chronicle) (ABC 5 (Grayson 1975); Wiseman 1956) · Akkadian (Late Babylonian)
Editions/translations consulted: ABC 5 (Jerusalem Chronicle / Chronicle of the early years of Nebuchadnezzar) — English translation on Livius.org; Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles; Mesopotamian Chronicles
Used for synchronism: Carchemish: Nabopolassar year 21 (ABC 5) = Jehoiakim year 4 (Jer 46:2) (605 BC)
Used for synchronism: Capture of "the city of Judah" on 2 Addaru, Nebuchadnezzar year 7 (ABC 5) = Jehoiachin's surrender (2 Kgs 24:10–15) (597 BC)
Used for synchronism: Jehoiakim year 4 = Nebuchadnezzar year 1 (Jer 25:1) (605 BC – 604 BC)
Jehoiachin's ration tablets (Babylon)
Clay tablets (administrative ration lists) · 595 BC – 570 BC
Oil ration lists naming Ya'u-kīnu, king of the land of Yahudu, and his sons among foreign recipients at the Babylonian court.
- Findspot
- Babylon (German excavations under R. Koldewey, 1899–1917)
- Holding institution
- Vorderasiatisches Museum, Pergamon Museum, Berlin · VAT 16378 (pictured); Babylon 28122, 28178, 28186
East India House Inscription
Limestone foundation tablet · 604 BC – 562 BC
Foundation inscription of Nebuchadnezzar II describing his temple building and devotion to the shrines of Babylon and Borsippa.
- Findspot
- Babylon (German excavations under R. Koldewey, 1899–1917)
- Holding institution
- British Museum, London · 1938,0520.1
Cyrus Cylinder
Baked clay cylinder (foundation deposit) · 539 BC – 530 BC
Akkadian building inscription of Cyrus II proclaiming that Marduk let him enter Babylon without battle and denouncing Nabonidus.
- Findspot
- Babylon (German excavations under R. Koldewey, 1899–1917)
- Holding institution
- British Museum, London · BM 90920 (reg. 1880,0617.1941)
Text: Cyrus Cylinder (text) (Cyrus Cylinder (BM 90920)) · Akkadian
Editions/translations consulted: Cyrus Cylinder — English translation on Livius.org
City of David bulla: "Azariah son of Hilkiah"
Clay seal impression (bulla) · 621 BC – 587 BC
Reads "(Belonging) to Azariah son of Hilkiah" (English as reported). It does not state that Hilkiah was the high priest. The date range is the operator's reading of "roughly the time of" Nebuchadnezzar's campaigns in the report; the excavation report was not read.
- Findspot
- Excavated by Y. Shiloh in 1982 in the City of David, Jerusalem ("house of bullae", a hoard of 51 bullae), in the same stratum as the bulla of Gemariah son of Shaphan (as reported by the Armstrong Institute, quoting T. Schneider).
- Holding institution
- Unknown