Clay Cylinder of Nabopolassar Mesopotamia Babylon Neo-Babylonian Period Reign of Nabopolassar, 625 - 605 BC Clay, 3 7/8 x 2 1/16 in. (9.8 x 5.2 cm). 1921.131
Cuneiform ("wedge-shaped") writing is Mesopotamia's most important contribution to the rest of the ancient Near East. Its invention revolutionized the way business and trade were conducted and offered the first opportunity for mankind to record written history. Cuneiform and its principal writing medium, the clay tablet, remained in use for over 3,000 years. Scribes adapted cuneiform script for writing many Near Eastern languages and used it to record business transactions, legal codes, and literary, commemorative, and dedicatory texts.
This barrel-shaped cylinder of clay is inscribed with a commemorative text that records the repair of the city wall of Babylon by Nabopolassar. In the text, Nabopolassar invokes his own name as king of Babylon, describes the weakening and settling of the Great Wall of Babylon on its original base, and his repair and rebuilding of the foundation wall which "like a mountain its summit I verily raised... Oh, Wall! Remind Marduk, my lord [patron god of Babylon] of the favor." Kings and officials commonly deposited inscribed tablets of this shape into recesses built below or within new or repaired constructions in Mesopotamia. Their deposit sanctified and protected the construction as well as allowing the king or official to record his name and deeds for the gods and posterity.
Language: Akkadian
Medium: clay cylinder
Size: 9.8 cm long
5.2 cm wide
Length: 3 columns
102 lines of writing
Genre: foundation inscription
Date: late 7th cent. BCE
Nabopolassar's reign: 626-605 BCE
Place of Discovery: Baghdad, Iraq
Date of Discovery: 1921?
Current Location: Carlos Museum Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia
Inventory number: 1921.131
Translation of the Text
(Column 1)
Nabopolassar, the King of Justice, the Shepherd called by Marduk, the one created by Ninmenna (Queen of queens), the one to whom Nabu and Tashmetu stretch out their hand, the Prince beloved of Ninshiku.
When I was young, although the son of a nobody, I constantly sought out the temples of Nabu and Marduk, my patrons. My mind was preoccupied with the establishment of their orders and the complete performance of their rites. My attention was directed to justice and equity. Shazu, the lord who understands the hearts of the gods of heaven and the underworld, who constantly observes the deeds of humanity, perceived my inner thoughts and raised me, the client who was anonymous among the people, to a high status in the country of my birth. He called me to the sovereignty over the land and the people. He caused a benevolent protective spirit to walk at my side. He made everything I did succeed. He made Nergal, the strongest of the gods, to march at my side; he slaughtered my enemies, dropped my enemies. The Assyrian ruled Akkad due to divine anger and oppressed the inhabitants with his heavy yoke.
(Column 2)
But I the weak one, the powerless one, the one who constantly seeks the Lord of lords removed them from Akkad and cause (the Babylonians) to throw off their yoke with the mighty power of Nabu and Marduk, my patrons.