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Dynastic Chronicle

Field	Value
image	Dynastic Chronicle.jpg
created	740 BC
discovered_date	before 1908
caption	L. W. King’s line-art for a fragment (K. 8532) of the Dynastic Chronicle

The Dynastic Chronicle, "Chronicle 18" in Grayson's Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles or the "Babylonian Royal Chronicle" in Glassner’s Mesopotamian Chronicles, is a fragmentary ancient Mesopotamian text extant in at least four known copies. It is actually a bilingual text written in 6 columns, representing a continuation of the Sumerian king list tradition through to the 8th century BC and is an important source for the reconstruction of the historical narrative for certain periods poorly preserved elsewhere.

The text

From the extant pieces, the work apparently begins with a list of nine antediluvian kings from five cities, so much resembling that of the Sumerian King List that Thorkild Jacobsen considered it a variant, and an account of the flood before proceeding on with that of the successive Babylonian dynasties. Due to the poor state of preservation of the center of the text, there are a great many gaps (lacunae, or lacunas), and the narrative resumes with the post-Kassite king Simbar-Šipak ( 1025–1008 BC), the final discernible king being Erība-Marduk ( 769–761 BC) although it certainly would have continued, possibly until Nabû-šuma-iškun ( 761–748 BC), leading William W. Hallo to suggest it to be a composition during Nabû-nāṣir's reign (747–732 BC).

The text dwells on the final resting place of the kings, leading some to propose that the legitimacy of rule determined the location of the burial.

Reconstruction

The following collation should be considered preliminary as small fragments continue to be identified, where 1A, 1B and 1C probably come from the same tablet although they do not actually join

Copy	Museum Reference	Find Spot
1A	title=Cuneiform texts from Babylonian tablets in the British Museum. / Part XLVI, Babylonian literary texts (CT 46)	author=W. G. Lambert & A. R. Millard	publisher=The trustees of the British Museum	year=1965}} No. 5 + K. 12054	Nineveh
1B	title=The Home of the First Sealand Dynasty	author=W. G. Lambert	journal=Journal of Cuneiform Studies	volume=26	issue=4	date=Oct 1974	pages=208–210	doi=10.2307/1359442	jstor=1359442	s2cid=163967718 }} + K. 16930 + ? K. 19528	Nineveh
1C	81-7-27, 117	Nineveh
2	79-7-8, 333 and 339 (unpublished duplicate)	Nineveh
3	title=Bilingual Chronicle Fragments	author=Irving L. Finkel	journal=Journal of Cuneiform Studies	volume=32	issue=2	date=Apr 1980	pages=65–80	doi=10.2307/1359669	jstor=1359669	s2cid=163499364 }}	Babylon
4	BM 40565=80-11-12, 1088	Babylon

References

L. W. King. (1907). "Chronicles Concerning Early Babylonian Kings, Vol. II: Texts and Translations". Luzac and Co..
A. K. Grayson. (1975). "Assyrian and Babylonian chronicles". J. J. Augustin.
[[Jean-Jacques Glassner]]. (2004). "Mesopotamian Chronicles". Society of Biblical Literature.
John Van Seters. (1997). "In Search of History: Historiography in the Ancient World and the Origins of Biblical History". Eisenbrauns.
W. W. Hallo. (1984–1985). "The Concept of Eras from Nabonassar to Seleucus". [[Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society]].
W. G. Lambert. (1973). "Symbolae biblicae et Mesopotamicae Francisco Mario Theodoro de Liagre Böhl dedicatae". Brill.
[[Wilfred G. Lambert. (1965). "Cuneiform texts from Babylonian tablets in the British Museum. / Part XLVI, Babylonian literary texts (CT 46)". The trustees of the British Museum.
W. G. Lambert. (Oct 1974). "The Home of the First Sealand Dynasty". Journal of Cuneiform Studies.
Johns, PSBA 40 (1918), p. 130.
J. A. Brinkman. (1999). "Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie: Meek - Mythologie". Walter De Gruyter.
[[Rykle Borger]]. (1994). "I Studied Inscriptions from Before the Flood: Ancient Near Eastern and Literary Approaches to Genesis 1-11". Eisenbrauns.
Irving L. Finkel. (Apr 1980). "Bilingual Chronicle Fragments". Journal of Cuneiform Studies.

Wikipedia Source

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8th-century-bc-history-books babylonia mesopotamian-chronicles akkadian-inscriptions clay-tablets

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