TheBabylonian Chronicles are a loosely-defined series of about 45tablets recording major events inBabylonian history.[2]
They represent one of the first steps in the development ofancienthistoriography. The Babylonian Chronicles are written in Babyloniancuneiform and date from the reign ofNabonassar until theParthian Period. The tablets were composed by Babylonian astronomers ("Chaldaeans") who probably used theAstronomical Diaries as their source.
Almost all of the tablets were identified as chronicles once in the collection of theBritish Museum, having been acquired via antiquities dealers from unknown excavations undertaken during the 19th century. Only three of the chronicles areprovenanced.[2]
The Chronicles provide the "master narrative" for large blocks of current Babylonian history.[2]
The chronicles are thought to have been transferred to theBritish Museum after 19th century excavations in Babylon, and subsequently left undeciphered in the archives for decades. The first chronicle to be published was BM 92502 (ABC1) in 1887 byTheophilus Pinches under the title "The Babylonian Chronicle." This was followed in 1923 by the publication of the Fall of Nineveh Chronicle (ABC 3), in 1924 bySidney Smith's publication of the Esarhaddon Chronicle (ABC 14), the Akitu Chronicle (ABC 16) and theNabonidus Chronicle (ABC 7), and in 1956 byDonald Wiseman's publication of four further tablets including theNebuchadnezzar Chronicle (ABC 5).[3]
ABC – A.K. Grayson,Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles (1975)
CM – Jean-Jacques Glassner,Chroniques Mésopotamiennes (1993) (translated asMesopotamian Chronicles, 2004)
BCHP – I. Finkel & R.J. van der Spek,Babylonian Chronicles of the Hellenistic Period (not yet published)
BM – British Museum Number
| Chronicle | ABC | CM | BCHP | BM | Provenanced | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dynastic chronicle (translation) (another version of Column 5) |  | 18 | 3 | Yes | ||
| Royal chronicle of Lagaš | 6 | |||||
| Weidner chronicle (translation) | 19 | 38 | Yes | |||
| Early kings chronicle (translation) |  | 20 | 39,40 | |||
| Tummal chronicle | 7 | |||||
| Uruk chronicle of the kings of Ur | 48 | |||||
| Assyrian Eponym List (2nd millennium) | 8 | |||||
| Market prices chronicle (translation) | 23 | 50 | ||||
| Synchronic history (translation andanother translation) |  | 21 | 10 | Yes | ||
| Chronicle P (translation andanother translation) |  | 22 | 45 | |||
| Enlil-nirari chronicle | 11 | |||||
| Arik-den-ili chronicle | 12 | |||||
| Walker chronicle | 25 | 46 | ||||
| Tukulti-Ninurta chronicle | 13 | |||||
| Aššur-reša-iši chronicle | 14 | |||||
| Tiglath-pileser I chronicle | 15 | |||||
| Eclectic chronicle (translation) |  | 24 | 47 | |||
| Religious chronicle (translation) |  | 17 | 51 | |||
| Assyrian Eponym List (1st millennium) | 9 | |||||
| Nabu-šuma-iškun | 52 | |||||
| From Nabu-Nasir to Šamaš-šuma-ukin (translation) | 1 | 16 | 92502 | |||
| From Nabu-Nasir to Esarhaddon | 1B | 17 | 75976 | |||
| Esarhaddon chronicle (translation) | 14 | 18 | 25091 | |||
| Šamaš-šuma-ukin chronicle (translation) (another translation) | 15 | 19 | 96273 | |||
| Akitu chronicle (translation) | 16 | 20 | 86379 | |||
| Early Years of Nabopolassar chronicle (translation) | 2 | 21 | 25127 | |||
| Fall of Nineveh chronicle (translation) | 3 | 22 | 21901 | |||
| Late years of Nabopolassar chronicle (translation) | 4 | 23 | 22047 | |||
| Early Years of Nebuchadnezzar chronicle (translation) |  | 5 | 24 | 21946 | ||
| Third year of Neriglissar chronicle (translation) | 6 | 25 | 25124 | |||
| Nabonidus chronicle (text and translation) | 7 | 26 | 35382 | |||
| Chronographic document on Nabonidus | 53 | |||||
| Artaxerxes III chronicle (translation) | 9 | 28 | ||||
| Cyrus cylinder | 17 | 90920 | ||||
| Alexander chronicle (text and translation) | .jpg) | 8 | 29 | 1 | ||
| Alexander and Arabia chronicle (text and translation) | 2 | |||||
| Diadochi chronicle (text and translation) | 10 | 30 | 3 | |||
| Alexander and Artaxerxes (translation) | 4 | |||||
| Antiochus I and Sin temple chronicle (text and translation) | 11 | 32 | 5 | |||
| Ruin of Esagila chronicle (text and translation) | 6 | |||||
| Antiochus, Bactria, and India chronicle (text and translation) | 13A | 36 | 7 | |||
| Juniper garden chronicle (text and translation) | 8 | |||||
| End of Seleucus I chronicle (text and translation) | 12 | 33 | 9 | |||
| Seleucid Accessions chronicle (text and translation) | 13 | 34 | 10 | |||
| Invasion of Ptolemy III chronicle (text and translation) | 11 | |||||
| Seleucus III chronicle (text and translation) | 13B | 35 | 12 | |||
| Politai chronicle (text and translation) | 13 | |||||
| Greek Community chronicle (text and translation) | 14 | |||||
| Gold theft chronicle (text and translation) | 15 | |||||
| Document on land and tithes (text and translation) | 16 | |||||
| Judicial chronicle (text and translation) | 37 | 17 | ||||
| Bagayasha chronicle | 18 | |||||
| Chronicle concerning an Arsacid king (text and translation) | 19 | |||||
| Euphrates chronicle (text and translation) | 20 |
The "Babylonian Chronicles" are a miscellaneous, ill-defined group of texts… The most influential classification is that of A. K.Grayson. His book Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles (ABC) is the starting point of any study undertaken on the topic. It assembled a variety of chronographic texts, including Assyrian chronicles and other writings which may not belong to the ill-defined chronicle genre (see below)… About forty-five Babylonian chronicles are now known. This includes the twenty-four texts published by Grayson in Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles and several new additions. The exact number is unclear because the genre is ill-defined… Most chronicles are preserved on clay tablets retrieved from Iraqi soil during illicit diggings at the end of the nineteenth century. In the corpus presented by Grayson, only three chronicles (in most of their copies) are provenanced, but these texts are atypical and their attribution to the chronicle genre is disputed… Despite the lack of formal provenance, most chronicles are regarded as products of the city of Babylon.
