ABC 17 (Religious Chronicle)
The Religious Chronicle (ABC 17) is a historiographical texts from ancient Babylonia. It deals with omens and events during the reign of several kings in the instable period between 1033 and 943: Nabû-šumu-libur, Simbar-šipak, Eulmaš-šakin-šumi, and Nabû-mukin-apli. The tablet was written in the Seleucid age.
For a very brief introduction to the literary genre of chronicles, go here. The translation on this webpage was adapted from A.K. Grayson, Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles (1975) and Jean-Jacques Glassner, Mesopotamian Chronicles (Atlanta, 2004).
The tablet, BM 35968 (Sp III, 504), on which the Religious Chronicle is inscribed measures 81 mm long and 99 mm wide. It is poorly preserved, the bottom and left-hand side being entirely broken away. There are several other smaller lacunae due to the flaking of the surface.
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[iii.2] In the month Ajaru a wolf ... was lurting. He was seen and killed. |
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Translation of Column 3 |
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[iii.1] [lacuna] |
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[iii.3] In the month Ajaru a deer, which no one had seen enter the city |
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[iii.4] was seen in Bab-bêliya[3] and killed. In the month Nisannu, in the seventh year, the Aramaeans were belligerent, |
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[iii.5] so that the king could not come up to Babylon. Neither did Nabû come |
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[iii.6] nor Bêl come out. In the month Nisannu, in the eighth year of Nabû-mukin-apli, the king, |
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[iii.7] the Aramaeans were belligerent, and Bab-nibiri ("Gate of the Crossing") of Kar-bel-matati |
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[iii.8] they captured. Thus the king could not cross, Nabû did not come, |
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[iii.9] and Bêl did not come out. The king did not offer the sacrifices of the Akitu festival in Esagil. |
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[iii.10] In the month Nisannu, in the nineteenth year of Nabû-mukin-apli, the king, ditto.note the sacrifices ... |
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[iii.11] In the month Du'ûzu, in the sixteenth year, a lion which no one saw[12] enter the city |
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[iii.12] in the western quarter on the eighth orchard |
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[iii.13] was seen and killed. In the twentieth year of Nabû-mukin-apli, the king, |
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[iii.14] Bêl did not come out nor did Nabû come. For nine years in succession |
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[iii.15] Bêl did not come out nor did Nabû come. In the twenty-fourth (-fifth, -sixth?) year of Nabû-mukin-apli, the king, |
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[iii.16] the genius, which stands in the right-hand side of the door of the shrine of ... |
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[iii.17] was seen to move. A demon in the bed chambers |
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[iii.18] of Nabû was seen. ... upon ... Nabû in the meat was seen |
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[iii.19] On the twenty-first day of the month Šabatu, in the twenty-sixth year of Nabû-mukin-apli, the king, Adad thundered, his fire ... |
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