CM 52 (Nabu-šuma-iškun)

The following, very fragmentary text from Uruk, is a chronographic document dealing with the history of Babylonia in the eighth century BCE, and especially the demise of king Nabû-šuma-iškun, who died in 748, after he had broken all written and unwritten laws of his civilization. The text was already damaged in Antiquity: the scribe notes several breaks in the original he was copying.

For a very brief introduction to the literary genre of chronicles, go here. More information can be found in Jean-Jacques Glassner, Mesopotamian Chronicles (Atlanta, 2004), in which this is text CM 52.

Translation of Column IV

[iv.2'] ...
...

[iv.3'] ... Bêl ...

[iv.4'] ... Sin ... he made get up.

[iv.5'] ... in the room ...

[iv.6'] ...

[iv.7'] ... Babylon ... he ... them.

[iv.8'] ... Babylon.

[iv.9'] ... he ... and ... they knelt.

[iv.10'] ... they made go up .... "I want to send ...".

[iv.11'] ... the great lord Marduk ... looked angrily at ... Ezida and

[iv.12'] ... they made ... attack him and he plundered its ...

[iv.13'] ... his survivors ... confined and

[iv.14'] ... the fugitives ... he returned and

[iv.15'] ... Akkad ... he burned.

[iv.16'] ... Borsippa, ..., Dilbat, and Cutha.

[iv.17'] ... toward those who are in the vanguard, ... he stole their goods.

[iv.18'] ... he marched to Larak and ... the governor of Larak.

[iv.19'] ... sworn agreements and oaths before the great gods, seven times, ... entered into with him.

[iv.20'] ... those people, without having committed any crime ... he seized and

[iv.21'] ... he took them away and ... made them live on the steppe.

[iv.22'] ... toward the Bitter Waters ... them.

[iv.23'] ... he reached ... and Nabû who, before ... kept hold of Babylon.

[iv.24'] ... he caused to be done ... Ekur not ... he made him do but

[iv.25'] Marduk, the great lord, and Nabû, the exalted crown-prince, commanded his scattering ...

[iv.26'] ...

[iv.27'] ...

[iv.28'] ... BREAK ...