Nabonidus Cylinder from Ur
The Nabonidus Cylinder from Ur is a foundation text in which king Nabonidus of Babylonia (r.556-539) describes how he repaired the ziggurat called E-lugal-galga-sisa, which belonged to the temple of Sin in Ur, called Egišnugal. It is probably the king's last building inscription and may be dated to c.540 BCE. It is interesting because it offers a full syncretism of Sin, Marduk, and Nabu.
The translation of the Nabonidus Cylinder was made by Paul-Alain Beaulieu, who is also the author of The Reign of Nabonidus, King of Babylon 556-539 B.C. (1989).
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[i.1-4] Nabonidus, king of Babylon, caretaker of Esagila and Ezida, worshiper of the great gods, I: |
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[i.5-ii.2] E-lugal-galga-sisa, the ziggurat of Egišnugal, which is in Ur, which Ur-Nammu, one of the kings who preceded me, had built but not completed and whose work his son Šulgi had completed,note for in the instructions of Ur-Nammu and Šulgi his son I read that Ur-Nammu had built that ziggurat but not completed it and that Šulgi his son had completed its work, now that ziggurat had become old and on the ancient foundations which Ur-Nammu and Šulgi his son had built, that ziggurat, as in former times, with bitumen and baked bricks I repaired its damaged parts and for Sin, the lords of the gods of heaven and the netherworld, the king of the gods, the "gods"note of the gods, who dwells in the great heavens, the lord of Egišnugal, which is in Ur, my lord, I built anew. |