|
The Nabonidus Chronicle is an ancient Babylonian text, part of a larger series of Babylonian Chronicles inscribed in cuneiform script on clay tablets. It deals primarily with the reign of Nabonidus, the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, covers the conquest of Babylon by the Persian king Cyrus the Great, and ends with the start of the reign of Cyrus's son Cambyses, spanning a period from 556 BC to some time after 539 BC. It provides a rare contemporary account of Cyrus's rise to power and is the main source of information on this period;〔Oppenheim, A.L. "The Babylonian Evidence of Achaemenian Rule in Mesopotamia". In Gershevitch, Ilya (ed), ''The Cambridge History of Iran: Vol. 2 : The Median and Achaemenian periods'', p. 535. Cambridge University Press, 1993. ISBN 0-521-20091-1〕 Amélie Kuhrt describes it as "the most reliable and sober () account of the fall of Babylon."〔Kuhrt, Amélie. "Babylonia from Cyrus to Xerxes", in ''The Cambridge Ancient History: Persia, Greece, and the Western Mediterranean, C. 525-479 B.C'', pp. 112-138. Cambridge University Press, 1988. ISBN 0-521-22804-2〕 The chronicle is thought to have been copied by a scribe during the Seleucid period (4th-1st century BC) but the original text was probably written during the late 6th or early 5th century BC.〔Clyde E. Fant, Mitchell G. Reddish, ''(Lost Treasures of the Bible: Understanding the Bible Through Archaeological Artifacts in World Museums )'', p. 228. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2008. ISBN 0-8028-2881-7〕 Similarities with the ''Nabonassar to Shamash-shum-ukin Chronicle'', another of the Babylonian Chronicles, suggest that the same scribe may have been responsible for both chronicles. If so, it may date to the reign of Darius I of Persia (c. 549 BC–486 BC).〔 ==Description of the tablet== The Nabonidus Chronicle is preserved on a single clay tablet now kept at the British Museum in London. Like the other Babylonian Chronicles, it lists in an annalistic (year-by-year) fashion the key events of each year, such as the accession and deaths of kings, major military events, and notable religious occurrences. It follows a standard pattern of reporting only events of immediate relevance to Babylonia, making it of somewhat limited utility as a source for a wider history of the region.〔 The tablet itself is fairly large, measuring 140 mm wide by 140 mm long, but is significantly damaged with its bottom and most of the left-hand side missing. The text was composed in two columns on each side, originally consisting of some 300-400 lines. What remains is extremely fragmentary; little more than 75 lines of text are still legible.〔 The missing portions consist of most of the first and fourth columns, along with the bottom of the second and the top of the third. There appears to have been a colophon at the bottom of the tablet, but it too is largely missing.〔Grayson, Albert Kirk. ''Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles'', p. 21. J.J. Augustin, 1975〕 Although the writing is of a good standard, the copying was decidedly imperfect and the scribe made a number of errors that are visible in the text.〔Smith, Sidney. ''Babylonian Historical Texts Relating to the Capture and Downfall of Babylon'', p. 98. Taylor & Francis, 1975 (reprint). ISBN 3-487-05615-1〕 The tablet was acquired by the British Museum in 1879 from the antiquities dealers Spartali & Co. Its original place of discovery is unknown, though it has been presumed that it came from the ruins of Babylon. It possibly represents part of an official collection of annals in the possession of the Achaemenid governors of Babylon.〔Prince, John Dyneley. ''A Critical Commentary on the Book of Daniel: Designed Especially for Students of the English Bible'', p. 219. J. C. Hinrichs, 1899〕 The text, known at the time as "the Annals of Nabonidus", was first discussed in print by Sir Henry Rawlinson in the ''Athenaeum'' magazine of 14 February 1880, with the first English translation being published two years later.〔 It has since been translated by a number of scholars, notably Sidney Smith,〔 A. Leo Oppenheim,〔Oppenheim, A. Leo.''Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament.'' Princeton, 1950.〕 Albert Kirk Grayson,〔 Jean-Jacques Glassner,〔Glassner, Jean-Jacques. ''Mesopotamian Chronicles''. Society of Biblical Literature, 2004. ISBN 1-58983-090-3〕 and Amélie Kuhrt.〔Kuhrt, Amelie. ''The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources of the Achaemenid Period''. London: Routledge, 2007. ISBN 0-415-43628-1〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Nabonidus Chronicle」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|