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A Stele of Nebuchadnezzar II A VII A Stele of Nebuchadnezzar II A. R. GEORGE No. 76 MS 2063 Pls. LVIII–LXVII This extraordinary monument, popularly known damaged, but parts of the smoothed edges of as the Tower of Babel stele, has already been the stele are preserved along most of the left- brought to the attention of scholarship and the hand side, across much of the top, down the wider public. As one of the Schøyen Collec- upper right-hand side, and, invisible on the tion’s most notable objects, a photograph of its previously available photograph, for a short face was early placed in the collection’s online section of the base (Pls. LXVI–LXVII). These checklist of manuscripts (www.schoyencollec- preserved sections of edge enable a secure tion.com/babylonianhist.htm), where it soon reconstruction of the monument’s original attracted comment (e.g. Van De Mieroop shape (Pl. LIX). The stele is of conventional 2003: 264). The photograph has been repro- form. When stood on its base it resembles in duced several times in print, in both academic outline a gravestone with a rounded top. How- and popular publications (Schwemer 2005: 16, ever, while the face is flat the verso is lightly Montero 2005: 216, André-Salvini 2008: 229), convex; the edges, too, are rounded where and my drawing of it has already appeared in a they meet the face and the back. popular book on early cities (Levy 2008: 31). The face of the stele is worn and in places The stele is presented here as an Assyriological the surface has been lost entirely. About the top subject, but in the knowledge that this will only two-fifths of the face are taken up by a pictorial be the start of its appraisal by scholarship. In scene carved in bas-relief (Pls. LX, LXII– due course experts from other fields, particular- LXIV). The relief depicts a standing figure ly art history, will supply more detailed appre- (right) facing a ziqqurrat or stepped temple- ciations of it as a Babylonian cultural artefact tower (left). Both ziqqurrat and man are shown and refine the opinions set forth below. in profile. The tower is identified by an epi- The stele comprises two broken fragments graph as E-temen-anki, the well-known ziq- of beautifully polished, dense black stone, said qurrat of the god Marduk at Babylon and the to be basalt; the join between them is secure inspiration for the biblical Tower of Babel. For (Pl. LVIII). There have been reports of a third this reason the monument has come by its pop- fragment that belongs to the stele but its where- ular designation, the Tower of Babel stele. abouts are unknown and its existence awaits Above the ziqqurrat is the ground-plan of a confirmation. If a third part of the stele exists, it building. A nearly identical ground-plan is must be very small, for little is missing. The ex- carved on the stele’s left shoulder (Pl. LXIV). tant monument measures 47 cm high and 25 The lower part of the stele is occupied by an cm across. The back is badly damaged, exhib- inscription in monumental cuneiform script iting a depth of 11 cm at its fullest point, but it (Pls. LXI, LXV). The text as a whole is not seems to have been entirely blank (Pl. LXVI). known from any other source but is a standard The bottom left-hand corner is missing, and piece of work typical of the output of the sixth- parts of the right-hand edge and top are badly century Neo-Babylonian or Chaldean dynasty. 153 154 Royal Inscriptions and Related Texts The stele’s pictorial elements are less routine. eveh that shows officials presenting the Assyri- For this reason the components of the relief are an king with the regalia of his defeated brother, described first, in the order (a) man, (b) ziqqur- fiamaÍ-Íuma-uk‹n king of Babylon (Novotny rat, and (c) ground-plans. and Watanabe 2008: 107 fig. 4). There the crown and staff are accompanied by a third The Standing Figure item, which Novotny and Watanabe have suc- The figure depicted on the right side of the ceeded in identifying as the Babylonian royal relief is a bearded male dressed in a long robe seal. The curved object held in the right hand and shod in sandals (Pls. LXIII–LXIV). The of the figure depicted in the present relief, and fine details of his beard, hair, and robe have in the right hand of kings (a)–(e) above, is not largely disappeared but enough traces remain a seal, however, and its identity and function to give an impression of delicate rendering of remain uncertain (see Brinkman and Dalley very elaborate decoration. His right wrist is 1988: 95–97, where “left hand” is a typograph- embellished with a bracelet or bangle. He ical error). wears the late form of the Babylonian royal As the bearer of these three regalia— crown, conical with a long tassel hanging from crown, staff, and curved object—the standing the back, and holds in his left hand a long staff figure depicted on the present monument is that matches him in height. In his right hand he unquestionably also a king. Given the certain holds a curved conical object directed at his attribution of the stele’s inscription to Nebu- face. In these last three particulars the figure chadnezzar II (see below), there can be no very much resembles representations of Baby- doubt that he is none other than this great lonian kings on other Neo-Babylonian stone Babylonian monarch (reigned 604–562). The monuments from the mid-ninth century on. In relief thus yields only the fourth certain repre- chronological order these are the kudurru- sentation of Nebuchadnezzar to be discovered; stones of: the others are carved on cliff-faces in Lebanon, (a) an unidentified ninth-century king at Wadi Brisa (two reliefs, Weissbach 1906: 2– (drawing Seidl 1989: 56 fig. 20) 3 figs. 2 and 3; 8; Börker-Klähn 1982: I 228, II nos. 259–60; Da Riva 2010: 173–74 and figs. 3– (b) Marduk-z⁄kir-Íumi I (ca 853 BC; photo- 4) and at Shir es-Sanam (one relief, Da Riva graph Thureau-Dangin 1919: 132 f. pl. 1) 2010: 175–76 and fig. 5). Other Neo-Babylo- (c) Merodach-baladan II (715 BC; photo- nian reliefs at nearby Wadi es-Saba‘ are not graph Meyer 1965 fig. 142) accompanied by legible inscriptions and may or (d) AÍÍur-n⁄din-Íumi (699–694; photograph may not represent Nebuchadnezzar II (Da Brinkman and Dalley 1988: 80 f.) Riva 2010: 176–77 and figs. 6–7). All these out- (e) fiamaÍ-Íuma-uk‹n (668–648; drawing door monuments are in very poor condition Seidl 1989: 62 fig. 24) and their depictions of the king are much less impressive than that on the stele. The conical crown worn by all these kings is the Babylonian agû, and the long staff held in The Ziqqurrat their left hands is Bab. Óaˇˇu (conventionally, but misleadingly, translated “sceptre”). The The stepped tower depicted on the left side of same crown and staff distinguish the figure of the relief, opposite Nebuchadnezzar, is accom- the king on a kudurru-type stone tablet, but panied by the following epigraph (Pl. LXV): there his left hand is empty and the staff is con- 1. [é]-tem[en]-an-‚kiŸ E-temen-anki, sequently in the right hand: 2. [z]i-qú-ra-at the ziqqurrat of (f) Nabû-apla-iddina (ninth century; photo- 3. [k]á.dingir.raki Babylon. graph King 1912 pl. 103 no. 28) E-temen-anki is a Sumerian ceremonial name Both crown and staff appear also in a relief that means “House Foundation Platform of of Ashurbanipal from the North Palace at Nin- Heaven and Underworld,” an indication of the A Stele of Nebuchadnezzar II 155 structure’s symbolic place in Babylonian cos- metrological cuneiform text that sets out areas mology (George 1992: 298–300). Its early his- of the cult-centre of Marduk at Babylon in the tory is unrecorded but more is known of the language of mathematical problems and gives tower in the first millennium (for more detail the dimensions of his ziqqurrat in three differ- see George 2005–6). It was destroyed by Sen- ent units (George 1992: 109–19 no. 13). Ac- nacherib of Assyria when he laid Babylon waste cording to this and other texts the ziqqurrat had in 689, and partially rebuilt by Sennacherib’s a base of 180 cubits square. One hundred and successors, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal. The eighty cubits is the equivalent of about 90 m. project was restarted by Nabopolassar after The base dimensions have been corroborated Babylon won its independence from Assyria, by archaeological survey and excavation, and completed by his son, Nebuchadnezzar II, which found three of the base’s sides to mea- in about 590. Archaeological evidence reveals sure just over 91 m each (now Schmid 1995: that the building was damaged beyond repair in 49–50). The E-sangil Tablet also records the the Persian period. It was levelled in the late ziqqurrat’s height as 180 cubits. The tradition fourth century by Alexander of Macedon and that the tower was as high as it was wide was his successors in preparation for a rebuilding very strong, being reported by the Greek geog- that was never started. The site was later built over and lost to sight; its foundations were rapher Strabo more than three hundred years exposed in the 1880s by local villagers digging after the building had been dismantled.
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