The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

The Length of Reigns of the Neo-Babylonian Kings 113
Nabopolassar reigned for twenty-one years, five years remained from
his sixteenth year to the end of his reign. After that
Nebuchadnezzar ruled for forty-three years, Awel-Marduk for two, and
Neriglissar for four years before Nabonidus came to power (Labashi-
Marduk’s few months may be disregarded).
Summing up these regnal years (5+43+2+4) we get fifty-four
years-exactly as Nabonidus states on his stele.
If, as has been established, Nabonidus’ first year was 555/554
B.C.E., Nabopolassar’s sixteenth year must have been 610/609, his
first year 625/624 and his twenty-first and last year 605/604 B.C.E.
Nebuchadnezzar’s first year, then, was 604/603, and his eighteenth
year, when he desolated Jerusalem, was 587/586 B.C.E.―not 607
B.C.E. These dates agree completely with the dates arrived at from
Berossus’ figures and the Royal Canon.
Consequently, this stele adds its testimony in establishing the
total length of the reigns of all the Neo-Babylonian kings prior to
Nabonidus. The strength of this evidence―produced right during
the Neo-Babylonian era itself―cannot be insisted upon too
strongly.
(3) Nabon. No. 24, also known as the Adad-guppi’ inscription, exists
in two copies. The first was discovered in 1906 by H. Pognon at
Eski Harran in south-eastern Turkey, in the ruins of the ancient
city of Harran (known as Haran in Abraham’s time). The stele, now
in the Archaeological Museum at Ankara, is a grave inscription,
evidently composed by Nabonidus for his mother, Adad-guppi’.
The text not only includes a biographical sketch of Nabonidus’
mother from the time of Assyrian king Ashurbanipal and on to the
ninth year of Nabonidus (when she died), but also gives the length
of reign of each of the Neo-Babylonian kings except, of course, of
Nabonidus himself, who was still living. Unfortunately, in the first
copy the portion of the text setting out the reigns is damaged, and
the only readable figures are the forty-three years of
Nebuchadnezzar’s reign and the four years of Neriglissar’s reign. 52
However, in 1956 Dr. D. S. Rice discovered three other stelae at
Harran from the reign of Nabonidus, one of which bore a duplicate
inscription of the one discovered in 1906! Fortunately, the sections of
52 For an extensive discussion of the inscription, see B. Landsberger, “Die Basaltstele
Nabonids von Eski-Harran,” in Halil-Edhem Hâtira Kitabi, Kilt I (Ankara: Turk Tarih
Kurumu Basimevi, 1947), pp. 115–152. An English translation is included in
Pritchard’s ANET, pp. 311, 312. In ANET the translation of stele H 1, A, col. II says
“6th” year of Nabonidus, which is an error for “9th”. The original text clearly has
“9th” year’.