The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

The Length of Reigns of the Neo-Babylonian Kings 119
that “there are probably some 50,000 texts published and
unpublished for the period 627–539” B.C.E. 60
Thus there exist large numbers of dated tablets from every year
during the whole Neo-Babylonian era. Dr. Wiseman’s estimate would
give an average of nearly 600 dated texts from each of the eightyseven
years from Nabopolassar to Nabonidus, inclusive.
It is true that among these texts there are many that are damaged
or fragmentary, and that dates are often illegible or missing.
Further, the texts are not evenly distributed throughout the period,
as the number gradually increases and culminates in the reign of
Nabonidus.
Nonetheless, every single year throughout the whole period is covered by
numerous, often hundreds of tablets that are datable.
Because of this abundance of dated texts modern scholars are
able to determine not only the length of reign of each king, but also
the time of the year when each change of reign occurred, sometimes almost
to the day!
The last known texts from the reign of Neriglissar, for example,
are dated I/2/4 and I?/6/4 (that is, month I, day 2 and day 6, year
4, corresponding to April 12 and 16, 556 B.C.E., Julian calendar),
and the earliest one from the reign of his son and successor,
Labashi-Marduk, is dated I/23/acc. (May 3, 556). 61 The last text
from the reign of Nabonidus is dated VlI/17/17 (October 13,
539), or one day after the fall of Babylon (given as VII/16/17 in
60 Private letter Wiseman-Jonsson, dated August 28, 1987. This is probably a very
conservative estimate. The most extensive collection of Neo-Babylonian texts is
held in the British Museum, which includes some 25,000 texts dated to the period
626–539 B .C.E. Most of these belong to the “Sippar collection,” which contains
tablets excavated by Hormuzd Rassam at the site of ancient Sippar (present Abu
Habbah) in the years 1881 and 1882. This collection has recently been catalogued.
(E. Leichty et al, Catalogue of the Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum, Vols.
VI–VIII, London: British Museum Publications Ltd, 1986–1988. These catalogues
will hereafter be referred to as CET.) Substantial collections are also in Istanbul
and Baghdad. Many other collections of Neo-Babylonian documents are held in
museums and at universities in the U.S.A., Canada, England, France, Germany,
Italy, and other parts of the world. It is true that many of the tablets are damaged
and the dates are often illegible. Yet, there are still tens of thousands of Neo-
Babylonian tablets with legible dates extant today. As a result of the continuous
archaeological excavations that are being carried out in the Mesopotamian area,
“the body of written sources expands significantly every year. For example, in the
space of a single season of excavations in Uruk, about six thousand documents
from the Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid periods were discovered.”—M. A.
Dandamaev, Slavery in Babylonia (DeKalb, Illinois: Northern Illinois University
Press, 1984), pp. 1, 2.
61 R. A. Parker and W. H. Dubberstein, Babylonian Chronology: 626 B.C.–A.D. 75
(Providence: Brown University Press, 1956), pp. 12, 13.