The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

Month-day-year:
VII -- 19 — acc.
VIII -- 10 — 17
IX -- xx — 17
XII -- 19 — 17
King:
Cyrus
Nabonidus
Nabonidus
Nabonidus
Appendix 357
Furuli concludes:
If one or more of the three tablets dated in months 8 and 12 of
Nabonid are correct, this suggests that Nabonid reigned longer than 17
years. (p. 132)
But none of the three “overlapping dates” are real.
(A-1) Nabonidus “VIII —10 — 17” (BM 74972):
As Furuli explains, PD rejected this date because “the month
sign is shaded” in J. N. Strassmaier’s copy of the text published in
1889. 81 They had good reasons for doing this because F. H.
Weissbach, who collated the tablet in 1908, explained that the
month name was highly uncertain and “in any case not
Arahsamnu” (month VIII). 82
Actually, there is an even more serious error with the date. Back
in 1990 I asked C. B. F. Walker at the British Museum to take
another look at the date on the original tablet. He did this together
with two other Assyriologists. They all agreed that the year is 16,
not 17. Walker says:
On the Nabonidus text no. 1054 mentioned by Parker and
Dubberstein p. 13 and Kugler, SSB I1388, I have collated that tablet (BM
74972) and am satisfied that the year is 16, not 17. It has also been
checked by Dr. G. Van Driel and Mr. Bongenaar, and they both agree
with me. 83
(A-2) Nabonidus “IX — xx —17” (No. 1055 in
Strassmaier, Nabonidus):
This text does not give any day number, the date above just
being given as “Kislimu [= month IX], year 17 of Nabonidus”. The
text, in fact, contains four different dates of this kind, in the
following chronological disorder: Months IX, I, XII, and VI of
“year 17 of Nabonidus”. None of these dates refers to the time
when the tablet was drawn up. Such a date is actually missing on
81 PD ( Parker & Dubberstein’s Babylonian Chronology, 1956), p. 13. The tablet is
listed as No. 1054 in J. N. Strassmaier, Inschriften von Nabonidus, König von
Babylon (Leipzig, 1889).
82 See F. X. Kugler, Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel [SSB], Vol. II:2 (1912), p.
388
83 Letter Walker to Jonsson, November 13, 1990.