# Religious Chronicle

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Religious_Chronicle
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Religious_Chronicle.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_Chronicle
> Source revision: 1220339379
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

The **Religious Chronicle** is an ancient [Mesopotamian](/source/Mesopotamia) register of portents such as the straying of wild animals into urban areas and extraordinary natural phenomena which presaged the disruptions which interfered with the [Akītu](/source/Akitu) or new year festival and the performance of its regular cultic activities which included the transport of the idols of the gods to the city of [Babylon](/source/Babylon) during the tumultuous years of chaos caused by the incursions of [Aramean](/source/Arameans) nomads.

## The text

The Religious Chronicle seems to have drawn its sources from the [protases](/source/Protasis_(linguistics)) of omen literature in contrast to the [Chronicle of Early Kings](/source/Chronicle_of_Early_Kings) which drew them from their [apodoses](/source/Apodosis_(linguistics)).[1] The tablet has two columns per side and is in poor condition, with the surface severely abraded and most of the left-hand side (columns I and IV) gone. It may have been part of a series as there is part of a catch-line evident on line 8 of column IV.[2]: 17 It is designated BM 35968 (Sp III, 504) and is held in the [British Museum](/source/British_Museum). Written during the [Seleucid era](/source/Seleucid_era), it was acquired by the Museum from [Spartali & Co](/source/Spartali_%26_Co), sponsors of much of the unofficial tablet gathering in Iraq under [Ottoman](/source/Ottoman_Empire) jurisdiction in 1880, and consequently its find spot is uncertain.[3]

The earliest king to appear in the text is [Nabû-šumu-libūr](/source/Nabu-shum-libur) (c. 1033 – 1026 BC) on line 16 of the first column and the work also name-drops [Nabû-mukin-apli](/source/Nab%C3%BB-mukin-apli) (c. 978 – 943 BC). The intervening text describes a reign or reigns of up to seventeen years. Only [Simbar-Šipak](/source/Simbar-shipak) (c. 1025 - 1008 BC) and [Eulmaš-šākin-šumi](/source/Eulmash-shakin-shumi) (c. 1004 – 987 BC) reigned so long during this period. The historical era covered was a period of great turmoil.

Column II, in a passage ascribed to Simbar-Šipak's reign,[4] includes a possible reference to a solar eclipse: “On the twenty-sixth day of the month Sivan, in the seventh year, day turned to night and there was a fire in the sky.” Rowton identified this with May 9, 1012 BC[5] although the current chronology places this in his thirteenth year and the absence of an appropriate technical term for the eclipse, such as AN-KU10, casts doubt on this astronomical identification.[2]: 68 n.345[6]

## Primary publications

- L. W. King (1907). [*Chronicles Concerning Early Babylonian Kings: Vol. 2 Texts and Translations*](https://archive.org/details/chroniclesconcer02king). Luzac & Co. pp. [70](https://archive.org/details/chroniclesconcer02king/page/70)–86, 157–179.
- E. Unger (1931). *Babylon: die heilige Stadt der Babylonier*. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 274–276.
- A. K. Grayson (1975). *Assyrian and Babylonian chronicles*. J. J. Augustin. pp. 133–138.
- Jean-Jacques Glassner (2004). *Mesopotamian Chronicles*. Society of Biblical Literature. pp. 296–299.

## References

1. Matthew Neujahr (2012). *Predicting the past in the ancient Near East : mantic historiography in ancient Mesopotamia, Judah, and the Mediterranean world*. Brown Judaic Studies. Providence, Rhode Island. p. 91. footnote 57.

1. J. A. Brinkman (1968). *A political History of Post-Kassite Babylonia, 1158–722 B.C.*. Pontificium Institutum Biblicum.

1. L. W. King (1907). [*Chronicles Concerning Early Babylonian Kings: Vol. 1 Introductory Chapters*](https://archive.org/details/chroniclesconcer01king). Luzac & Co. pp. [212](https://archive.org/details/chroniclesconcer01king/page/212)–240.

1. A. Poebel (1955). *The Second Dynasty of Isin According to a New King-list Tablet (AS 15)*. Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. pp. 23–24. n. 80

1. M. B. Rowton (1946). "Mesopotamian Chronology and the 'Era of Menophres'". *Iraq*. **8**: 106–107. [doi:10.2307/4199528](https://doi.org/10.2307/4199528). [JSTOR 4199528](https://www.jstor.org/stable/4199528). [S2CID 163249880](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:163249880)

1. F. Richard Stephenson (2008). *Historical Eclipses and Earth's Rotation*. Cambridge University Press. pp. 143–146.

## External links

- Religious Chronicle (ABC 17) at [Livius](https://www.livius.org/cg-cm/chronicles/abc17/religious_chronicle1.html)

## See also

- [Chronology of the ancient Near East](/source/Chronology_of_the_ancient_Near_East)

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Religious Chronicle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_Chronicle) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_Chronicle?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.