Hillah Stele

Known as Nabonidus inscription No.8 [1, p. 351] [2, p. 270], or Inscription No. 1 [3].

First Published: 1896 by V. Scheil [4] and also L. Messerschmidt [5].

Translation

From Col. X [3, p. 107] see also [6, p. 311]:

[As to the temples of the gods] whose storehouses [were empty?] and where they had not established their residence [since.....], Marduk, my lord, waited for me and entrusted me with the restoration of the divine cults. He decreed by his pure utterance the appeasement of the angry gods and my (re)establishment of their dwellings (as a duty) for my rule. (Concerning) H̬arran (and) the Eh̬ulh̬ul, which had been lying in ruins for 54 years because of its devastation by the Medes (who) destroyed the sanctuaries, with the consent of the gods the time for the reconciliation approached, 54 years, when Sîn should return to his place. When he returned to his place, Sîn, the lord of the tiara, remembered his lofty seat, and (as to) all the gods who left his chapel with him, it is Marduk, the king of the gods, who ordered their gathering.

Key Information

The temple in Harran was destroyed during the 16th year of Nabopolassar:

Adad Guppi Stele Col i Lines 6-9: Whereas in the 16th year of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, Sin, king of the gods, with his city and his temple was angry and went up to heaven—the city and the people that (were) in it went to ruin.

Fall of Nineveh Chronicle Lines 58, 63-64: The sixteenth year: ... The king of Akkad reached Harran and [...] he captured the city. He carried off the vast booty of the city and the temple.

Later the Adad Guppi Stele Col i Lines 37-40 says: Towards E-h̬ul-h̬ul the temple of Sin which (is) in Harran, the abode of his heart's delight, he was reconciled, he had regard. Sin, king of the gods, looked upon me and Nabu-na'id (my) only son, the issue of my womb, to the kingship.

According to Tadmor the inscription therefore counts 54 years from the 16th year of Nabopolassar to the accession of Nabonidus [1, p. 355]:

The 54 years are counted from 610, the sixteenth year of Nabopalassar (when Sin "was angry with his city and his house and went up to heaven"), to 556, the accession year of Nabunaid. The special importance attached to the period of 54 years should not be surprising; it represents, as Professor A. Sachs kindly informs me, the complete cycle of the moon (i.e., three 18 year cycles). Accordingly, "Sin's returning to his place" would mean that the moon cycle was completed. I believe that this coincidence — Nabunaid's coming to the throne exactly 54 years after the destruction of Harran — was interpreted as a most favorable omen, that the moon-god had become reconciled.

References