14. Shards of History

The Babylonian Chronicles recount major political, military and religious events in Babylonia. These non-astronomical cuneiform texts bolster the conventional chronology of the Ancient Near East.

Chronicles 1 to 7 cover the period from Nabonassar to Cyrus (c. -539). Without these texts, historians would be hard pressed to put together anything more than a crude outline of the period. Chronicles 8 to 13a carry Babylonian history down to Seleucus II (c. -225), but with many gaps.