The Babylonian Chronicles are a loosely defined series of about 45 tablets recording major events in Babylonian history.

They represent one of the first steps in the development of ancient historiography. The Babylonian Chronicles are written in Babylonian cuneiform and date from the reign of Nabonassar until the Parthian Period. The tablets were composed by Babylonian astronomers ("Chaldaeans") who probably used the Babylonian astronomical diaries as their source.

Almost all of the tablets were identified as chronicles once in the collection of the British Museum, having been acquired via antiquities dealers from unknown excavations undertaken during the 19th century. Only three of the chronicles are provenanced.

The Chronicles provide the "master narrative" for large blocks of current Babylonian history.

Discovery and publication The chronicles are thought to have been transferred to the British Museum after 19th century excavations in Babylon, and subsequently left undeciphered in the archives for decades. The first chronicle to be published was BM 92502 (ABC1) in 1887 by Theophilus Pinches under the title "The Babylonian Chronicle." This was followed in 1923 by the publication of the Fall of Nineveh Chronicle (ABC 3), in 1924 by Sidney Smith's publication of the Esarhaddon Chronicle (ABC 14), the Akitu Chronicle (ABC 16) and the Nabonidus Chronicle (ABC 7), and in 1956 by Donald Wiseman's publication of four further tablets including the Nebuchadnezzar Chronicle (ABC 5).Wiseman, 1956, pages 1+2

Chronicles

Numbering systems ABC – A.K. Grayson, Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles (1975)

CM – Jean-Jacques Glassner, Chroniques Mésopotamiennes (1993) (translated as Mesopotamian Chronicles, 2004)

BCHP – R. J. van der Spek, Irving L. Finkel, Reinhard Pirngruber & Kathryn Stevens, Babylonian Chronicles of the Hellenistic Period (2025)

BM – British Museum Number

List ChronicleABCCMBCHPBMProvenancedDynastic chronicle (translation) ()183YesRoyal chronicle of Lagaš6Weidner chronicle (translation)1938YesEarly kings chronicle (translation)2039,40Tummal chronicle7Uruk chronicle of the kings of Ur48Assyrian Eponym List (2nd millennium)8Market prices chronicle (translation)2350Synchronic history (translation and )2110YesChronicle P (translation and )2245Enlil-nirari chronicle11Arik-den-ili chronicle12Walker chronicle2546Tukulti-Ninurta chronicle13Aššur-reša-iši chronicle14Tiglath-pileser I chronicle15Eclectic chronicle (translation)2447Religious chronicle (translation)1751Assyrian Eponym List (1st millennium)9Nabu-šuma-iškun52From Nabu-Nasir to Šamaš-šuma-ukin (translation)11692502From Nabu-Nasir to Esarhaddon1B1775976Esarhaddon chronicle (translation)141825091Šamaš-šuma-ukin chronicle (translation) ()151996273Akitu chronicle (translation)162086379Early Years of Nabopolassar chronicle (translation)22125127Fall of Nineveh chronicle (translation)32221901Late years of Nabopolassar chronicle (translation)42322047Early Years of Nebuchadnezzar chronicle (translation)52421946Third year of Neriglissar chronicle (translation)62525124Nabonidus chronicle (text and translation)72635382Chronographic document on Nabonidus53Artaxerxes III chronicle (translation)928Cyrus cylinder1790920Alexander chronicle (text and translation)8291Alexander and Arabia chronicle (text and translation)2Diadochi chronicle (text and translation)10303Alexander and Artaxerxes (translation)4Antiochus I and Sin temple chronicle (text and translation)11325Ruin of Esagila chronicle (text and translation)6Antiochus, Bactria, and India chronicle (text and translation)13A367Juniper garden chronicle (text and translation)8End of Seleucus I chronicle (text and translation)12339Seleucid Accessions chronicle (text and translation)133410Invasion of Ptolemy III chronicle (text and translation)11Seleucus III chronicle (text and translation)13B3512Politai chronicle (text and translation)13Greek Community chronicle (text and translation)14Gold theft chronicle (text and translation)15Document on land and tithes (text and translation)16Judicial chronicle (text and translation)3717Bagayasha chronicle 18Chronicle concerning an Arsacid king (text and translation)19Euphrates chronicle (text and translation)20

See also List of artifacts significant to the Bible Chronology of the ancient Near East

References

Literature Leo Oppenheim's translation of the Nabonidus Chronicle can be found in J. B. Pritchard (ed.) Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (= ANET; 1950, 1955, 1969). The standard edition is A.K. Grayson, Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles (= ABC; 1975; ). A translation of Chronicle 25, discovered after the publication of ABC, was published by C.B.F. Walker "Babylonian Chronicle 25: A Chronicle of the Kassite and Isin Dynasties", in G. van Driel e.a. (eds.): Zikir Šumim: Assyriological Studies Presented to F.R. Kraus on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday (= Fs. Kraus; 1982). John Brinkman revises Grayson's reading of ABC 1 in: "The Babylonian Chronicle revisited" in T. Abusch, J. Huehnergard, P. Steinkeller (eds.): Lingering over Words. Studies in Ancient Near Eastern literature in Honor of William L. Moran (1990 Atlanta; ). Fragments of the chronicles that are relevant to the study of the Bible, can be found in William W. Hallo (ed.), The Context of Scripture, volume 1 (2003 Leiden and Boston; ). This book also contains the Weidner Chronicle. A recent update of ABC is Jean-Jacques Glassner, Mesopotamian Chronicles (= CM; 2004, ; French version 1993, ). An even more recent update of ABC is Amélie Kuhrt, The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources of the Achaemenid Period (Routledge, 2007; ). The chronicles of the Hellenistic Period are published in R. J. van der Spek, Irving L. Finkel, Reinhard Pirngruber & Kathryn Stevens, Babylonian Chronographic Texts from the Hellenistic Period (SBL Press, 2025; ). An exposition that the Babylonian Chronicle should be regarded as a literary interpretation of the past in Waerzeggers, Caroline. "Writing History Under Empire: The Babylonian Chronicle Reconsidered", Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History, vol. 8, no. 1-2, 2021, pp. 279-317.

External links Mesopotamian Chronicles, all Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles, and King Lists Babylonian chronicles: literature, a list of relevant secondary literature Synchronistic King List, Assyrian King List: translations and bibliographies Cuneiform sources for the history of Hellenistic Babylonia. Edition and Analysis : information about the BCHP Project