tablet
- Museum number
- 54634
- Description
-
Fragment of a clay tablet, Late Babylonian; gives measurements for the city wall of Imgur-Enlil and names landmarks at Babylon including the Zababa and Urash gates.
- Production date
- 605BC-562BC
- Dimensions
-
Height: 8.30 centimetres
-
Width: 6.40 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- This tablet gives remarkably detailed measurements for Babylon’s great inner wall, Imgur-Enlil, as it was at the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. The text
names landmarks at Babylon including the Zababa and Urash gates. Where the figures quoted, given in cubits, can be checked against modern surveying and
archaeology, they are shown to be extremely accurate. Such a record probably reflects an official survey within Nebuchadnezzar’s building programme.
- Location
- On display (G55/dc6)
- Exhibition history
-
2013 - 2014 22 June - 6 Jan, Toronto, Royal Ontario Museum, 'Mesopotamia, Inventing Our World'
2013: 30 Jan-13 May, Museum of History, Hong Kong, 'The Wonders of Ancient Mesopotamia'
2012: 4 May-7 Oct, Melbourne Museum, 'The Wonders of Ancient Mesopotamia'
2011 28 March-26 June, Abu Dhabi, Manarat Al Saadiyat, 'Splendours of Mesopotamia'
2008-2009 13 Nov-15 Mar, BM, G35, 'Babylon: Myth and Reality'
- Acquisition date
- 1882
- Department
- Middle East
- BM/Big number
- 54634
- Registration number
- 1882,0522.954
