tablet

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Object Type
Museum number: 129397
Title: Object: The East India House Inscription
Description: Stone tablet; engraved cuneiform inscription; 10 + (obv) 72 (rev) 60-65 ll per col; side and edges 65 + 19 ll.
Authority
Cultures/periods
Production date: 604BC-562BC
Findspot: Excavated/Findspot: Babylon (Iraq)
Materials
Technique
Dimensions: Height: 56.51 centimetres; Width: 50.16 centimetres; Depth: 9.52 centimetres
$Inscriptions
Curator's comments: Found among the ruins of Babylon before 1803 and eventually presented to the Museum of the East India House; it has since been known as the East India House Inscription. 1 R 53 says, "... a slab found at Babylon and presented by Sir Harford Jones Bridges, then Resident at Baghdad, to the Museum of the East India House." S. A. Pallis, The Antiquity of Iraq, p. 45, "reached London in 1801." Bezold, Bab.ass. Literatur, p. 127, "presented by H. Jones to Sir Hugh Inglis." Another version of this inscription existed in the Arthur M. Sackler Collection and was published by R. Wallenfels: "A New Stone Inscription of Nebuchadnezzar II", 'From the Banks of the Euphrates: Studies in Honor of Alice Slotsky' (Indiana 2008), pp.267-318. It was offered for sale through Christie's in New York on 8 June 2012 (lot 48) but was not sold.
Bibliographic references: Rawlinson H C & Norris E 1861a / The cuneiform inscriptions of Western Asia, I: a selection from the Historical Inscriptions of Chaldaea, Assyria, and Babylonia (pls. 53-58 and 59-64) (copy); Ball 1887a / Inscriptions of Nebuchnezzar II. I. The India House Inscription; Ball 1888a / Inscriptions of Nebuchadrezzar II (pp. 87-129) (transliteration and translation); Langdon S H 1912a / Die neubabylonischen Koenigsinschriften (pp. 120-140, no. 15); British Museum 2011a / Splendours of Mesopotamia (pp.190-91, cat.164)
Location: On display (G55/dc5)
Exhibition history: 2013 22 June-2014 6 Jan, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, '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 13 Nov-2009 15 Mar, BM, G35, 'Babylon: Myth and Reality' 2008 26 Jun-5 Oct, Berlin, Vorderasiatisches Museum-Pergamonmuseum, 'Babylon, Myth and Truth' 2008 14 Mar-2 Jun, Paris, Musée du Louvre, 'Babylon' 1990 28 Jun-23 Sep, Australia, Melbourne, Museum of Victoria, Civilization: Ancient Treasures from the British Museum, cat. no.13 1990 24 Mar-10 Jun, Australia, Canberra, National Gallery of Australia, Civilization: Ancient Treasures from the British Museum, cat. no.13
Associated names: Named in inscription: Nebuchadnezzar II; Named in inscription: Marduk
Acquisition name
Acquisition date: 1938
Acquisition notes: Reported to Trustees 26 March 1938; donation on condition that a plaster cast be transferred to the Indian Museum in Calcutta with any necessary costs being borne by The British Museum. The cast that was despatched was one that was formerly on display in the Babylonian Room (90847). The original inscription was deposited by the India Office on 20 May 1938.
Department: Middle East
BM/Big number: 129397
Registration number: 1938,0520.1
Additional IDs: Miscellaneous number: 90847 (Cast Number); Miscellaneous number: EIH (siglum)
Conservation

Free entry

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