The Nabonidus Cylinder of Sippar

Nabonidus of Babylon · c. 540s BC (written after Nabonidus's return from Arabia, in his 13th regnal year) · Sippar (Iraq) · history

The last king of independent Babylon before the Persian conquest argues for his own piety by cataloguing, on this cylinder from Sippar, his restoration of Shamash's Ebabbar temple and Anunitu's sanctuary there, framing years of controversial religious reform, including his devotion to the moon-god Sin at Harran, as faithful temple restoration rather than heresy.