A Study of the Composition of Nebuchadnezzar II’s Royal Inscriptions

This dissertation is an analysis of the composition of the royal inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar II (604–562 BCE). It is divided into seven chapters. The first two chapters are devoted to the identification of the compositional principles. In the first chapter, we begin with the composition of the extant twenty-nine multi-sectional inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar. In the second chapter, we narrow down to the composition of the ten longest inscriptions in the corpus. The length of these inscriptions ranges from around 2,000 to 400 words. In chapters 3 to 7, we explore different issues that analysing the composition of the inscriptions can illuminate, using the ten longest inscriptions as research sample. Chapter 3 contains our attempt to identify the diachronic profile of some inscriptions in the sample group, in order to create a model that will help establish the dating for the corpus that lacks explicit historical information. In chapter 4, we identify a structuring principle in the building lists, which are a major component among the longer inscriptions in the extant corpus. This principle is characterised by the arrangement of the temples according to their location along the Euphrates. In chapter 5, we look at how the inscriptions associated with the same building type share a common composition. In particular, we will see that the five inscriptions in the sample group, which are dedicated to the temples, all share a very similar basic composition. In chapter 6, we explore the characterisation of Nebuchadnezzar in the epithet lists and the prayer. We will demonstrate that the portrayals of NBK correspond to each subgroup of inscriptions that we identify in chapter 5. We will also see that NBK’s different selfportrayals in these inscriptions mirror the political divisions in his empire. In chapter 7, we look at NBK’s interaction with the Babylonian inscriptional tradition. We will compare his inscriptions with the Babylonian inscriptions of Ashurbanipal and Esarhaddon, as well as the inscriptions of Hammurabi. As we shall see, NBK’s inscriptions are much closer to the inscriptions around his period in terms of structural formulation. This conclusion offers another side to the argument, which purports that the Neo-Babylonian inscriptions contain elements that are similar to the inscriptions from the Old-Babylonian or Old Akkadian period