4 the absolute chronology of the neo-babylonian era - Kristen Frihet

168 THE GENTILE TIMES RECONSIDERED
chronology of that era, supplied by these sources, is as follows:
Shamashshumukin 20 years 667 - 648 B.C.E.
Kandalanu 22 years 647 - 626 B.C.E.
Nabopolassar 21 years 625 - 605 B.C.E.
Nebuchadnezzar 43 years 604 - 562 B.C.E.
The diary B.M. 32312, although establishing a date prior to the
Neo-Babylonian period (which began with Nabopolassar), again
coincides with and helps corroborate the chronology of that era.
This diary, then, adds yet another witness to the increasing amount
of evidence against the 607 B.C.E. date. A change of Nebuchadnezzar’s
eighteenth year from 587 to 607 B.C.E. would also change
Shamashshumukin’s sixteenth year from 652 to 672 B.C.E. But the
diary B.M. 32312 rules out such a change.
And, as already pointed out, no one can claim that later copyists
inserted “the 16th year of Shamashshumukin” in this diary, because
the text is damaged at this point and that datum is broken away! It
is the unique historical information in the text, information repeated
in the Akitu Chronicle, that fixes the diary to Shamashshumukin’s
sixteenth year.
This diary, therefore, may be regarded as an independent witness
which upholds the authenticity of the dates given in VAT 4956 and
other diaries. 27
27 A catalogue of business documents compiled by J. A. Brinkman and D. A. Kennedy
that includes the reigns of Shamashshumukin and Kandalanu is published in the Journal
of Cuneiform Studies (JCS), Vol. 35, 1983, pp. 25-52. (Cf. also JCS 36, 1984, pp. 1-6,
and the table of G. Frame, op. cit., pp. 263-68.) Cuneiform texts show that Kandalanu
evidently died in his twenty-first regnal year, after which several pretenders to the throne
fought for power, until Nabopolassar succeeded in ascending to the throne. Some business
documents span the period of interregnum by artificially carrying on Kandalanu’s
reign after his death, the last one (B.M. 40039) being dated to his “22nd year” (“the
second day of Arahsamnu [the 8th month] of the 22nd year after Kandalanu”). This
method is also used by the Royal Canon, which gives Kandalanu a reign of twenty-two
years. Other documents span the period differently. The Uruk King List gives Kandalanu
twenty-one years, and gives the year of interregnum to two of the combatants, Sin-shumlishir
and Sin-shar-ishkun. (See chapter three above, section B-1-b.) The Babylonian
chronicle B.M. 25127 states of the same year: “For one year there was no king in the
land.” (Grayson, op. cit., p. 88) All documents agree, however, to the total length of the
period from Shamashshumukin to Nabopolassar. (For additional details on Kandalanu’s
reign, see the discussion by G. Frame, op. cit., pp. 191-96, 209-13, 284-88.)