Mind-Benders of Mesopotamian History
A king who dug for antiquities — and tried to date them
Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon (who came to the throne around 556 BCE), had an antiquarian's passion: his inscriptions record excavating the buried foundations of ancient temples to recover older kings' foundation stones, and even estimating their age. In one case, his own inscription put a foundation deposit at 3,200 years old — an ancient ruler attempting his own chronology of the deep past, more than 2,500 years before modern archaeology.
How we know
Nabonidus reigned 556–539 BCE (Middle Chronology); his Sippar inscription records excavating and dating a Naram-Sin (r. c.2254–2218 BCE) foundation stone at 3,200 years — a documented overestimate.
One of many fact-checked wonders across eight traditions at The Spring of Wisdom.