The Religious Chronicle is an ancient

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the ...

n register of portents such as the straying of wild animals into urban areas and extraordinary natural phenomena which presaged the disruptions which interfered with the Akītu or new year festival and the performance of its regular cultic activities which included the transport of the idols of the gods to the city of Babylon during the tumultuous years of chaos caused by the incursions of

Aramean The Arameans ( oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; syc, ܐܪ̈ܡܝܐ, Ārāmāyē) were an ancient Semitic-speaking people in the Near East, first recorded in historical sources from the late 12th century BCE. The Aramean ...

nomads.

The text

It seems to have drawn its sources from the protases of omen literature in contrast to the

Chronicle of Early Kings The Chronicle of Early Kings, Chronicle 20 in Grayson’s ''Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles'' and Mesopotamian Chronicle 40 in Glassner’s ''Chroniques mésopotamiennes'' is preserved on two tablets, tablet ABM 26472 (98-5-14, 290) tablet A. ...

which drew them from their apodoses. The tablet has two columns per side and is in poor condition, with the surface severely abraded and most of the left-hand side (columns I and IV) gone. It may have been part of a series as there is part of a catch-line evident on line 8 of column IV. It is designated BM 35968 (Sp III, 504) and is held in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. Written during the

Seleucid era The Seleucid era ("SE") or (literally "year of the Greeks" or "Greek year"), sometimes denoted "AG," was a system of numbering years in use by the Seleucid Empire and other countries among the ancient Hellenistic civilizations. It is sometimes r ...

, it was acquired by the Museum from Spartali & Co, sponsors of much of the unofficial tablet gathering in Iraq under Ottoman jurisdiction, in 1880, and consequently its find spot is uncertain. The earliest king to appear in the text is Nabû-šumu-libūr (ca. 1033 – 1026 BC) on line 16 of the first column and the work also name-drops

Nabû-mukin-apli Nabû-mukin-apli, typically inscribed dAG-DU-A, “ Nabû (is) establisher of a legitimate heir,” ruled 974–939 BC, founded Babylon’s 8th dynasty, the so-called ''Dynasty of E'', and ruled for thirty-six years.''Babylonian King List A'', ...

(ca. 978 – 943 BC). The intervening text describes a reign or reigns of up to seventeen years. Only Simbar-Šipak (ca. 1025 - 1008 BC) and Eulmaš-šākin-šumi (ca. 1004 – 987 BC) reigned so long during this period. The historical era covered was a period of great turmoil. Column II, in a passage ascribed to Simbar-Šipak's reign, includes a possible reference to a solar eclipse: “On the twenty-sixth day of the month Sivan, in the seventh year, day turned to night and there was a fire in the sky.” Rowton identified this with May 9, 1012 BC although the current chronology places this in his thirteenth year and the absence of an appropriate technical term for the eclipse, such as AN-KU₁₀, casts doubt on this astronomical identification.

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