Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Tory Thorpe <torythrp AT yahoo.com>]

--- On Sat, 12/20/08, Rolf Furuli <furuli AT online.no> wrote:

Rolf: "Most of the business tablets dated in the reign of Bardiya (who was 
king immediately before Darius the great) are discussed in S. Graziani 
(1991). "Testi editi ed inediti datati al regno de Bardiya (522 a.c). Napoli. 
The first tablet is from Bardiya's accession year, month II and the last one 
from his year 1, month VIII. Taken at face value the dated tablets show that 
Bardiya reigned at least 18 months and not about six months, as most 
historians believe. All kinds of fanciful explanations have been used to 
explain away this evidence, because it destroys Ptolemy's chronological 
scheme."

The earliest Babylonian tablets dated to the "first year" of Bardiya refer to 
him not as king of Babylon but only as "king of lands" (i.e. king of Persia). 
The first is from month I, day 19. The earliest "accession year" tablet is 
from month II and Bardiya is called "king of Babylon, king of lands". There 
are almost no more accession year tablets after this time. If we must believe 
Bardiya reigned at least 18 months, where are all the tablets from month II 
of the accession year to month I of the first year? I have no problem with 
destroying the scheme Ptolemy inherited from antiquity if it must be 
destroyed. This in no way destroys it.

Rolf: "A comparison of the Akkadian signs (not the English translation) of 
the cuneiform tablets BM 32234 - the tablet reporting the two lunar eclipses 
in year 21 of Xerxes - and the celestial positions on BM 33478 - which 
tentatively is applied to year 24 of Artaxerxes I, the reign of Artaxerxes I 
is pushed back 10 years - 475 being his accession year. (The tablets are 
discussed in  H. Hunger et al. (2001). "Astronomical Diaries and Related 
Texts from Babylonia, vol V, Lunar and Planetary Texts" pp. 20, 21)  and  A. 
Sachs, H. Hunger (1988) "Astronomical Diaries and Related Texts from 
Babylonia, vol I, pp. 58-61.) This astronomical information destroys the king 
list of Ptolemy, and interestingly - it shows that year 20 of Artaxerxes I is 
455, the very year that the 19th century expositors used as starting point."

Out of curiosity, what Akkadian signs are you referring to?

Tory Thorpe