Nabopolassar a great king if only one could find him

by Damien F. Mackey “… there are no well-known visual images like statues or large-scale reliefs of [Nabopolassar] …” AI Overview This fact ought not surprise us anymore, as we have found the number of significant rulers of antiquity who have none, to little, visual representation - under a particular name - to be growing. Thus see my article: More ‘camera-shy’ ancient potentates (5) More 'camera-shy' ancient potentates Based on Nabopolassar’s presumed reign of about 21 years, and the fact that he is supposed to have preceded, as father, Nebuchednezzar ‘the Great’ himself, I had come to the fairly confident conclusion that Nabopolassar must have been king Sennacherib, the Assyrian, under a Babylonian name (as conqueror of Babylon). Sennacherib would later, of course, go on to destroy Babylon. What is well known is that Esarhaddon - usually designated as a son of Sennacherib - had succeeded Sennacherib, and had promptly rebuilt Babylon. With my new identification in mind, Nabopolassar = Sennacherib, I had reinterpreted the standard Chaldean king list, for instance as set out by Marc Van de Mieroop, in his “King Lists” towards the end of his book, A History of the Ancient Near East ca. 3000 -323 BC., pp. 292-293 (I had taken the liberty of including Belshazzar here): Nabopolassar Nebuchadnezzar [II] Evil-Merodach Neriglissar Labashi-Marduk Nabonidus [Belshazzar] … Cyrus in accordance with the sequence of kings as given in the Book of Daniel (chapter 5). This led me to the following re-shaping of the king list: Assyrian Nabopolassar (= Sennacherib) Chaldean Nebuchadnezzar Evil-Merodach = Belshazzar Medo-Persian Neriglissar = Darius the Mede/Cyrus But, while I still embrace the other identifications, I would no longer accept that Nabopolassar was Sennacherib, but that Nabopolassar was Nebuchednezzar himself, whom I now realise has been triplicated in the Chaldean lists (as Nabopolassar; as Nebuchednezzar; as Nabonidus). That would now mean that Nabopolassar reigned for about twice the period typically estimated for him - just as Esarhaddon and Nabonidus (other alter egos of Nebuchednezzar) must have reigned substantially longer than is generally thought. Nabopolassar has certain traits that one can find variously in Nebuchednezzar, Esarhaddon, Nabonidus – e.g., a Nabu name; not expecting to become king; building in Babylon with careful attention to the original layout of temples; extreme piety and superstition; mention of Zarpanitu (Zarpanitum: Esarhaddon); inspecting old foundations (Esarhaddon; Ashurbanipal; Nabonidus as ‘archaeologist’); carrying baskets/bricks (Esarhaddon; Ashurbanipal; Nabonidus); finding ancient royal Akkadian statue (Nabonidus). The following quotes are taken from: (5) Nabopolassar and the Antiquity of Babylon The Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Israel Museum, Jerusalem JERUSALEM 2003 NABOPOLASSAR AND THE ANTIQUITY OF BABYLON PAUL-ALAIN BEAULIEU …. The new Imgur-Enlil cylinder of Nabopolassar …. Of particular interest is the fourth section, which reads as follows: …. Nabopolassar, the humble one, the submissive one, the worshipper of Nabü and Marduk, the shepherd who pleases Panunanki (i.e. Zarpanitu), the one who inspects the old foundations of Babylon, the one who discovers (inscribed) brick(s) from the past … the one who carries out the work on the original, eternal foundations, the one who wields the hoe of the Igigi, the one who carries the corvée basket of the Anunnaki, the builder of Imgur-Enlil for Marduk, my lord, I, in order that no future king whosoever remove my well-chosen words, (and) in order that no words are made to supersede my speech, I swore the oath of Marduk, my lord, and of my god: "(Woe on me) if my utterances are not true, but false!" At that time I found the royal statue of one of my predecessors who had (re)built that wall and, in a secure place, in the great foundations, together with my own statue, I placed (it) for eternity. Since Nabopolassar claims, just after recording his oath, to have found the royal statue of one of his predecessors "who had (re)built that wall," the conclusion follows that he had unearthed an inscribed statue of a king of Agade, very similar to those that were still in public view during the Old Babylonian period and from which scribes of that period copied inscriptions of Sargonic rulers. Thus, without directly naming any of them, Nabopolassar connects himself with the legendary kings of Agade. My comment: The same with King Nabonidus: “[Nabonidus] saw in this sacred enclosure [Ebabbar] a statue of Sargon … half of its head was missing …. Given his reverence for the gods and his respect for kingship, he … restored the head of this statue, and put back its face”. A closer look at the fourth section of the new Imgur-Enlil cylinder reveals further elements highlighting the programmatic character of the inscription. The very activities of searching for old monumental texts, of digging the city's most ancient foundations and of restoring them are claimed by the king as components of his titulary: "the one who inspects the old foundations of Babylon, the one who discovers (inscribed) brick(s) from the past, the one who carries out the work on the original, eternal foundations." It is also very craftily devised as a mise en abyme, a miniature royal inscription within a royal inscription, complete with name of king, titulary, object of rebuilding, and laying of foundation deposit. The mise en abyme and direct quotation of foundation deposits of previous rulers occurs in the inscriptions of Nabonidus. In the present case, however, by depositing his own statue next to the statue of the Old Akkadian king whose inscription he quite literally appropriates, Nabopolassar performs nothing less than a mise en abyme of his royal persona. The new king is looking at his own ancient reflection as if in a reducing glass, digging deep into the ground to scrutinize his own distant image in the remotest foundations of his capital. …. The author has also noted in this article that: “Nabopolassar was, of his own avowal, a mär lä mammäna, literally a "son of a nobody …”. Ashurbanipal, likewise, had not expected to rule: https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/who-was-ashurbanipal Despite being one of Assyria's greatest kings, Ashurbanipal wasn't destined for the throne …. ‘At the command of the great gods, [my father] greatly preferred me over the assembly of my elder brothers’. Likewise, again, with Nabonidus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabonidus “The origins of Nabonidus are obscure, with the scarce available details about him leaving much room for interpretation and speculation. In one of his inscriptions, Nabonidus states the following: …. ‘I am Nabonidus, the only son, who has nobody. In my mind there was no thought of kingship’. Having established that Nabopolassar was likely the Chaldean king, Nebuchednezzar, with his various significant alter egos, then one ought to be able to find many further correlations between the reign of Nabopolassar, of the composite Nebuchednezzar.