For centuries sceptics had a strong card against Daniel: no ancient historian — not Herodotus, not Xenophon — knew of any Babylonian ruler called Belshazzar; the last king was Nabonidus. Then Nabonidus's own foundation cylinder surfaced, closing a prayer with a petition for “Belshazzar, my firstborn son.” Other tablets later showed Nabonidus living years abroad while Belshazzar ran Babylon in his place. A name preserved only in Daniel and nowhere else in surviving literature turned out to be genuine court memory.
- What it is
- A clay foundation cylinder of King Nabonidus of Babylon, in cuneiform
- Date of artifact
- c. 550 BC
- Discovered
- the moon-god's temple at Ur, Iraq, 1854 (J. G. Taylor's expedition)
- Where it is now
- British Museum, London
- Related to
- Belshazzar, the ruler at Babylon's fall in the book of Daniel
- Scripture
- Daniel 5
What this find showsBelshazzar existed and effectively governed Babylon as crown prince — which also makes odd sense of Daniel's detail that the reward on offer was to rank third in the kingdom, after the two men above him.
What it does not proveBabylonian records never call Belshazzar “king,” and Daniel calls him Nebuchadnezzar's “son” (he was not his descendant in any known genealogy) — points critics still press; and no tablet mentions a feast, a hand, or writing on a wall.
Sources & further reading