Cuneiform inscription of Babylonian god Nabonidus discovered south of Hail, Saudi Arabia

I usually try to follow these news, but this one escaped me: a cuneiform inscription — 26 lines, the longest discovered in Saudi Arabia so far — along with a stone relief of Nabonidus, the last Babylonian king, was discovered this past July in the ancient Central Arabian town of Fadak, south of Hail*.

So far the best known representation of Nabonidus was in that in Harran Stela (below), which features him along the effigies of the moon-god Sin, the winged sun-god Shamash, and the  goddess of Venus, Ishtar. The snake must refer to either Nabu or Marduk.

Why Nabonidus (the wikipedia article is good) left his son to co-rule in Babylon and established his residence at Tayma in Central Arabia, remains a matter of debate. Some specialists say he went there to control the South Arabian trade routes, which forked at Taymaa — one road went to Syria and the Mediterranean cost and the other to Mesopotamia. Others say he was exiled there by the religious elite, who did not appreciate his attempts at religious reform, above all how he tried to put the moon god Sin atop the Babylonian pantheon. Soon after his return to Babylon, the elite led a revolt, and called in the Persian Cyrus the Great, who put an end to the Babylonian empire.

By the way, Nabonidus’ moon cult is the original reason why we still call a strange person a … lunatic.

* The Wikipedia entry on Fadak is wrong, Fadak is not in Khaibar, it’s a separate place so not linking to that.