D. J. Wiseman

The library of Nimrud, probably established in 798 BC, was a prestigious royal foundation whose scribes had contacts all over the East, particularly with Nineveh. The 259 cuneiform tablets and fragments which constituted the library mainly described magical and medical rituals, prayers and instructions for training scribes. All the epigraphic finds from Sir Max Mallowan's excavations of 1955-7 are described in this volume, with additional material from the Iraq Archaeological Service's excavations of 1985.

This new examination of the region of Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylon (605-562 BC) includes revised interpretations of the Babylonian Chronicles for his reign, especially for the years of the campaigns against the West and the capture of Jerusalem. Excavations at Babylon are used to give a view of the city in Neo-Babylonian times, including the royal `Hanging Gardens' and the ziggurat. The varied literary genres current in this city of learning in the sixth century BC (including dreams and prophecies) and the role of hostages, exiles, and prisoners of war are used to throw light on the life of the Jewish exiles there. An assessment of the character of Nebuchadrezzar as a military and political leader, religious devotee and legal administrator is attempted on the basis of textual evidence.