Nabonidus Cylinders Naming Belshazzar
Foundation cylinders of Nabonidus pray for Belshazzar as the king's firstborn son, while administrative and chronicle evidence clarifies the prince's real authority without calling him Babylon's sovereign king.
- Artifact date
- Reign of Nabonidus, 555–539 BC
- Discovered
- 1882
- Findspot
- Temple of Shamash at Sippar, Iraq
- Current location
- British Museum, London (including BM 91109)
What archaeologists can actually examine
Nabonidus deposited clay foundation cylinders when restoring temples at Ur, Sippar, Larsa, and elsewhere. Several royal compositions include a prayer for Bel-sharra-usur—Belshazzar—calling him Nabonidus's firstborn son and own offspring. In the Ur cylinder edition, Nabonidus asks the moon god Sin to place reverence in Belshazzar's heart and preserve him from sin. Other Babylonian administrative documents show the crown prince receiving property, commanding resources, and functioning at the center of government during Nabonidus's extended residence at Tayma. The cylinders securely establish Belshazzar's historicity, dynastic status, and prominence in Babylon's last decades. They do not call him 'king of Babylon' or explicitly designate a formal co-regency. That distinction is central when comparing the evidence with Daniel 5, which depicts him exercising royal authority on Babylon's final night.
Belshazzar is named in contemporary royal texts
Nabonidus's own foundation inscriptions preserve Bel-sharra-usur as a historical dynastic figure.
He is explicitly the firstborn son
The cylinders define his relationship to Nabonidus with language of direct descent and priority.
Royal prayers include the prince
Nabonidus asks major gods to preserve Belshazzar and shape his piety, demonstrating exceptional prominence.
Other documents show delegated authority
Administrative and chronicle evidence helps explain Belshazzar's governmental role during Nabonidus's absence.
The formal title remains a limit
Contemporary inscriptions call Nabonidus king and Belshazzar crown prince or firstborn son, not king of Babylon.
Follow the evidence from discovery to debate
Move through the find in a deliberate order: establish its provenance, examine the surviving object, place it in time, and then weigh the scholarly interpretation.
How the find came to light
Nineteenth-century excavations at major Babylonian temple sites recovered multiple Nabonidus cylinders. Hormuzd Rassam's work at Sippar in 1882 produced important examples from the Shamash temple, while J. E. Taylor's earlier excavations at Ur yielded cylinders from the ziggurat of Sin. Museum registration numbers and ancient findspots must be kept distinct because popular discussions often merge every 'Nabonidus Cylinder' into one object. Assyriologists copied, translated, and compared the compositions, recognizing parallel prayers for the king and Belshazzar. Modern Royal Inscriptions of Babylonia Online editions now identify each text, object witness, provenience, duplicate, and restored passage. The discovery did not reveal a lost biblical manuscript; it recovered ordinary royal foundation deposits whose building prayers happened to preserve the crown prince's name and relationship to Nabonidus.
What you are looking at
These are barrel-shaped or tapered clay cylinders covered in horizontal cuneiform columns. They were written as foundation records for placement within restored temples rather than as public reading copies. A typical composition praises Nabonidus, recounts the recovery of ancient foundations or inscriptions, describes rebuilding, and concludes with prayers for the king and his firstborn son Belshazzar. The prince's Akkadian name, Bel-sharra-usur, means 'Bel, protect the king.' Different cylinders commemorate different sanctuaries and contain related but nonidentical wording. BM 91109 is a large three-column Sippar foundation cylinder; Ur witnesses such as BM 91124 preserve an explicit firstborn-son prayer in a critically edited composition. A photograph must therefore be tied to the object and text actually described, and a generic cuneiform cylinder should never stand in for the Belshazzar passage.
Where it belongs in history
Nabonidus ruled Babylon from 556 to 539 BC. His temple inscriptions were composed at different points within that reign, and one Sippar recension refers to his tenth year. For roughly a decade Nabonidus resided at Tayma in Arabia while Belshazzar exercised substantial authority in Babylonia, although the chronology and constitutional description of that arrangement remain debated. The Nabonidus Chronicle records royal absence and return but does not style the prince king. In 539 BC Cyrus's forces defeated Babylonian armies and entered Babylon; Nabonidus was captured after returning. Contemporary sources differ from later literary accounts in emphasis and detail. The cylinders belong to the religious building program of the last native Babylonian king and show how dynastic prayer could name an heir without formally transferring the royal title.
Consensus, questions, and debate
Belshazzar's existence and identity as Nabonidus's son are secure. Debate concerns the nature of his authority. Administrative tablets and the Nabonidus Chronicle indicate that he managed affairs and troops while his father was absent, but scholars differ over whether 'co-regent' is the best formal label. No surviving Babylonian royal inscription grants him the standard title king of Babylon, and New Year rites tied to kingship could not proceed normally during Nabonidus's absence. The biblical use of 'king' may reflect functional rule, a later court tradition, or broader royal terminology. The phrase often translated 'third ruler' can also be rendered as authority of the third rank; its relationship to the Nabonidus-Belshazzar arrangement is interpretive. Responsible treatment presents contemporary titles first, then the possible reconciliations.
The biblical record beside the artifact
Daniel 5 presents Belshazzar holding a feast, profaning Jerusalem temple vessels, offering Daniel the rank of third ruler, and dying when Babylon falls. Daniel 7:1 and 8:1 date visions by his regnal years. The cylinders answer a foundational historical question: Belshazzar was a real son of Nabonidus occupying a uniquely prominent dynastic position. Administrative evidence of his authority makes the narrative's courtly setting more intelligible. The material also complicates a simplistic reading, because contemporary royal inscriptions consistently call Nabonidus king and Belshazzar firstborn son, not king. Proposals that 'third ruler' reflects Nabonidus, Belshazzar, and Daniel are plausible harmonizations but are not stated on the cylinders. They say nothing about the feast, handwriting, temple vessels, Daniel, Darius the Mede, or the prince's death.
Daniel 5:1–31
1Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand.
2Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which [was] in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein.
3Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which [was] at Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them.
4They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.
5¶ In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king’s palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.
6Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.
7The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. [And] the king spake, and said to the wise [men] of Babylon, Whosoever shall read this writing, and shew me the interpretation thereof, shall be clothed with scarlet, and [have] a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.
8Then came in all the king’s wise [men:] but they could not read the writing, nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof.
9Then was king Belshazzar greatly troubled, and his countenance was changed in him, and his lords were astonied.
10¶ [Now] the queen, by reason of the words of the king and his lords, came into the banquet house: [and] the queen spake and said, O king, live for ever: let not thy thoughts trouble thee, nor let thy countenance be changed:
11There is a man in thy kingdom, in whom [is] the spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of thy father light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, was found in him; whom the king Nebuchadnezzar thy father, the king, [I say], thy father, made master of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, [and] soothsayers;
12Forasmuch as an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and understanding, interpreting of dreams, and shewing of hard sentences, and dissolving of doubts, were found in the same Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar: now let Daniel be called, and he will shew the interpretation.
13Then was Daniel brought in before the king. [And] the king spake and said unto Daniel, [Art] thou that Daniel, which [art] of the children of the captivity of Judah, whom the king my father brought out of Jewry?
14I have even heard of thee, that the spirit of the gods [is] in thee, and [that] light and understanding and excellent wisdom is found in thee.
15And now the wise [men], the astrologers, have been brought in before me, that they should read this writing, and make known unto me the interpretation thereof: but they could not shew the interpretation of the thing:
16And I have heard of thee, that thou canst make interpretations, and dissolve doubts: now if thou canst read the writing, and make known to me the interpretation thereof, thou shalt be clothed with scarlet, and [have] a chain of gold about thy neck, and shalt be the third ruler in the kingdom.
17¶ Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation.
18O thou king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honour:
19And for the majesty that he gave him, all people, nations, and languages, trembled and feared before him: whom he would he slew; and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he set up; and whom he would he put down.
20But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him:
21And he was driven from the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling [was] with the wild asses: they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and [that] he appointeth over it whomsoever he will.
22And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this;
23But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath [is], and whose [are] all thy ways, hast thou not glorified:
24Then was the part of the hand sent from him; and this writing was written.
25¶ And this [is] the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.
26This [is] the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.
27TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.
28PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.
29Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with scarlet, and [put] a chain of gold about his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.
30¶ In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain.
31And Darius the Median took the kingdom, [being] about threescore and two years old.
A responsible historical conclusion
Belshazzar was once difficult to place because later classical accounts foregrounded Nabonidus or other figures. The cylinders restore him from contemporary Babylonian evidence as the king's named firstborn son and the object of dynastic prayer. Combined with administrative documents, they show why a narrative could remember him presiding over Babylon even though he did not possess Nabonidus's formal title. This is more illuminating than a simple 'Bible proven' claim. The evidence both corroborates a person whom Daniel makes central and sets boundaries around his rank. It invites readers to see how royal titulary, delegated authority, memory of a regime's fall, and theological storytelling can overlap without becoming identical descriptions.
Included in these guides
See how this evidence file fits within a larger historical question.
Authoritative sources
Institutional catalogs, excavation reports, and academic publications let you examine the evidence beyond this summary.
Nabonidus 27
Royal Inscriptions of Babylonia Online, University of PennsylvaniaCritical text and translation of a cylinder composition explicitly calling Belshazzar Nabonidus's firstborn son and recording the royal prayer for him.
Nabonidus 26
Royal Inscriptions of Babylonia Online, University of PennsylvaniaParallel royal cylinder edition documenting Nabonidus's Sippar temple program, titulary, and foundation-text form.
Cylinder of Nabonidus, BM 91109
British MuseumOfficial object catalogue for the Sippar foundation cylinder, with date, provenance, dimensions, text description, and bibliography.
Nabonidus Cylinder Witnesses
Royal Inscriptions of Babylonia Online, University of PennsylvaniaCorpus comparison of six related Nabonidus cylinder inscriptions from Sippar and other temple contexts.
A Nabonidus foundation cylinder from Ur whose prayer asks the moon god Sin to protect the king and his son Belshazzar. · Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg) · CC BY-SA 4.0
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