Position in chronology
Clay tablet. The cuneiform text mentions the murder of Xerxes I (r. 485-465 BCE) by his son and a lunar eclipse (609-447 BCE). From Babylon, Iraq. British Museum
Not yet translated
This tablet is catalogued and photographed, but no published translation exists yet. Our translation engine works through the untranslated corpus every night, oldest first — this page will update the day its turn comes. If you are a specialist and can read it, we would love your help.
The world it comes from
Persian rule, the long twilight of cuneiform.
Scholarly note
Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Clay tablet. The cuneiform text mentions the murder of the Achaemenid king Xerxes I (r. 485-465 BCE) by his son and a lunar eclipse (for at least 609-447 BCE). 4th century BCE. From Babylon, Iraq. Bri
Attribution
Image: Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg) — Wikimedia Commons. source
Translation excerpted from Wikimedia Commons file: File:Clay tablet. The cuneiform text mentions the murder of Xerxes I (r. 485-465 BCE) by his son and a lunar eclipse (609-447 BCE). From Babylon, Iraq. British Museum.jpg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AClay_tablet._The_cuneiform_text_mentions_the_murder_of_Xerxes_I_(r._485-465_BCE)_by_his_son_and_a_lunar_eclipse_(609-447_BCE)._From_Babylon%2C_Iraq._British_Museum.jpg. Description: Clay tablet. The cuneiform text mentions the murder of the Achaemenid king Xerxes I (r. 485-465 BCE) by his son and a lunar eclipse (for at least 609-447 BCE). 4th century BCE. From Babylon, Iraq. British Museum, London..
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