electronic Babylonian Library (eBL), fragment VAT.4956, “Astronomical diary for year 37 of Nebuchadnezzar II: catch-line and left edge”
“Year 38 of Nebuchadnezzar, month I, the 1st (of which followed the 30th of the preceding month): dense clouds so that [I did not see the moon ...] ... [Year 37 of Nebuchad]nezzar”
The king’s name and regnal year are written on the tablet in more than one place. “Year 37 of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon” opens the obverse; the top edge carries a catch-line giving the opening of year 38 and then a second, broken “Year 37 …”; and the left edge repeats “Year 37 of Nebuchadnezzar” as a label. The regnal year is therefore not a modern restoration of a single damaged line.
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Provenance and verification note for electronic Babylonian Library (eBL), fragment VAT.4956, Astronomical diary for year 37 of Nebuchadnezzar II: catch-line and left edge
Confidence note. Read in the eBL API record on 19 September 2026, surface by surface (obverse, top, left). The structured record also lists two “dates in text”, year 37 and year 38, for the same king.
Scan provenance. electronic Babylonian Library (eBL), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen. The edition reproduced there is that of Sachs and Hunger, digitised by Reinhard Pirngruber for the Astronomical Diaries Digital project (Austrian Academy of Sciences), CC BY-SA 3.0.
Corroborated by. src-chr-e-ebl-vat4956-line1
Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-chr-e-ebl-vat4956-year-numbers