The many arts of writing a Babylonian national history

Boivin, Odette

Abstract

Any discussion about historiography in Mesopotamia leads sooner or later—and it is usually sooner—to the question of genre. This article explores aspects of this question by examining how, in the wake of political, intellectual and cultural developments which marked the late second and the beginning of the first millennium BCE, various streams of historiographic practice converged towards the writing of a Babylonian national history, or rather, national histories. In order to do so, three roughly contemporary sources, written in different milieus, are discussed as instances of this phenomenon: the Chronicle of Ancient Kings A, the Chronicle Concerning the Early Years of Nebuchadnezzar II, and the Imgur-Enlil Inscription of Nabopolassar. The contents, form, sources used, and intentions of writing of each of them are evaluated, and a number of shared themes and approaches are identified and proposed as elements of seventh/sixth century national history writing in Babylonia.