Excavation
From 1877 to 1882 Hormuzd Rassam made some important discoveries. In Assyria his chief "finds" were the Ashurnaçirpal temple in Nimrud, the cylinder of Ashurbanipal at Kouyunjik, and the unique and historically important bronze doors of the temple of Shalmaneser II. He identified the famous Hanging Gardens with the mound known as Babil. A palace of Nebuchadrezzar II at Birs Nimrud (Borsippa) was also uncovered by him. At Abu Habba, in 1881, Rassam discovered the temple of the sun at Sippar. There he found the cylinders of Nabonidus, and the stone tablet of Nabu-apal-iddin of Babylon with its ritual bas-relief and inscription. Besides these, he discovered some fifty thousand clay tablets containing the temple accounts.
The cylinder excavated in Babylon, in the royal palace, is now in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. Another copy is in the British Museum in London. The text was written after Nabonidus' return from Arabia in his thirteenth regnal year, but before war broke out with the Persian king Cyrus the Great, who is mentioned as an instrument of the gods.
The Nabonidus Cylinder contains echoes from earlier foundation texts, and develops the same themes as later ones, like the better-known Cyrus Cylinder: a lengthy titulary, a story about an angry god who has abandoned his shrine, who is reconciled with his people, orders a king to restore the temple, and a king who piously increases the daily offerings. Prayers are also included.
Read more about this topic: Cylinder Of Nabonidus