The king who excavated the past and abandoned his throne
In short: Babylon's final indigenous monarch initiated a unique archaeological quest under Mesopotamia's earliest shrines during 556 BC. This video explores his obsession with ancient foundation stones and the mysterious transformation that led him to abandon his empire.
King Nabonidus began excavating beneath ancient temples to find foundation stones buried by rulers from 3,200 years prior. He successfully recovered messages written in scripts that were no longer understood by his contemporaries. These discoveries appear to have fundamentally altered his priorities.
Following these finds, Nabonidus established the world's first museum and appointed his daughter as high priestess of the moon god. He then vanished into the Arabian desert for ten years, leaving the most important Babylonian religious rituals unperformed. His actions were so radical that the priesthood branded him mad, and the city eventually fell to the Persians without a fight.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: The Last King Of Babylon Was Digging For Something — He Found It, Left The City
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