Two inscribed clay cylinders found in the ancient city of Kish in central Iraq bear the writings of Nebuchadnezzar II, the Babylonian king who besieged Jerusalem in 589–587 BCE, according to a study published in December 2025 in the journal Iraq.

The two cylinders were first discovered by two locals in 2013 near the ruins of Kish’s ziggurat (a stepped temple tower). The locals handed the artifacts over to Iraq’s State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH), and have since been housed in the Iraq Museum in Baghdad

According to the study, the text is written in contemporary Neo-Babylonian cuneiform and is a first-person account of Nebuchadnezzar’s restoration of two temples dedicated to the Babylonian gods Zababa and Ishtar.

As with many royal inscriptions, the study explained that the cylinders are undated and that the text “does not help to establish an approximate date for its composition.”

Per the translation, the account states that two previous kings had begun construction on the temples, and that Nebuchadnezzar had continued to keep “the shrines of the great gods in good order.”

However, the text does not include details of the reconstruction, the study noted, instead focusing on the solidity of the walls and the decoration of the Ziggurat’s external facade.”

“I put its brickwork in good order,” the study translated. “I built its collapsed section(s) anew, (and) I completed (it) and raised its superstructure. I embellished its outward appearance and made (it shine) like the daylight for Zababa and Ishtar [sic].”

The cylinders end with a prayer from the king to the gods, asking them for long life and help in conquering his enemies: “May I attain very old age, may I conquer my enemies, (and) may I kill my opponents, with your fierce weapons, cut down (and) bind my enemies [sic].”

The translation appears to align with a description of Nebuchadnezzar in the Book of Daniel, which depicts him walking on the roof of his palace in Babylon while boasting of his vast construction projects.

Chapter four, verses 25-27 read: “All this befell King Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of twelve months, he was walking atop the royal palace of Babylon. The king exclaimed and said, ‘Is this not the great Babylon, which I have built up into a royal house with my powerful strength for glorification of my splendor!’”

In the Tanach, Nebuchadnezzar is portrayed as the “destroyer of nations,” having besieged Jerusalem, exiled the prophet Ezekiel, and ended the Kingdom of Judah's independence. 

The cylinders, however, seem to present a different view of Nebuchadnezzar: A powerful king who saw restoring the crumbling temples of his gods as a religious duty.

Translation of the Book of Daniel was taken from ArtScroll’s Stone Edition of the Tanach.