The last Assyrian city to fall was Harran in south east Anotolia, this city was also the birthplace of the last king of Babylon, the Assyrian Nabonidus and his son and regent Belshazzar.

Centuries later, the neo-Babylonian king Nabonidus mentioned in his archaeological records that Ishtar's worship in Agade was later superseded by that of the goddess Anunit, whose shrine was at Sippar — suggesting proximity of Sippar and Agade.

* Nebuchadnezzar's " affliction " was of the mind whereas Nabonidus ' seems to have been a skin disease.

In line with the statement that Nabonidus " entrusted the kingship " to Belshazzar in his absence, there is evidence that Belshazzar's name was used with his father's in oath formulas, that he was able to pass edicts, lease farmlands, and receive the " royal privilege " to eat the food offered to the gods.

By the middle of the 6th century the king of Babylon was Nabonidus.

The short-lived 11th dynasty of the Kings of Babylon ( 6th century BC ) is conventionally known to historians as the Chaldean Dynasty, although only the first four rulers of this dynasty were known to be Chaldeans, and the last ruler, Nabonidus ( and his son and regent Belshazzar ) was known to be from Assyria.

Nabonidus, was certainly not a Chaldean, ironically he was an Assyrian from Harran, the last capital of Assyria.

For the unnamed " king of Babylon " a wide range of identifications have been proposed. They include a Babylonian ruler of the prophet Isaiah's own time the later Nebuchadnezzar II, under whom the Babylonian captivity of the Jews began, or Nabonidus, and the Assyrian kings Tiglath-Pileser, Sargon II and Sennacherib, Herbert Wolf held that the " king of Babylon " was not a specific ruler but a generic representation of the whole line of rulers.

The temple was built in the 21st century BC ( short chronology ), during the reign of Ur-Nammu and was reconstructed in the 6th century BC by Nabonidus, ( the Assyrian born last king of Babylon ) in the 6th century BC.

The last Babylonian king, Nabonidus ( who was Assyrian born, and not a Chaldean ), improved the ziggurat.

It was in the sixth year of Nabonidus ( 549 BC ) that Cyrus, the Achaemenid Persian " king of Anshan " in Elam, revolted against his suzerain Astyages, " king of the Manda " or Medes, at Ecbatana.

Nabonidus fled to Babylon, where he was pursued by Gobryas, and on the 16th day of Tammuz, two days after the capture of Sippar, " the soldiers of Cyrus entered Babylon without fighting.

Gobryas was now made governor of the province of Babylon, and a few days afterwards the son of Nabonidus died.

Cyrus now claimed to be the legitimate successor of the ancient Babylonian kings and the avenger of Bel-Marduk, who was assumed to be wrathful at the impiety of Nabonidus in removing the images of the local gods from their ancestral shrines to his capital Babylon.

Some scholars think that Nebuchadnezzar's portrayal by Daniel is a mixture of traditions about Nebuchadnezzar — he was indeed the one who conquered Jerusalem — and about Nabonidus ( Nabuna ' id ).

For example, Nabonidus was the natural, or paternal father of Belshazzar, and the seven years of insanity could be related to Nabonidus ' sojourn in Tayma in the desert.

Fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls, written from 150 BCE to 70 CE state that it was Nabonidus ( N-b-n-y ) who was smitten by God with a fever for seven years of his reign while his son Belshazzar was regent.

New evidence from Babylon has verified the existence of Belshazzar, the name first given in Daniel 5: 1, as well as his co-regency during the absence of his father, Nabonidus, in Temâ.

Nabonidus and his son, the regent Belshazzar were not Chaldeans or Babylonian, but hailed from the last Assyrian capital of Harran.

Information regarding Nabonidus is chiefly derived from a chronological tablet containing the annals of Nabonidus, supplemented by another inscription of Nabonidus where he recounts his restoration of the temple of the Moon-god at Harran ; as well as by a proclamation of Cyrus issued shortly after his formal recognition as king of Babylonia.

The Nabonidus Chronicle records that, prior to the battle ( s ), Nabonidus had ordered cult statues from outlying Babylonian cities to be brought into the capital, suggesting that the conflict over Susa had begun possibly in the winter of 540 BCE.

The last king of the Neo-Babylonian period, Nabonidus, also originated from Harran as substantiated by evidence from the temple of stele of his mother Adad-Guppi, who is suspected by some to be of Assyrian origin.

The city became a bastion for the worship of the moon god during the rule of Nabonidus from 555-536 BC, much to the consternation of the city of Babylon in the south where Marduk remained the primary deity.

In 540 BC, Nabonidus returned from Tayma, hoping to defend his kingdom from the Persians who were planning to advance on Babylon.

On October 10, 539 BC, Nabonidus surrendered and fled from Cyrus.

New evidence from Babylon has verified the existence of Belshazzar as well as his co-regency during the absence of his father, Nabonidus, in Temâ.

According to the Nabonidus Chronicle, Nabonidus was back from Temâ by his seventeenth year and celebrated the New Year's Festival ( Akk.

Josephus, however, knew of Nabonidus and calls him " Nabonnedus " relating an account of his capture by Cyrus taken from Berossus.

Nabonidus (; Akkadian Nabû-naʾid, " Nabu is praised ") was the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, reigning from 556-539 BCE.

There are two arguments for an Assyrian background: repeated references in Nabonidus ' royal propaganda and imagery to Ashurbanipal, the last great Neo-Assyrian king ; and Nabonidus ' originating from, and his special interest in Harran, an Assyrian city and the last stronghold of the Neo-Assyrians after the fall of Nineveh, their main capital.

Two days later, on October 7 ( proleptic Gregorian calendar ), Gubaru's troops entered Babylon, again without any resistance from the Babylonian armies, and detained Nabonidus.

Three Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls fragments known as The Prayer of Nabonidus ( 4QPrNab, sometimes given as 4QOrNab ) seem to parallel the insanity suffered by Nebuchadnezzar as described in Daniel Chapter 4.

Long before this, scholars had speculated that Nabonidus ' exile in Teima lay behind the story of Nebuchadnezzar's banishment and madness in Daniel chapter four.

* Nebuchadnezzar's illness occurs in Babylon ; Nabonidus is stricken in Tema.

The " general consensus " of scholars is that Daniel four ultimately draws upon the traditions and legends of Nabonidus.

While others feel that the Prayer of Nabonidus shows signs of dependence on the book of Daniel.

However, there is no evidence that Belshazzar ever officially held the title of " king " as he is never called such on the Nabonidus Cylinder.

Labashi-Marduk reigned only for a matter of months, being deposed by Nabonidus in late 560 BC.

Nabonidus proved to be the final native Mesopotamian king of Babylon, he and his son, the regent Belshazzar being deposed by the Persians in 539 BC.

* 539 BC – Cyrus the Great enters the city of Babylon, detains Nabonidus and ends the Babylonian captivity.

Taylor found clay cylinders in the four corners of the top stage of the ziggurat which bore an inscription of Nabonidus ( Nabuna ` id ), the last king of Babylon ( 539 BC ), closing with a prayer for his son Belshar-uzur ( Bel-ŝarra-Uzur ), the Belshazzar of the Book of Daniel.

It appears in Assyrian texts ( namely, the Nabonidus Chronicle ) as Iatribu.

* 556 BC — Nabonidus succeeds Labashi-Marduk as king of Babylon.

Of the reign of the last Babylonian king, Nabonidus ( Nabu-na ' id ), and the conquest of Babylonia by Cyrus, there is a fair amount of information available.