Over 100 palm-sized, 2,500-year-old tablets discovered in Iraq, now on display at Jerusalem’s Bible Lands Museum, are providing unprecedented insights into Jewish life after Judeans were exiled to ancient Babylonia.
The tablets, each inscribed in tiny Akkadian script – an extinct eastern-Semitic language spoken in ancient Mesopotamia – detail transactions and contracts by Judeans forced to leave Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar in 600 BCE...
Nebuchadnezzar, a powerful ruler famed for the Hanging Gardens of Babylon (one of the seven wonders of the ancient world), came to Jerusalem several times – including during the destruction of the First Temple – to spread the reach of his kingdom.
During Nebuchadnezzar’s visits, Vukosavovic said he forced or compelled the exile of thousands of Judeans, including one instance in 587 BCE that resulted in the exodus of 1,500 Jews to modern-day Lebanon and Syria, and on to southern Iraq, then known as Babylonia.
Technically not slaves, Nebuchadnezzar allowed the Judeans in Babylonia to become merchants or assist administering his growing kingdom.
The tablets shed light on the Judeans’ contributions, detailing taxes paid, debts owed, credits accumulated and trade in fruits and other commodities.
The exhibition also chronicles one family in the Judean Kingdom over four generations, starting with the father, Samak-Yama, his son, grandson and his grandson’s five children, all