People Confirmed
Belshazzar and the Nabonidus Cylinder: A Crown Prince Named in Clay
30-second summary
For over two thousand years, Belshazzar was known only from the book of Daniel, and critics cited the silence as evidence he never existed. In 1854 a Nabonidus foundation cylinder from Ur named him 'Belshazzar, my eldest son'; a separately recovered Babylonian chronicle showed him governing the capital for years while his father, King Nabonidus, lived at a distant oasis. Two independent Babylonian records confirm the very man, and the very role, Daniel 5 places on the throne the night Babylon fell.
Scripture
Baltasar the king made a great feast for a thousand of his nobles: and every one drank according to his age.
Balthasar rex fecit grande convivium optimatibus suis mille et unusquisque secundum suam bibebat aetatem
Then by the king's command Daniel was clothed with purple, and a chain of gold was put about his neck: and it was proclaimed of him that he had power as the third man in the kingdom. The same night Baltasar the Chaldean king was slain.
tunc iubente rege indutus est Danihel purpura et circumdata est torques aurea collo eius et praedicatum est de eo quod haberet potestatem tertius in regno eadem nocte interfectus est Balthasar rex Chaldeus
The Claim
Belshazzar was a real historical figure, son of Nabonidus, who governed Babylon as regent while his father lived at Tema and held royal authority in the capital when the city fell in 539 BC.
- Corroboration
- The Nabonidus Cylinder from Ur names Belshazzar as crown prince and eldest son; the independently compiled Nabonidus Chronicle records him governing Babylon for years during his father's absence. Two Babylonian sources, neither dependent on the other or on Scripture, converge on the same man and the same role.
- Discovered
- AD 1854, Ur (cylinder); chronicle acquired 1879
- Current location
- British Museum, London
Why this level?
Two Babylonian sources, excavated a generation apart and independent of each other and of the Bible, corroborate the same core fact: a man named Belshazzar was Nabonidus's son and governed Babylon as regent while his father was away. The Nabonidus Cylinder from Ur names him as crown prince and eldest son; the separately compiled Nabonidus Chronicle records him running the capital during Nabonidus's decade at Tema. Different genres, different find contexts, same convergent picture — exactly the double independent attestation this level requires.
Dig deeper
A Name Found in Clay
Daniel 5 names Belshazzar as king of Babylon on the night the city fell to Cyrus's forces in 539 BC. For centuries the name appeared nowhere outside Scripture. Every classical source on Babylon's last king — Herodotus, Xenophon, Berossus, and the native Babylonian King List — named Nabonidus instead, and the silence was long treated as evidence that Daniel was a late, unhistorical composition.
Two Independent Babylonian Records
That silence ended with two separate discoveries. In 1854, J. G. Taylor excavated the ziggurat of Sin at Ur and recovered a foundation cylinder of Nabonidus (British Museum, K.1689) carrying a royal prayer for "Belshazzar, my eldest son." A generation later came the Nabonidus Chronicle (BM 35382), a Babylonian court annal recording that Nabonidus spent roughly a decade at the Arabian oasis of Tema while "the crown prince, his officers, and his army" remained in Babylonia — governing so completely in his father's absence that the New Year festival could not be held without the king present.
These two sources were unearthed decades apart, belong to different genres — a royal dedicatory inscription and a chronicle of state affairs — and neither depends on the other or on the Bible. Together they establish, independently, that Belshazzar was a real prince of the Neo-Babylonian royal house who ruled Babylon as regent while his father was away: precisely the situation Daniel 5 presupposes.
One Note on Titles
Babylonian administrative usage reserved the word "king" for the man formally enthroned and titled Belshazzar mar šarri, "crown prince" — the working head of state in the capital while Nabonidus held the kingship from afar. Daniel's Aramaic calls the man running Babylon its king, the plain term an author inside the city would use for its ruling authority. Both descriptions point to the same man exercising the same royal power.
What the Record Establishes
For most of the modern era, Belshazzar was skeptics' leading example of an invented biblical king. Two independently unearthed Babylonian texts — a royal cylinder and a state chronicle, neither drawing on the other — instead confirm a real Belshazzar, son of Nabonidus, who governed Babylon at exactly the time and in exactly the position Daniel describes. Discovery turned an argument from silence into a documented convergence between Scripture and the Babylonian archive.
Keep digging
- British Museum, cylinder of Nabonidus from Ur (K.1689) — https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_K-1689
- British Museum, Nabonidus Chronicle (BM 35382) — https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_Sp-II-964
- Livius.org, Nabonidus Chronicle (ABC 7) translation — https://www.livius.org/sources/content/mesopotamian-chronicles-content/abc-7-nabonidus-chronicle/
- Ask Magisterium AI (a research tool, not a primary source) about the historicity of Daniel — https://www.magisterium.com
Citations
- Scripture
Daniel 5:1, 29-30 (Douay-Rheims)
Supports: Text naming Baltasar (Belshazzar) as king of Babylon on the night the city fell, and Daniel's promised rank as 'third man in the kingdom.'
- Scripture
Daniel 5:1, 29-30 (Vulgate)
Supports: Latin Vulgate text of Daniel 5:1 and 5:29-30, quoted character-for-character from the cited page.
- Archeological
British Museum, Nabonidus Cylinder from Ur
British Museum, cylinder of Nabonidus, K.1689
Supports: Foundation cylinder of Nabonidus containing a prayer naming 'Belshazzar, my eldest son' — the first extra-biblical attestation of the name, titling him crown prince.
- Archeological
British Museum, Nabonidus Chronicle
British Museum, BM 35382 (Sp-II.964)
Supports: Chronicle documenting Nabonidus's years-long absence at Tema while the crown prince governed Babylonia in his stead.
- Historical Source
Livius.org, Nabonidus Chronicle (ABC 7)
Mesopotamian Chronicles, ABC 7
Supports: Translation confirming 'the crown prince, his officers, and his army' remained in Babylonia while Nabonidus stayed at Tema.