Bronze door-slab

This door-slab comes from the lower part of a flight of steps in the Temple of Ezida in Borsippa, part of the building works of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II (604-562 BC). The recess is for a door-post. The pattern represents a carpet ornamented with rosettes. The inscription reads: 'Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, patron of Esagila and Ezida, eldest son of Nabopolassar, king of Babylons am I. For Nabu, the exalted lord who had lengthened the days of my life Ezida, his temple in Borsippa I have built anew.' The text is written in an archaic form of cuneiform to lend it greater authority. Part of the inscription is found on many of the bricks of Nebuchadnezzar's buildings. In the capital Babylon, the king restored Esagila, the Temple of Marduk, the supreme god. The door slab has been cut in two and it may have have been relaid about 268 BC under the Seleucid Greek emperor Antiochus I, the last ruler to have restored this temple.