246 
Transactions of the Boyal Society of South Africa. 
and from the amount of text missing it is probable that the king was 
amongst ' Nabu-mukin-apli's ' more immediate predecessors. 
"We also know from the Chronicle that this unknown king reigned 
for at least seventeen years, since his seventeenth year is mentioned. 
But only two of Nabti-mukin-apli's immediate predecessors reigned as 
long as this — Simmash-shikhu, who reigned seventeen or eighteen years, 
and Eulbar-shakin-shum, who reigned seventeen or (according to the 
Dynastic Chronicle) fifteen years. From the Babylonian * List of Kings ' 
we know that only three years and five months separated the end of 
Simmash-shikhu's reign from the beginning of that of Bulbar-shakin- 
shum's. Therefore the seventh year of Simmash-shikhu was separated 
from the seventh year of Eulbar-shakin-shum by twenty years and five 
months or twenty-one years and five months. This gives us the difference 
in date involved by the identification of our unknown king with Simmash- 
shikhu and Eulbar-shakin-shum respectively. Of these two kings there 
is slightly more to be said in favour of Simmash-shikhu, the earlier of the 
two, since the Dynastic Chronicle assigns only fifteen years to Eulbar- 
shakin-shum. 
" To accurately fix the date of either Simmash-shikhu or Eulbar- 
shakin-shum is unfortunately impossible at present, as may be seen 
from the following table, which gives the seventh year of each of these 
kings according to the principal schemes of Babylonian chronology 
published during the last few years : — 
Seventh Year of Seventh Year of 
Simmash-shikhu. Eulbar-shakin-shum. 
Host 1897 B.C. 1106 B.C. 1084 
Sayce 1899 1090 1069 
Hommel 1886 1075 1054 
Hommel 1898 1037 1015 
Winckler 1892 1074 1054 
Winckler 1894 1031 1011 
Rogers 1900 1068 1047 
Delitzsch 1891 1044 1022 
Peiser 1891 1042 1021 
Neibuhr 1896 1031 1008 
Lehmann 1898 974 953 
" But the table will suffice to show that, if the unknown king be 
identified with either Simmash-shikhu or Eulbar-shakin-shum, the eclipse 
of B.C. 1070 or B.C. 1063 are more probable than those of B.C. 1124 or 
B.C. 1117. 
" It should be stated, however, that the end of column II and begin- 
ning of column III which are missing from the Chronicle, may possibly 
have covered a longer period than that between the reigns of Simmash- 
shikhu and Nahu-mukin-apli. In that case there are two kings in the 
