Oldest Representation of the Tower of Babel Discovered?

Teresa Neumann : Jan 3, 2012
Rossella Lorenzi - Discovery News

"Here we have for the first time an illustration contemporary with Nebuchadnezzar II's restoring and enlargement of the Tower of Babel, and with a caption making the identity absolutely sure." -Sch?yen Collection website.

(Norway) - Martin Schoyen is a Norwegian businessman who owns the largest private manuscript collection formed in the last century, including pictographic and cuneiform tablets and steles from ancient Mesopotamia.

One in particular is a black stone featuring an engraving of a tower, or ziggurat, with an accompanying inscription.

In a new book entitled Cuneiform Royal Inscriptions and Related Texts in the Sch?yen Collection, a team of scholars claim they have discovered, through recent translations of that stone and its inscription, what may be the oldest representation of the Tower of Babel. (Photo: Detail of the Tower of Babel stele, courtesy Discovery News)

According to a report in Discovery News, the engraving shows Nebuchadnezzar II wearing a royal hat, holding a staff in his left hand, and a scroll with the rebuilding plans of the Tower (or a foundation nail) in his right hand.

The stele also reportedly depicts the Tower of Babel from a front view, "clearly showing temple on the top." the relative proportions of the 7 steps including the temple on the top."