GADD, CRONACA di. — This is the name given, after its first decipherer and editor, to a cuneiform tablet preserved in the British Museum (no. 21901) in London.
Both the form of the characters and the content show that it was written in Babylon; its concluding reference indicates that it formed part of a historical collection, or rather, of a chronicle of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The published text covers the years 616–609 B.C., extending from the tenth to the seventeenth year of King Nabopolassar. G.’s chronicle has shed unexpected light on a turbulent historical period, saturated with important events. From it we learn about Babylonian policy, its alliances, and especially the end of the rival Empire of Nineveh. One of its most notable advantages has been the precise establishment of the fall of Nineveh in 612 B.C., whereas it had usually been dated to 606. Thus it has been possible to ascertain that the end of the city did not coincide with that of the Empire, since Assur-ubalit had transferred his precarious residence to Haran.
With regard to the Bible, the study of G.’s chronicle has placed certain passages of Nahum, Jeremiah, and Zephaniah in a considerably different light: it has rendered highly doubtful a battle at Carchemish in 605 (= the fourth year of Jehoiakim) between Egypt and Babylon (cf.
ler. 46, 1-3), while it has offered a completely new interpretation of the battle of Megiddo (609), where the reforming king Josiah was struck down and killed. He did not intend to protect the tottering Assyria as its vassal, but rather to prevent Pharaoh Necho II from bringing aid to Assur-ubalit, of whom he had become an ally.