[2] They represent one of the first steps in the development of ancient historiography.
Almost all of the tablets were identified as chronicles once in the collection of the British Museum, having been acquired via antiquities dealers from unknown excavations undertaken during the 19th century.
[2] The Chronicles provide the "master narrative" for large blocks of current Babylonian history.
[2] The chronicles are thought to have been transferred to the British Museum after 19th century excavations in Babylon, and subsequently left undeciphered in the archives for decades.
Grayson, Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles (1975) CM – Jean-Jacques Glassner, Chroniques Mésopotamiennes (1993) (translated as Mesopotamian Chronicles, 2004) BCHP – I. Finkel & R.J. van der Spek, Babylonian Chronicles of the Hellenistic Period (not yet published) BM – British Museum Number