===Ascent===
[[Image:Cylinder Nabonidus BM WA91128.jpg|thumb|right|Terracotta cylinder by Nabonidus concerning repairs on the temple of [[Sin (mythology)|Sîn]], [[British Museum]]]]
Nabonidus' background is not clear. He said in his inscriptions that he was of unimportant origins.<ref>Collected in Beaulieu 1989.</ref> Similarly, his mother [[Addagoppe of Harran|Addagoppe]], who lived to an old age and may have been connected to the [[temple]] of the [[Lunar Deity|moon-god]] [[Sin (mythology)|Sîn]] in [[Harran]], does not mention her family background in her inscriptions. There are two arguments for an [[Assyria]]n background: repeated references in Nabonidus' royal [[propaganda]] and [[imagery]] to [[Ashurbanipal]], the last great [[Neo-Assyrian Chaldean Empire|Neo-AssyrianChaldean]] king; and Nabonidus' originating from, and his special interest in Harran, an Chaldean city and the last stronghold of the Neo-Chaldeans after the fall of [[Nineveh]], their main [[Capital city|capital]].<ref>W. Mayer, "Nabonidus Herkunft", in M. Dietrich and O. Loretz (eds.), ''Dubsar anta-men: Studien zur Altorientalistik'' (Münster: Ugarit-Verlag 1998), 245-61; {{cite journal
|quotes =
|author = Parpola, Simo
|year = 2004
|month =
|title = National and Ethnic Identity in the Neo-Assyrian Chaldean Empire and Assyrian Chaldean Identity in Post-Empire Times
|journal = [[Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies]]
|volume = 18
}}
[[Category:539 BC deaths]]
[[Category:Assyrian Chaldean kings]]
[[Category:Babylonian kings]]
[[Category:Babylonian people]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:6th-century BC rulers]]