Ishtar Gate of Babylon: New findings challenge original purpose and timeline

Built during the rule of King Nebuchadnezzar II, the Ishtar Gate was a tribute to Goddess Ishtar. A replica of this gateway now serves as a prime tourist attraction in Iraq, enticing visitors to the historic city of Babylon. However, the actual, reconstructed Ishtar Gate can be found in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.

Until recently, it was widely accepted that the building was constructed to honor the victory over Jerusalem. However, the latest research challenges this theory.

Nebuchadnezzar II ordered the creation of the first building stage—containing a signature of the ruler inscribed on the fired bricks. Uncertainty looms when the following stages— the second featuring glazed brick and the third showcasing relief glazed brick—are completed. Some researchers have speculated that Nebuchadnezzar II might have died before the gateway's completion.

Seeking to resolve this query, archaeologists analyzed tiny fragments from five burned mud bricks from the Ishtar Gate by measuring their geomagnetic fields: a process referred to as archaeomagnetism. Scientists from the McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville maintain that such a technique yields more precise dating than radiocarbon dating, the most common method in archaeological measurements. The findings were published in the scientific journal PLOS One.

The study's results indicated no "significant chronological gaps" between the individual construction stages of the object, suggesting that the Ishtar Gate's style remained consistent throughout its construction. The scientists believe "the second and third phase are related to the original project of the gate and reflect the construction process, not later additions detaching from the original design".

This opens the possibility that the gate may have been built for reasons other than initially assumed. The scientists deduced that "the gate complex was erected sometime after the Babylonians' conquest of Jerusalem", which happened in 586 B.C. According to the study, the bricks used in the construction most likely date back to around 583 B.C. (still within Nebuchadnezzar II's lifetime).