The present text, a small fragment in the British Museum’s “Sippar Collection,” but possibly originating from Babylon, contains short comments on entries from Aa II/3, II/4 and II/5. It is thus the only known commentary of the lexical series Aa that covers more than one “section” (Akk. pirsu). This fact suggests that the present tablet is a commentary on Ea rather than Aa.
For the first few lines of the present tablet, which deal with simple numerical notations of multiples of the horizontal wedge aš, the base text Aa II/3 does not preserve any entries (see MSL 14, 276-278), but corresponding entries can be gleaned from Ea II, 140-144. Aa II/3 is also commented upon in the large commentary tablet CCP 6.1.11.A, which however does not reach until the entries listed in our text, but ends with the sign idim (= Ea II, 124). Although there is no catch-line preserved on this tablet, it is plausible to assume that our commentary started in entry Ea II, 125: di-id-li : 2×aš : de-el min-na-bi : ma-ʾ-du-tu, “Two horizontal wedges read /didli/ (with the sign name) del minabi means ‘numerous’.” There might be no more than five lines missing from the break at the beginning of the the present tablet.
The base text Aa II/4 corresponds to Ea II, 146-188, and is much better known thanks to the perfectly preserved Achaemenid tablet BM 92693 (CT 12, 1-3) from Sippar. This part of Aa deals with the sign u and leads up to u-gunû or bùr. Aa II/4 is commented upon in the very small fragment BM 38525 (CCP 6.1.12).
The transition between the commentary of Aa II/4 and Aa II/5 lies in the break at the end of line 2′ on the fragment’s reverse. The second part of this entry, however, is still sufficiently preserved: [gi-in : kur :] ku-ú-ru : šá za.gìn el-lu, which also corresponds to the catch-line on the afore-mentioned manuscript of Aa II/4, BM 92693. The base text to Aa II/5 is again rather fragmentary (see MSL 14, 287), but there are various commentaries dealing with its entries. Of particular interest among them is BM 42271(+) (CCP 6.1.13.B.a), which meticulously expounds on various entries in the base text; others are BM 68583 (CCP 6.1.13.A) and BM 48261+ (CCP 6.1.13.C).
It is not clear how far our commentary reached into Aa, but it is likely that he ended with Aa II/5, whose last entry would correspond to Ea II, 265. Aa II/6 starts with the sign ḫal. This latter section is commented on in CCP 6.1.14.
Compared to many other Aa-commentaries, the present text is rather modest. It hardly preserves more than equations. Nonetheless, it adds occasionally sign names such as ku-ú-ru min-na-bi i-gi-gub-bu-ú for reduplicated kur, whereas the second kur is turned by 180 degrees (line r 7′) or de-el te-nu-ú for the slanted single wedge (line r 9′). In those areas where we have the base text amply preserved, it seems that this commentary follows more in line with Ea than Aa.
Besides the sign names there are no other technical terms preserved. An intriguing feature occurs in the section on the number “10”. After the sign u the commentator left a round stylus impression. Assuming that this is neither a firing hole (which would be unusual on late commentaries) nor an insect digging its way through a tablet in the soil, the scribe might have wanted to represent the old sign form of the number “10” here.
This commentary, as far as it is preserved, does not provide any substantial additional information that would go beyond its base text.
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