This previously unedited tablet contains a series of etymographies of divine, celestial, and personal names. Thus, Marduk’s name [(…)] Asaralimnunna is explained as “light of Anu, Enlil, and Ea” in l. o 2; the name of his celestial counterpart, the planet Jupiter (dsag.me.gar), is explained by means of a notarikon analysis as the “provider of (ominous) signs for the lands” (ll. o 7-8). The name of Laluralimma, an officer from Kassite Nippur that features in Ludlul, is also etymologized in ll. r 1′-2′. Some of the explanations are based on astrological concepts: thus, the idea that Marduk dwells inside the sun, known from other texts, plays a part in l. 6; the conception that Qingu and the month Nisannu belong to the realm of Anu and Enlil is justified by means of a quotation from Mulapin in r 8′-9′.
The tablet contains an very high number of quotations from literary texts. The following can be identified: Marduk’s Address to the Demons (o 1), Enūma eliš (o 3), the Code of Ḫammurapi (o 5), the Prayer to Marduk II (o 9), Ludlul bēl nēmeqi (?) (r 1′), and some version of Anzû (r 6′). All the quoted texts are literary texts, most of which, but not all, feature Marduk. Whereas in some cases the quotations seem to be prompted by etymological analyses in the previous lines (e.g. ll. o 3, r 6′), in the majority of them the lines are quoted freely, and no apparent line of reasoning can be perceived. The impression gained is that the tablet is, as described by W. G. Lambert, a “cento of quotations with comments.”
The lišlim-formula at the beginning of the tablet invokes Marduk and Zarpanītu, thus suggesting that the tablet was written in Babylon. This is further confirmed by a secrecy clause in the colophon, according to which the tablet cannot be shown to a non-Babylonian. The colophon states that the tablet belong to a previously unknown individual, Ea-tabtan(ni)-uṣur son of Bel-aplu-uṣur, descendant of A[tkuppu]. Members of the Atkuppu (lit., “reed worker”) clan were active in Borsippa during the Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid period, and the present tablet should also be dated to that period.
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