The tablet 82-5-2,572 preserves a commentary with a tabular format on several tablets from the meteorological section of Enūma Anu Enlil. According to the preserved rubrics (ll. 12' and 26'), this would be a commentary on the 49th and 50th tablet of EAE, which correspond with 47 and 48, respectively, in the main recensions. A further tablet, presumably the 49th, is commented upon in the reverse of the tablet.
The most remarkable peculiarity of this commentary is that its rubrics classify it as a ṣâtu mukallimtu. This is in fact the only commentary that combines both terms. E. Frahm has suggested that this might indicate that the tablet contains a ṣâtu-commentary (or, "lemmata") on a mukallimtu-commentary, i.e., a super-commentary. The fact that no mukallimtu-commentary on EAE 47-49 is known does not preclude this possibility.
The commentary is mostly concerned with philological issues. The most frequent operation is the syllabic rendering of logograms: e.g., ll. 17'-18' equate lal and an.ta, which in the base text describes the prosperity of the market or the harvest, with the Akkadian šaqû, "to be high." Another operation is the explanation of difficult words from the base text through more common terms, which occurs e.g. in l. 34' (duppuru = nesû = rūqu, the three words with the meaning "distant"). In the same manner, difficult or misleading sequences of signs are explained through fuller syllabic renderings, e.g. 15' it-kup kúr, "attack of the enemy," explained as it-ku-up lúkúr; or l. 28' ila-min, "shall be evil," rendered as i-lam-min. In one case the commentary makes the base text more explicit, as to avoid misinterpretations: l. 27', where the protasis "if the south wind blows during the month of Nisannu" is said to mean "it blows from the 1st until the 30th day."
This commentary thus tries to ensure the correct interpretation of its base text, rather than to look for deeper or hidden meanings of it.
The tablet was collated in the British Museum in August 2014.
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