This fragment contains a commentary on a medical text dealing with skin diseases and materia medica to treat them. Because of its findspot it can be ascribed to Anu-ikṣur’s library, a library in which commentaries on therapeutic text abound. Ll. 6-7 of the text, which explain the sequence of diseases ekketu rišûtu (both of them are skin diseases), seem to make use of a quotation from the exorcistic series Muššuʾu VI 12:
su-gu₇-e sa-gu₇-e sa//su-umbin-ag-ag
ki-is-sa-tu₄ ek-ke-tu₄ ri-šu-tu₄
Line 10 seems to perform a notarikon analysis on the name of the disease bar.zi.luḫ, which is explained as “drying up the innards” (bar.zi = kabattu, “innards,” and luḫ = abā[lu], “to dry up”). Noteworthy is also the entry of ll. 11-12, which explains the phrase kamūn bīni, “Cumin (kamūnu) from a tamarisk” as “alum,” and the latter as “a fungus (kamūnu) that appears in the roots of a tamarisk,” thus justifying the first equation. This same explanation is attested in the Qutāru commentary CCP 4.2.M.a l. 22.
The commentary uses the technical terms ša iqbû (l. 2), to introduce an explanandum, and šanîš (l. 9), to introduce an alternative explanation.
A photograph of the tablet was kindly provided by Hermann Hunger, and it allowed some improved readings (esp. line 13). The transliteration below makes use of an ATF transliteration originally prepared by Philippe Clancier for the GKAB project, which has been extensively revised. Thanks are expressed to Philippe Clancier and Eleanor Robson.
