This tablet contains part of a commentary on selected entries from third and fourth subseries (Manzāzu and Padānu, respectively) of the great extispicy series Bārûtu. The tablet was acquired in the 1920s in the Antiquities market, reportedly from Dilbat (rencently, however, Jursa has expressed some skepticism about this provenance).1 As pointed out by U. Gabbay (personal communication, 3/2015), the tablet is more likely to stem from Nippur and to come from uncontrolled excavations in that city or, more likely, in Uruk: the scribe of the tablet, [Ištar-šum-iddina (?)] son of Sîn-nādin-aḫḫē descendant of Gimil-Sîn, is also known from three other commentaries believed to stem from Nippur, CCP 3.1.u5, CCP 4.1.21, and CCP 4.2.P. The colophon of the present tablet also displays close affinities with the colophons of those two commentaries. Moreover, as communicated by U. Gabbay, the rubric contained in this tablet, ṣâtu 6b, is particularly common in commentary tablets from Nippur and Uruk.

The first line of the tablet simply enuntiates the incipit of the base text, without commenting on it. The second line contains a gloss rendering syllabically a logogram and then, apparently, a line that seems to expand on the gloss. After these two entries there is a blank space, after which there is a rubric that classifies what precedes as a ṣâtu-commentary on Manzāzu, chapter 6.

After this extremely short section there are some more entries whose base text is difficult to ascertain. They provide explanations founded on synonymity (e.g. o 6 šūšur, "straight," is explained as kunnu, "firm") or phonetic similarity (o 9 kaksû, a deformation on the exta, is explained as kakku gaṣṣu, "murderous weapon"). In one case the commentary explains the rare name karšû, which designates some deformation on the exta, by comparing it with a "leatherworker's knife."

The obverse breaks after a few lines. The beginning reverse contains meager remains of two lines, separated from the rest by means of a blank space. After this, there are some badly damaged lines that seem to address the reader in the second person (r 5' ina pîka tašakkan, "put in your mouth").

The tablet uses cola to divide the explananda from the explanations, but no termini technici are preserved.

Collation of the tablet in July 2014 was facilitated by Dr. Paul Collins, Curator for Ancient Near East (Ashmolean Museum), to whom thanks are expressed.

• 1. M. Jursa, “Neubabylonische Texte”, in Texte zum Rechts- und Wirtschaftsleben, B. Janowski and Wilhelm, G. , Eds. Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2004, pp. 89-110. P. 91 fn. 8