The present tablet is, according to its rubric, a ṣâtu-commentary on a text whose incipit is not legible. Since most comments refer to plant or tree names, it seems likely that its base text is a medical text of some sort containing a list of drugs.
This commentary is peculiar in several ways. First, its colophon identifies it as having been copied by Nabû-balāssu-iqbi (written cryptographically), of the Egibatila family. This scribe appears in the colophons of nine other commentary tablets, one of which (CCP 3.8.2.B), dated to 103 BC, is the latest datable commentary.
The second peculiar feature of this tablet is that it contains two of the few instances of quotations where the texts are explicitly identified: in this case, the poorly known series Sidu and the series Fox are mentioned. Other apparent quotations in this text are not explicitly identified.
The text uses both double (:) and triple cola (:.), the former to introduce the explanations and the latter, apparently, to distinguish between the glosses to each explanandum and the base text (see the section Technical Terms and Signs).
The greatest part of the preserved portion is devoted to a long speculation on the meaning of the otherwise unattested ḫām-plant (obv 4-10). At some point, the commentary equates this plant with the malodorous plant daddaru, which in turn gives rise to the already mentioned triple quotation from two literary texts.
As in this case, the main concern of the commentary is to provide glosses to difficult plant names. The rationale behind these equations is not always clear. On some occasions the explanans is just an Akkadian rendering of the explanandum (e.g. o 13 ú gal = šammu rabû), while on others it is a more or less obvious synonym (e.g. o 12 ú tin.tin = ú nam.ti.la). In still other cases the association stems from traditional virtues attributed to the plants in Mesopotamian plant lore, e.g. in o 12, where the “seed of the ḫaluppu-tree,” which is elsewhere known as a simplicium for child birth, is called the “plant of life.” Still at least one instance of notarikon has been revealed by collation: in o 15 the “vine” (geštin) is explained as “tree (geš) of life (tin).”
As for termini technici, the commentary uses šanîš and šalšiš, libbū (o 9, apparently introducing quotations), and ša ina iškār ... qabi/iqbû, “what is said in the series ...” (marking the end of quotations) and iqabbûšu (o 9, apparently with the same function).
