This tablet contains what is in all likelihood the latest known commentary on Sagig, the Akkadian treatise on medical diagnostics and prognostics. As in the case of CCP 3.5.31 (commentary on Šumma Ālu 31), the present tablet states in its colophon that it was copied by Marduk-zēru-ibni, son of Nabû-balāssu-iqbi, from the Egibatila family, for his father, probably as some sort of pedagogical exercise. Although not dated, its owner is known to have lived during the end of the second century BC. This was in all likelihood not an original composition, since written in smaller script in the very last line of the colophon the tablet is said to have been [copied], collated [and checked against its original].
The first few lines of the commentary deal with entries from the tenth tablet of Sagig. However, the last entries before the rubric explain omens from Sagig 11, and the rubric itself contains the incipit of Sagig 11. As first pointed out by Heeßel, this becomes explicable if it is assumed that the present tablet dealt with both Sagig 10 and 11 - probably the section devoted to Sagig 10 was followed by a rubric, now lost, similarly to the section commenting on Sagig 11. Based on the ratio of lines commented upon, it would appear that the preserved portion represents about 25% of the original tablet, which had perhaps some 40 lines per side.
The commentary seeks to provide in the first place syllabic renderings of difficult logograms, e.g. dul-ma from Sagig 10 1 is explained in line o 2 of the commentary as ukattam-ma, "he closes (his eyes)." Occasionally the explanations involve some philological speculation: this is the case of line o 5, where iḫtaniṭṭaššu, "it will beset him," from Sagig 10 6, is said to mean naḫāsu, "to recede" (the opposite!), due to the fact that both the verb ḫâṭu, "to beset," and naḫāsu, "to recede," share the logogram lal.
For these philological deductions the ancient exegete uses once the terminus technicus šanîš, "alternatively." He also employed the preposition ana for introducing the lemma from which the explanandum is said to derive. This lemma needs not be an infinitive: e.g. in line r 6' sāmta, "red spot," is said to derive from "redness" (ana sūmi). The last entry of the commentary uses ana apparently to derive the obscure form teḫsī-ma from the verb kabāsi, "to tread."
No copy of the present tablet has ever been published. The present transliteration is based on that prepared by J. Wee for his PhD thesis, which was in turn based on F.W. Geers' unpublished copy of the tablet. Although the tablet is now flaking off and Geers' copy occasionally shows it in a better shape than it is today, it has been possible to obtain some fresh collations, which are marked here with an asterisk.
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