This hitherto unpublished tablet from Babylon contains a short but complete commentary on the last four chapters of the physiognomic divinatory series Alamdimmû. Only a few words from each chapter are commented upon: five words from Alamdimmû IX, three from Alamdimmû X, eleven from Alamdimmû XI, and six from Alamdimmû XII. Each of these sections is followed by a rubric classifying the text above as a ṣâtu 3b commentary, and providing the incipit of the tablet in question.
The text of the chapters dealt with in the commentary (Alamdimmû X-XII) is poorly known: not a single manuscript of Alamdimmû IX and XI-XII can be identified at present, and Alamdimmû X is attested only fragmentarily. In consequence only one entry can be related to the base text the commentary refers to: l. 9, which glosses the logogram šà.maḫ of Alamdimmû X 45-46 as karšu, “stomach.”
The writings explained in this text are in many cases unique. For instance, the apparently logographic writing sag.ḫa.ma.al is said in l. 2 to mean šarḫu, “proud”; whereas line 27 explains the logogram maš.šu.gál as sikiltu, “property.” In the former case, the writing is elsewhere unattested; in the latter, it is known only from the lexical list Nabnītu. In l. 26, both explanandum and explanans seem to be hapax legomena.
Besides explaining obscure writings, this commentary allows now for the first time reading correctly the incipit of Alamdimmû XI (line 23), which was damaged in the ancient catalogs that listed it (see note ad loc.).
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