In its current condition, this manuscript consists of four joined fragments from the centre of what must have originally been a large tablet with three columns on each side. The preserved text represents column II, which contained the Akkadian version of the base text; of column I – which contained the base text in its original Sumerian – only traces of the final signs in some lines remain. Of column III, the first sign or two are preserved in only a handful of lines (17'-27'). Since these meagre signs do not resemble the beginnings of Sumerian words (see especially l. 26'), and in some places can be explained as quotations from the corresponding line in column II (especially ll. 19' and 26'), they are nevertheless sufficient to identify column III as a commentary with some degree of confidence.
The tablet thus conforms to none of the usual formats for commentary tablets – perhaps because it is the only bilingual text to have received a commentary. In addition to the contents of the tablet, external sources in the form of three text catalogues from the Neo-Assyrian empire mention a commentary on Lugal-e; they thus provide evidence for the existence of a commentary on this text, albeit at an earlier date than the probable date of this tablet.
The fragments belong to two museum consignments: 82-3-23 is a large consignment of a mixture of tablets from Sippar, Babylon, Borsippa and Dilbat, but none from the Assyrian site of Kuyunjik. 85-11-27 is a very small consignment of tablets purchased from the London dealer J.M. Shemtob. Thus, although the tablet’s origin cannot be ascertained, it is probably later in date than the Neo-Assyrian period. A bilingual version of Lugal-e was still current in the Seleucid period, as demonstrated by the existence of text SBH 71.
The preserved lines are drawn from Chapters 1-3 and 11-14 of Lugal-e. One can therefore assume that the tablet originally contained a commentary on its entire 16 chapters. In addition to the identifications of Lugal-e lines made already by Lambert, r 10' is identifiable either with Lugale-e l. 569 or 582.