This small fragment belongs to a commentary that appears to be concerned with constellations and gods. The exact base text on which the present piece comments is uncertain. As U. Gabbay observes (private communication), the fact that both gods and months are mentioned in this fragment, as well as the use of the strange form qa-ba-a in line 10′, is suggestive of some relationship between the present fragment and the Iqqur īpuš commentary CCP 3.8.2.A, a text that also elaborates on connections between gods and months and contains the same spelling qa-ba-a.

The preserved lines are badly damaged, and hardly any entry is understandable. The most arresting feature of the fragment is the quotation from the god list An = Anu that appears in lines 11′-12′, and which explains the rare names Atugula and Atubanda (both are daughters of the mother-goddess).1 It seems highly unlikely that these names could have featured in an astrological text: the lines in the commentary are thus better explained as theological elaborations on the name of some constellation.

The fragment belongs to the British Museum’s “Sippar Collection,” and its accession number (AH.83-1-18) is shared by other commentaries on astrological texts, such as a commentary on Enūma Anu Enlil 58(59)-62(63) “Group A” (CCP 3.1.58.D.a) and a fragment of an astrological commentary (CCP 3.1.u46). It is also the same consignment as the Theodicy commentary (CCP 1.4), the commentary on Uruanna (CCP 6.5), and the fragment CCP 7.2.u73.

The tablet has been collated by I.L. Finkel, and the results of his collation are acknowledged in the textual notes below.

• 1. On these goddesses, see A. Cavigneaux and Krebernik, M. , “dNIN-tu-tur”, Reallexikon der Assyriologie, vol. 9, p. 508, 1998.