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NBC 7843 (CCP 3.1.5.E [1])
© Yale Babylonian Collection

Mesopotamian commentaries represent the world’s oldest cohesive group of hermeneutic texts. Numbering nearly 900, the earliest date to the eighth century and the latest to ca. 100 BCE. The purpose of this website is to make the corpus available both to the scholarly community and a more general audience by providing background information on the genre, a searchable catalog, as well as photos, drawings, annotated editions, and translations of individual commentary tablets. For the first time the cuneiform commentaries, currently scattered over 21 museums around the globe, will be accessible on one platform.

The Cuneiform Commentaries Project is funded by Yale University (2013-2016) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (Division of Research Programs “Scholarly Editions and Translations,” 2015-2018).

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Recent additions to the corpus

CCP 3.5.6.B - Ālu 6 B [3] [3] [3] [3] [3] [3] Courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum This fragment contains remains of what appears to be a commentary on the 6th tablet of the series of terrestrial omens Šumma Ālu (see below the commentary on lines r 6′-7′). Read more about CCP 3.5.6.B - Ālu 6 B [3]	CCP 7.2.u178 - Uncertain [4] [4] Courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum There is no proof that this small and badly damaged fragment from Babylon belongs to a text commentary, but the presence of a Glossenkeil dividing two apparently similar words in l. 7′ suggests that it might be one. Read more about CCP 7.2.u178 - Uncertain [4]	CCP 7.2.u97 - Uncertain [5] [5] [5] Courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum This small fragment, which was drawn to our attention by N. Veldhuis, contains remains of a commentary in tabular format. It is written in Babylonian script, and its contents suggest that its base text is of medical nature (see e.g. Read more about CCP 7.2.u97 - Uncertain [5]	CCP 3.5.u7 - Ālu Sleep Omens (?) [6] [6] [6] [6] [6] Courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum This small fragment, whose museum number was kindly provided by Christopher B. F. Walker, contains probably a commentary on Šumma Ālu. Read more about CCP 3.5.u7 - Ālu Sleep Omens (?) [6]
CCP 7.2.u132 - Medical (?) [7] [7] [7] [7] [7] [7] Courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum The most interesting feature of this small fragment, written in a small script, is that it quotes a full line from Udugḫul (XIII-XV 214′) in its bilingual form (l. 6′). Read more about CCP 7.2.u132 - Medical (?) [7]	CCP 7.2.u154 - Uncertain [8] [8] [8] [8] [8] Courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum According to the catalogue of the British Museum’s “Babylon Collection,” this small fragment is part of a commentary. This identification is suggested first by the presence of Glossenkeile in ll. Read more about CCP 7.2.u154 - Uncertain [8]	CCP 7.2.u160 - Uncertain [9] [9] [9] [9] [9] [9] Courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum The only remarkable feature of this otherwise nondescript commentary fragment is the fact that it appears to mention a “cuneiform wedge” in l. o 7′. Read more about CCP 7.2.u160 - Uncertain [9]	CCP 7.2.u165 - Bird omens (?) [10] [10] [10] [10] [10] [10] [10] Courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum This fragment preserves remains of a commentary on an unidentified text. The first two lines of the reverse probably explain Jupiter’s name dapīnu, “violent,” which means that the base text might be astrological. Read more about CCP 7.2.u165 - Bird omens (?) [10]