F, K3852
This fragment was originally described as a Babylonian astronomical forecast.^219 The tab-
let is more properly considered Neo-Assyrian based on its palaeography. The writing is
regular and linear, and some horizontal rulings are visible on the reverse. The museum
catalogue designation ‘K’ allows some confidence in assigning the tablet to the excava-
tions at Nineveh, though exactly where at this site it was discovered is not known. The
tablet probably contained four columns originally, being a copy of the first tablet in the
series.
G, K15929
The tablet is part of the Kuyunjik collection, although the high ascession number does
suggest that this tablet may not have been uncovered during Rassam’s excavations.^220
The script is Neo-Babylonian, as can be seen from the writing of LUGAL in line 3, so if
the tablet was discovered at Kuyunjik it may well have been authored by a Babylonian
scribe.^221
(^219) The description is from C. Bezold, L.W. King, and E.A.W. Budge, (^) Catalogue, 2.571.
(^220) As noted in D. Brown, Mesopotamian Planetary Astronomy-Astrology, 18, collections were often mixed
during the complex process of shipping and cataloguing the tablets in the late 19th and early 20th century,
“so that even a ‘K’ number does not guarantee a Kuyunjik origin.” 221
Tablets in Neo-Babylonian script at Nineveh may have been the product of Babylonian scribes in the
employ of the royal library at Nineveh, or alternatively were acquisitioned by Ashurbanipal from Babylonia
in the interests of expanding his collection, taken either consensually or by force (see S. Parpola, "Assyrian
Library Records," JNES 42, 1 [1983] 4-9).