umns, most likely consisting of the first tablet of MUL.APIN. The preserved fragment is
a flake of five lines with part of the top edge preserved. There are no rulings, vertical or
horizontal, apparent on the tablet. There may be some impurities in the clay (a hole in the
bottom edge may have been created when a stone was displaced). The clay is a light bone
colour throughout, so that tablet may have been fired in antiquity.
M, N1463
The museum catalogue number designates this tablet came from excavations at Nimrud.
The unusual layout and spacing of the text, and the fact that it is a single column text
from a displaced section of MUL.APIN suggests that this could be a school text. The re-
verse contains a text that is not part of the series.
N, BM33779
The script is Neo-Babylonian. This tablet originally contained four columns, most likely
comprising the first tablet of MUL.APIN. The catalogue number suggests that it was ex-
cavated at Babylon.^225
O, K3020
The tablet was originally catalogued as a Babylonian fragment of astronomical fore-
casts.^226 The script is more properly described as Neo-Assyrian (cf. the form of MUL
(^225) Tablets with catalogue numbers BM33447 to 33904 arrived at the British Museum on 24 (^) th December
1879, having been shipped from Baghdad on 15th October that same year. The only site being excavated at
that time was Babylon (see J.E. Reade, "Rassam's Babylonian Collection," xxix). 226
See C. Bezold, L.W. King, and E.A.W. Budge, Catalogue, 2.497.