which see M66, M113, M240, M257 and M283. In four places the same variation is indi-
cated by the form of the verbal predicate, singular or plural, for which see M138, M143,
M153 and M238.
There are four variants that are considered lexical interchanges. M57 shows a difference
in the title given to a particular constellation. The determinative used to describe a star
differs in two instances, M87 and M132, where some sources have the determinative for
“star,” MUL, while others have the determinative for “deity,” DINGIR. In M299 the
common nouns that these determinatives represent, kakkabū, “stars,” and ilāni, “gods,”
are exchanged.
Stylistic Variants (Type 2)
The abbreviation of repeated phrases with Wiederholungszeichen (written MIN or
KI.MIN in the sources) is the most common form of the second category of stylistic vari-
ants. There are 10 instances of this type of abbreviation, which occur mostly in tablet A,
and occasionally in T and AA. Sources like O and E frequently write the entire repeti-
tious phrase rather than abbreviating the text.
There is one instance of a possible gloss at M50, where tablet AA appears to clarify that
the object referred to as the “first son” is in fact an astronomical body. There is also a
single instance of an explicating plus at M69, where the phrase “these stars of Enlil” is
written instead as “these 50 stars,” in reference to the preceding taxonomy of astral bod-