tirely, or two or more lines are transposed or reordered.^74 In particular instances some re-
gional variations can be grouped and analysed, such as in the sources recovered from
royal complex at Kuyunjik in Nineveh. Here George lists differences in anaptyctic vow-
els, the transposition of nouns and adjectives according to stylistic or poetic conditioning,
the intrusion of syntactic elements that affect poetic style, or the intrusion of Assyrian
dialect forms.^75 There is also particular consideration given to the various nuances of or-
thography and underlying pronunciation among the texts from this site.^76
Also of particular interest for our present examination is George’s in depth discussion of
the provenience and physical properties of the sources he examines. The find-sites of the
tablets are discussed in as much detail as excavation and museum records allow, and
where available in-text indications, such as colophons, are also brought into the analy-
sis.^77 Special attention is also given to the physical properties of the tablets so that com-
monalities or differences in format and production serve to further delineate types of
manuscripts, aiding the process of textual affiliation and categorisation beyond the treat-
ment of common or peculiar textual variants.
(^74) See the summary in A.R. George, (^) Gilgamesh, 429. Specifically George cites examples of ‘substantive’
differences as: expansion or contraction of the text; transposed lines, words or phrases; variant lines, words
or phrases; omitted words or phrases; interchanges of words or phrases; differences in gender or number;
differences in tense, stem or mood; the addition or omission of suffixes or enclitics; different genitive con-
structions; differences in dialect or pronunciation; and minor differences in words or expressions (see A.R.
George, 75 Gilgamesh, 419-29).
76 See A.R. George, Gilgamesh, 431-37.
See the discussion of forms in A.R. George, Gilgamesh, 437-42. The particular examples listed there will
be discussed in the following chapters as they become relevant to the analyses of the cuneiform sources. 77
See the thorough treatment of all known manuscripts for the Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh in
A.R. George, Gilgamesh, 379-417.