While the first three sections are represented in all of the exemplars remaining to us, the
fourth section is less regularly represented. This prompted Reiner to identify two manu-
script traditions for this text.^132 These differ in terms of the layout of the four sections, the
inclusion of an additional final omen in some sources, and the varying placement of cer-
tain subscripts. The first manuscript tradition has only sections I-III on one tablet with a
second tablet possibly containing the fourth section. The second manuscript tradition has
sections I-IV on the same tablet. Not surprisingly it is the material from the first three
sections that is best represented by our sources, and this will be the focus of the present
analysis.
The Tablets
While an examination of the previous publications does afford some insight into certain
peculiarities of the texts not necessarily reflected in Reiner’s transliteration, the edition
by Reiner was found to serve the purposes of this analysis more than sufficiently and so
only passing references will be made below to the cuneiform editions of some of the tab-
lets.^133 Occasionally some inspection of the tablets themselves has been possible, and re-
marks will be made where appropriate.^134
Several joins have been proposed for the fragments that are given individual sigla in
Reiner’s apparatus. Reiner herself has suggested joins between A and M, and between F
and H. She also suggested joining L with some other fragments of section IV, K7072 and
Sm 174.^135 More recently Walker has suggested that J can be added to F and H along
(^132) E. Reiner, BPO 1, 8.
(^133) Previous publications that have been consulted are: H.C. Rawlinson, The Cuneiform Inscriptions of
Western Asia – Volume 3 (5 vols.; London: R.E. Bowler, 1870), henceforth RawlCu; S. Langdon, J.K.
Fotheringham, and C. Schoch, The Venus Tablets of Ammizaduga: A Solution of Babylonian Chronology by
Means of the Venus Observations of the First Dynasty (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1928); T.G.
Pinches and J.N. Strassmaier, Late Babylonian Astronomical and Related Texts (Brown University Studies
18; Rhode Island: Brown University Press, 1955), henceforth 134 LBAT.
The author has been able to inspect the following tablets: A, C, D, L and M. For the other tablets the
drawings in the previous publications have been consulted. 135
E. Reiner, BPO 1, 11.