lets of this type indicate manufacture specifically for Ashurbanipal’s collection.^503 Some
vitrification on a fragment from the top left corner indicates that the tablet may have been
burnt in a conflagration, possibly during the destruction of Nineveh.
T 1 , K7752+81-2-4, 245+296+460; T 2 , Sm2131+2196+Rm2,383+390+82-5-22, 316
This tablet is possibly to be grouped with tablet J as type A. The script is square Neo-
Assyrian, and the clay is of high quality. The tablet originally contained six columns,
which were each separated by two vertical ruled lines. There are some remains on frag-
ment T 2 of horizontal rulings that divided the text into sections. This text is therefore pre-
sumed to have been prepared for Ashurbanipal’s collection at Nineveh.
W 1 , K8517+8518+8569+8593+8595; W 2 , K8594+21502; W 3 , K17343
The script is Neo-Assyrian but more angular than that of tablets J and T. It originally con-
tained six columns of around the same dimensions as tablet J. The tablet is categorised as
type B, and contains a short colophon that states the tablet number, name of the series,
and that it was “written and checked according to its original.”^504 No information regard-
ing the tablets provenience is given. Based on the museum catalogue numbers assigned to
the fragments it can be assumed that this tablet was excavated at Kuyunjik, but its origi-
nal place of preparation remains unknown. Three vertical rulings form margins between
the columns. The clay is brittle and of poor quality.
(^503) The tablet is designated as type A according to A.R. George, (^) Gilgamesh, 382-83. Tablets of this type
have very square Assyrian script, narrow vertical margins ruled between columns, and long colophons of
the type specified in H. Hunger, Babylonische und Assyrische Kolophone (Kevelaer: Butson & Bercker,
1968) no. 319. 504
See A.R. George, Gilgamesh, 382-84, 739.