most preserved copy. The British Museum catalogue number suggests that this tablet was
part of the library that stood in the Southwest Palace at Nineveh, and was probably exca-
vated by Layard between 1849-51.^142 Line 33 of the reverse of this tablet carries a sub-
script that reads “12 kiṣru tāmurātu ša Ninsianna gabarī Bābili.” Hence its textual heri-
tage can be traced to a copy from Babylon.^143
The script is clearly Neo-Assyrian, and the signs are the same size or slightly smaller than
A. The layout of the text follows the standard convention of using ruled lines to separate
each omen.^144 The margins of the tablet are carefully observed: the writing on both the
obverse and reverse does not exceed the left and right margins of the faces. There is no
writing on the bottom edge of the obverse, such as might continue over to the reverse,
and although the top edge is damaged the little of it that remains is also uninscribed. The
final line of the reverse contains the colophon.^145 The tablet is of standard size, ca. 10 cm
wide and 20 cm high.
The clay appears to be quite free of small stones or other impurities that are occasionally
visible in the cross sections of broken tablets. Its colour is terracotta throughout with only
(^142) D. Brown, Mesopotamian Planetary Astronomy-Astrology (^) , 18, informs that the British Museum cata-
logue numbers K1-278 almost certainly come from Layard’s excavations in the Southwest Palace. 143
See E. Reiner, BPO 1, 47. An inspection of the tablet reveals that line r33 of K160 does indeed contain
the words “gabarī Bābili,” even though the drawing made by Langdon does not represent these last six
signs. The reasons for this omission are not immediately clear, as the transcription in the same volume
clearly sees the text intact. Compare S. Langdon, J.K. Fotheringham, and C. Schoch, Venus Tablets, 13
with the drawing in Plate II. 144
There are two exceptions: lines 7 and 8 on the obverse together make up omen 10, but are separated by a
ruling. This part of the text is unusual in other copies as well. For example, A has the same separation of
individual lines in the same section of the text on line 20 and 21 of the obverse (see note above). Line 33
on the reverse is sectioned off with individual rulings, but this line actually contains a superscript rather
than an omen. 145
The signs on line 46 of the reverse read: “ki-i PI 4 LIBIR.RA-šu,” translated: “Nach dem Worlaut seines
Originals” [according to the wording of its original] in H. Hunger, Kolophone, 144, no. 554.