PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY

• The above omen and 32.S.78 resemble each other, but instead of the lizard falling into a DUG GIŠ.Ì.MEŠ 'sesame-oil pot', as above, the lizard falls into ^dugŠAB Ì 'an oil bowl' in the Sultantepe omen. The apodoses have orthographic differences, but are the same and unfortunately break off at almost the same point in the text. 
• Examining the photo of VAT 10167 r. 8’, it appears that there may be one or more signs between the signs GIŠ and Ì. If so, it is not possible to read them from the photo, and they may actually be an erasure on the part of the ancient scribe.
• For the reading of GIŠ.I(.MEŠ) as the seeds šamaššammū, see the discussion in CAD Š/1, 306–7 s.v. šamaššammū. The plant referred to is the main oleiferous plant in Mesopotamia, likely sesame or flax. Further as the CAD notes, while šamaššammū usually refers to the plant’s seeds, some textual references refer to the oil produced from the seeds and still other references are ambiguous. This in combination with 32.S.78’s protasis featuring a lizard falling into an oil bowl, leads us to translate the above as ‘sesame-oil pot’.

If a City 2 (173, *32.8’) translates “sesame pot”, and KAL 1 (16-17, 73 Rs. 8’) translates „Öltopf“.