PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY

• As mentioned in KAL 1 (75, n. Rs. 29’), the signs iš-lu-ú in VAT 10167 r. 29’ appear to be a form of šalû, a transitive verb meaning ‘to whirl up, kick up (dust), to toss’. The AHw III, 1152 s.v. šalû(m) II 4 ‘Erde aufwerfen’ also suggests šalû for VAT 10167 r. 29’ (KAR 382 29). The CAD Š/1, 272 s.v. šalû A 4 lists verb’s meaning, in reference to the above omen, however, as “obscure”.

There are attestations of verb in other omen protases. See De Zorzi (2014, 805 Tablet 19 omen 104’) for an ox that uses its tail to toss (i-šal-lu) dirt onto its back. The verb being transitive, however, takes an object, often SAḪAR ‘dirt, dust’, which is missing from our omen. For such a reading, the line would need to be emended and SAḪAR added before a-na UGU NA.

Though If a City 2 (196, *32.27’ C29’) reads line VAT 10167 r. 29’ with the signs iš-lu-ul, as opposed to iš-˹lu˺-˹ú˺ above, it (174, *32.27’) reconstructs the omen using is-lu-ul and translates (175, *32.27’) as follows:

If entwined lizards fall onto a man and do not separate but crawl on the man, that man will experience prison.

The reading and subsequent translation in If a City 2, however, can be ruled out as iš and is are not readings of the same sign, and VAT 10167 r. 29’s photograph confirms the reading iš. This is also noted in KAL 1 (75, n. 29’).

A final possibility is the verb našallulu ‘to slither’. It is attested with both lizards and snakes (CAD N/2, 56 s.v. našallulu). It is difficult however to reconcile the signs as they are written on the manuscript with the verb’s attested forms. (CAD N/2, 55–56 s.v. našallulu; GAG §101).

We therefore leave iš-lu-ú untranslated, as in KAL 1 (16-17, 73, Rs. 29’), while allowing that the lizards may be kicking up dust or slithering onto the man.

• Manuscript VAT 09793 explicitly writes ana IGI NA where manuscript VAT 10167 uses the sign of repetition MIN for ana UGU NA from line VAT 10167 r. 27’.