KAR 250[via caspo]

1The final sign is in Ebeling's copy, but I do not see it on the tablet. Also, if it were where Ebeling drew it, there would be an uniscribed gap of about two signs at the end of the line, which seems unlikely to me.

2Duplicates have {d}UTU-ši at the end of the line. It seems the present text is corrupt.

3I do not see any trace of the last sign in my photographs. Compare Ebeling's copy, KAR 250.

4The translation at the end of the line follows Ambos 2013: 201.

5Ebeling's copy shows the beginnings of two horizontal wedges before the break. There is certainly room for at least one, perhaps two signs in the lacuna before what was originally the right edge of the tablet. Duplicates to this line write the final word nu-ú-ru. I wonder if our scribe here has transposed the two final signs: nu-ru-ú for nu-ú-ru.

6The reading follows Ebeling's copy and Zgoll's edition (2003: 195). The signs are not at all clear on the photographs of the tablet. They may have been more legible when Ebeling made his copy. One of the problems with the reading, however, aside from the damaged tablet, is that it seems to end the line too soon. There is room in the gap at the end for at least two more signs after the BI. Also, the next line does not follow the duplicates. In fact, it seems that this version of Ishtar 1, if it is a version of that prayer, is quite truncated, ending after only three more lines of text. See below.

7Between the two signs, the tablet has a blank gap, which could easily fit four or five signs. This line does not match with anything in Ishtar 1's other witnesses.

8None of the previous editions has noted that the inscription continues around onto the lower edge of the tablet. It seems quite clear to me that the prayer that was begun on the obverse ends here on the lower edge.

9This is a very uncertain reading. The horizontals may be too low to support reading DINGIR here.

10The rule lines and these ritual instructions indicate with certainty that the prayer ended much earlier than the other witnesses to Ishtar 1.

11The sign between UB and DINGIR comprises four Winkelhaken.

12Ebeling's copy reads LU.

13The first sign is copied as a ŠA₂

14The final sign, if present, is quite faint, perhaps erased?

15Everything after KI is on the edge of the tablet. Ebeling copies the NU as a TAR but has a marginal note: "lim-nu?". Also, he copied what I have taken to be an UD (= tu₂) as a MA. There is room for the ŠU₂ on the very edge of the tablet. The entire reading is a conjecture, an attempt to get some sense from the line.