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The Neo- or Late Babylonian tablet presented here adds to the increasing number of ancient Mesopotamian formal inscriptions extant in copies made by first-millennium scribes. Another such tablet from the Sippar library, containing a copy of two building inscriptions reporting the work of Gudea and Šulgi on the temple of Nanše at Sirara, has already been published. The present tablet's existence was announced in Iraq 49 (1987) 249. The inscription copied on to it uses an early monumental script. The text (11. 1–13) is a dedication to the goddess Nanše made by a diviner called Nanna-mansum (or Sîn-iddinam) for the well-being of an Amorite sheikh called Zabaya. This is most probably the fourth king of Larsa, who enjoyed the same name and title and reigned in the mid-twentieth century BC, in the usual chronology. The present text is accordingly catalogued by the Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia project under Zabaya of Larsa as E4.2.4.3 (Frayne, Old Babylonian Period, RIME 4, p. 112). Original inscriptions of this king have been found at Larsa and Maškan-šāpir. The colophon (11. 14–18), apparently written over a poorly erased text, is in a conventional late script. The object on which the inscription was found is reported as a bronze “buck” (daššu), presumably a goat-shaped figurine. This was no doubt the object dedicated by Nanna-mansum (or Sîn-iddinam) to Nanše for his royal master many centuries before. Such bronze castings occur elsewhere in the written sources as ornaments on a bed (Nbn 206, 2: da-áš-šá-a-tum).
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