A Table of 4th Powers and Related Texts from Seleucid Babylon

BM 55557 (82-7-4, 147+204) is the upper right hand corner of what was once a large, well written tablet.' The top and right hand edges are preserved; to the left the tablet appears to have been sliced away. The fragment measures 31/4" wide by 41/2" long (9.4 cm x 11.7 cm). From its curvature the original tablet was probably twice its width and perhaps slightly more than twice its length, or roughly 7" by 10". This agrees with estimates from its content (see below), and would place it among the larger Late Babylonian tablets. Tablets of this size were found at Babylon by Rassam and were considered noteworthy at the time of their discovery. Thus the British Consul General in Baghdad reported after visiting the Rassam's excavations at Babylon opposite Jumjuma in November 1879, "... I also noticed a large tablet almost perfect about 9 or 10 inches long" (Reade, 1986, xix). Similarly, Rassam reported in November 1880, "(at Babylon) we have lately found a very large tablet ... about ten inches long, (the largest that has yet been found, I believe, in Babylon or Nineveh)... "(Reade, 1986, xxi) and in April 1881, "at Babylon we came upon a heap of very large inscribed clay tablets some of which are about 10 inches long by seven wide; but these, I am sorry to say, broke to pieces on being removed" (Reade, 1986, xxii). It is interesting that each of the tablets so described came from Babylon, although Rassam was also finding tablets at this time at Borsippa, Dilbat, and Sippar.