This fragment belongs to the central section of a bird oracle report. Unfortunately, the name of the augur is missing, as it was written in the lost portion of rev. 16´/14´. The personal determinative is visible, as well as part of the first sign of the augur’s name, which might be read tentatively Ḫ[U]. However, the sign is not attested elsewhere on the tablet for a comparison.

Towards the end of the oracle report, before the augural determination (kola 19-20), a few lines include some content different from the description of bird flights, including a sentence with direct speech (k. 16). The following paragraph, largely fragmentary, may also include different content, as it mentions “mountain(s)” (k. 23), unless this section rather makes reference to the location where the oracle inquiry was performed.

Handcopy: H. Otten (KBo 42, Neu E. et al. 2001a); A. Walther (KUB 16, Walther A. 1926a).

Edition: Sakuma Y. 2009b, II 152-155.

The text consists of two joining fragments (KUB 16.73 and KBo 42.83), discovered by Y. Sakuma (8.5.2007). It likely belongs to a small, single-column tablet. The writing continues from the observe to the reverse, with some lines written onto the tablet’s lower edge.

MS? (mh.); diagnostic signs: (ḪA), MUR, TAR, TA (with tall central vertical).

Although a palaeographic analysis is difficult, due to the fragment’s small size, the diagnostic signs suggest an early (pre-Imperial) date. In consideration of these old forms, and particularly the absence of diagnostic late signs, a late dating, as proposed in the HPM (jh.) and in the previous edition by Y. Sakuma, seems uncertain. Some aspects of the content, atypical in the highly standardized imperial period reports, might also point to an early date.