In the first line of what appears to be a small tablet containing one or more bird oracle reports, there is a reference to the town of Nerik. The oracle question is only fragmentarily preserved, so the exact reasons for this report remain unknown. Only portions of the first lines describing the birds’ flight survive.

• Y. Sakuma, Diss., 2009: II 134

Handcopy: A. Walther (KUB 16; Walther A. 1926a).

Edition: Sakuma Y. 2009b, II, 134.

Fragment of the upper left corner of a tablet, containing the beginning of an oracle report. Based on the fragment’s form and state of preservation, we assume that the tablet was single-columned and small in format.

A meaningful palaeographic analysis is hindered by the small size of the fragment. The Konkordanz of the HPM suggests NS (jh.), but only TAR may be diagnostic of a late date. Differently, see the early forms of AḪ and ḪAR. The form of AL is not the IIIb-c variant.

This fragment contains a possible abbreviation tar-li₁₂ for the adjectival/adverbial form tar-li₁₂-an. Another case might be found in CTH 573.57. Although in these instances Y. Sakuma emended the text as mistaken, the fact that this form is attested at least twice independently may suggest that it is not an error but rather a (rare) abbreviation of the standard form.

It should be noted that these attestations cannot be read as tar-liš (LI₁₂ = LIŠ), a form interpreted as a sg. com. adjective agreeing with nominative singular common-gender names of birds. In fact, in the attestations under discussion, we would expect a singular accusative form. In our project’s text editions, the form tar-li₁₂-an has been always analysed as adverbial, due to frequent instances of inconsistent agreement of this form with plural nouns.