Mul.Apin Tablet 1. Larger plate (67 KB) ©

Further Information: WA 86378 [BM 86378] Mul.Apin tablet 1 [pictured] is in the British Museum, London. [The tablet is 8.4 centimetres high incised with miniature cuneiform writing.] This principal copy of Tablet 1 probably dates circa 500 BC and is a late Babylonian copy. The earliest copies were recovered from the royal library of the Assyrian King Assurbanipal (667-629 BC) in Nineveh (and also from Assur). The text of Tablet 1 was able to be restored with the aid of five copies - one dated to the Neo-Babylonian Period, two from Assurbanipal's library [hence written before 612 BC when Nineveh was sacked], and two from Assur. [The first part of Mul.Apin to be published was this almost complete copy of tablet 1 by Leonard King in CT 33, Plates 1-8 (1912)].*

The principal copy of the second tablet is VAT 9412 from Assur, dated 687 BC. (This is the oldest of the texts.) Multiple copies of tablet 2 are known: principally three from Assur, three from Assurbanipal's library, and one dated to the Neo-Babylonian period.