The inscription of which a small part forms the basis of this study, was discovered in a recess of courtyard E of the North-West Palace during the third season of the Nimrud excavations in 1951. A full account of the discovery is given in Chap. IV of Mallowan's Nimrud and its Remains, and I am pleased to make initial reference to this work in a volume dedicated to Lady Mallowan. For the text and a first discussion of the stele one turns to the edition of D. J. Wiseman published in Vol. XIV of this Journal, and his name also I should like, in this issue, to associate with these pages.
Since the publication of the stele in 1952, three new translations have appeared, namely, those of Jorgan Laessøe, A. L. Oppenheim, and A. K. Grayson, and a number of improvements to the text and interpretation have been made by Wolfgang Schramm, and, following collation, by J. N. Postgate. Despite these attentions, however, many problems still remain, and it is the purpose of this investigation to examine two passages at the end of col. i which remain obscure and unsatisfactory at the present time.