( 243 ) 
ON THE EARLY BABYLONIAN ECLIPSE OF THE SUN. 
By E. Nevill, F.R.S., F.R.S.S.Af. 
(Read May 17, 1911.) 
On the fourteenth hne of Tablet No. 35968 of the British Museum 
Collection Mr. King has deciphered the record : — 
On the twenty-sixth day of the month Sivan in the seventh year the 
day was turned into night and fire in the midst of heaven [ . . . ]." 
Mr. King regards this as the record of an eclipse of the sun seen at 
Babylon, and Mr. Cowell has identified it with the eclipse of —1062 
July 31st (MN., Roy. Ast. Soc, 1905, pp. 861-869). 
The Tablet bearing the cuneiform record when complete must have 
been about 5 inches broad, and probably not less than 6 inches in length ; 
but in its present damaged state it has a breadth of only 4 inches and a 
length of only 3J- inches, the bottom half of the Tablet having been 
destroyed, and a portion of the lower part of that remaining has been 
rendered illegible. Each face is divided into two columns, so that alto- 
gether there are four columns of inscription, but almost the whole of the 
inscription on the first and fourth columns has been so damaged as to be 
unreadable. Apparently the complete Tablet must have contained from 
sixty to seventy lines of inscription in a complete column. 
On the obverse of the Tablet, of column I there remain readable only 
portions of the upper twenty-two lines, in too fragmentary a condition to 
have their real meaning understood. Of column II, the upper twenty- two 
lines can be deciphered sufficiently well to enable their meaning to be 
understood, whilst there are six additional lines which can be partially 
read. The record is on the fourteenth line of this column, and can be 
read with certainty except the last word. On the reverse of the Tablet, of 
the Ilird column, the second to the nineteenth lines from the bottom can 
be read fairly well, but the rest is illegible, whilst of the IVth column 
there only remain fragments of some eight lines, apparently the tenth 
to the eighteenth lines from the bottom. These details are of im- 
portance, and though some small uncertainty may attach to my number- 
ing of the lines on the IVth column, this is of little importance, as it 
