The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

530 THE GENTILE TIMES RECONSIDERED
added to the herd at the next annual counting about a month or two later. The “Grand
total” in the 1 st year of Amēl-Marduk, 566 animals, therefore, was increased by this added
group of 104 animals and reduced by the 5 animals paid for the shearing of the flock. This
increased the “Grand total” at the same occasion of counting to 665 animals as shown in
the next line (line 28 on the tablet).
This simple and natural explanation eliminates Furuli’s far-fetched and untenable
explanations about “unknown kings” in this period.
The readings of the regnal year numbers
As is shown by the drawings of Sack and van Driel/Nemet-Nejat, some of the year
numbers on the tablet are not easily identified and have been read differently by these
scholars. This is true of the year numbers in lines 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, and 28. Therefore I
wrote to the Yale University and asked if someone there could collate the year numbers
afresh. This was done by Elizabeth Payne who, in addition to her observations, also
attached a photo of the right half of the tablet. The results of her collations of the six lines
mentioned above are shown in the fifth column in the table below. She finds that, “In each
instance, the copy of van Driel/Nemet-Nejat is more reliable” than that of Sack. – Email
Payne-Jonsson, dated October 29, 2008.
The most reliable readings of the year numbers on the tablet are shown in column 6 of
Table 2. The numbers shown for those read differently by Sack, van Driel/Nemet-Nejat,
Zawadaki, and Furuli (those in lines 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, and 28) are based on Elisabeth
Payne’s collations of the original tablet. The reasons for the selected readings of those lines
are given below.
Table 2: The readings of the year numbers on NBC 4897
Line + king
mentioned
R.
Sack
Van
Driel/Nemet-
Nejat
Rolf
Furuli
E. Payne’s
corrections
The best
readings
2 [Nbk] 1 37 37 30-7(?) 37 2
5 37 37 37 37 2
8 38 38 38 38
11 29 38 ‘over erasure’ 29 38 38 (?)
14 40 41 40 40 or 41 40 (?)
17 31 41 42 41 41
20 32 42 42 42 42
23 -- 43 No year [4]3 43
26 AmM 1 1 1 1
27 AmM 0 0 0,
Another
0
king?
28 2 1 2 1! 1
31 2 2 2 2
34 Ngl 1 1 1 1
37 Nbk–Ngl: 37 – 1 37 – 1 37 – 1 37 – 1