The edition prints the damaged Akkadian for Ms. J / CBS13532 with reverse-line labels, allowing the selected instructions to be followed in a bounded unit.
Sky records & flood tablets · Akkadian
Nippur flood fragment CBS13532: building to preserve life
Wasserman’s edition places the vessel-building instructions at reverse lines 6′–9′ of CBS13532, and Penn Museum supplies a matching public object record.
Selected transcription and translation checked
- Physical witness
- Penn Museum CBS13532 · CDLI P268565 · Wasserman’s Ms. J
- Selected unit
- CBS13532 reverse 6′–9′ · translation on printed p. 78
- Edition or research reference
- Nathan Wasserman, The Flood: The Akkadian Sources (Peeters, 2020), pp. 77–79; selected English translation p. 78.
- Review boundary
- The publisher’s transcription and English rendering were inspected. Photographic sign-by-sign collation remains pending.
Follow the reading
Published English translation by Nathan Wasserman, 2020, p. 78; Babylon’s account below is a short original paraphrase.
CBS13532 is identified in Penn Museum’s public catalogue, and reverse 6′–9′ is matched to Wasserman’s transcription and translation on p. 78.
Read the selected passage
The surviving instructions call for a large reed-built vessel with a protective roof. Its name expresses preservation of life. The edition presents damaged Akkadian and English together for reverse lines 6′–9′.
The front is badly broken and the names of the speaking deity and recipient are absent. The edition proposes a likely narrative setting; those missing names must remain an interpretive identification. Penn’s catalogue dates the manufacture of this copy to 1400–1100 BCE. That range does not date the narrated flood.
What remains to check
Compare the tablet photograph with the printed signs and retain the edition’s restorations. The generic source-list label “Nippur Tablet” remains ambiguous between separate Sumerian and Akkadian witnesses. No flood year is established.
Bring the learning forward
Consider preparation as care for life: what can you build, clarify or protect before a difficult transition? The lesson offers a constructive action, while the fragment’s chronological limits remain visible.
The Father and Yeshua remain Babylon’s devotional centre. This reflection offers perspective and a freely chosen next step; it makes no judgement about a reader’s worth.
Sources you can retrace
These source links identify the consulted catalogue, transcription, edition or scholarly quotation. Source images and complete modern translations remain at their original hosts.
- Peeters · Wasserman’s edition, selected page ↗
Nathan Wasserman, The Flood: The Akkadian Sources, 2020, pp. 77–79; printed p. 78 is PDF page 89.
Consulted publisher-hosted transcription and translation - Penn Museum · CBS13532 / P268565 ↗
Penn Museum catalogue: Nippur / Tablet Hill, Akkadian, manufacture 1400–1100 BCE, Collections Storage. Catalogue location is not a promise of unrestricted physical access.
Public object and custody catalogue
Cite this Babylon study
Babylon Learning Centre. “Nippur flood fragment CBS13532: building to preserve life.” Passage Research Studio, revision 1, 5 November 2026. https://learn.babylonencyclopedia.com/research/passages/nippur-flood-preserving-life/
The ancient edition is credited separately above. These downloads cite Babylon’s study, not a new edition or translation of the manuscript.
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Learning in the Light
In Babylon, the Father’s light opens perspective, learning and a chosen next step. Your worth remains intact. Every person is sovereign, with dignity, freedom and room to grow.
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