Despite the considerable progress made since Thompson’s edition, the text edited here as the Standard Babylonian epic is still far from complete. The current state of the poem’s preservation is easily seen from a survey of the line counts of the individual tablets of the series set against the numbers of lines extant for each. At 300 lines, Tablet I is almost completely reconstructed, with no serious lacunae and comparatively few damaged lines. Tablet n is far from complete. The end is missing but the text once contained at least 300 lines, maybe as many as 320, of which about 185 are preserved, though many of these are damaged to some degree. The end of Tablet in is also missing but it clearly contained far fewer lines than Tablets I and H, about 245; roughly 190 lines are extant in some form but several passages are very badly damaged. As reconstructed here Tablet IV holds 250 lines. The recovery of the text is aided by several passages of repetition but, even allowing for that, many lines are stiU fragmentary and about sixty-five lines are missing entirely. Tablet V adds another 302 lines but only about 170 survive in any form, many with much damage.
Tablet VI is nearly complete, with something recovered of aU 183 fines and comparatively few fragmentary sections. The end of Tablet VII is missing; it once contained 275-90 fines. Roughly 210 fines are extant but the text is punctuated by some very damaged sections. Tablet Vm is estimated as 250-5 fines long, with the end again missing. Only about twenty-five of the first 220 lines are missing entirely, but many fines are represented by their tail-ends only and several other passages are still fragmentary. Tablet DC works out at 196 fines, of which about sixty-five are still missing. The fine count of Tablet X is 322.The text is almost uninterrupted, taking account of passages which are restored from parallels, but many fines are still fragmentary. Tablet XI holds 328 fines, with only one fine missing entirely and very little damage to others. Tablet XU is estimated at 153 fines, with about fifteen completely missing either side of a passage of nine vestigial fines that are at present almost completely unrestorable.
The grand total for the eleven-tablet epic, leaving aside the appended Tablet XU, jdelds a survival rate of almost 2,400 fines out of an original fine-count that fell just short of 3,000. On these figures, 2 0 per cent of the poem is still completely missing; taking into account the fact that many lines counted as present are damaged to some degree, it is probably fair to write that so far we have about two-thirds of the poem at our disposal. As new manuscripts are found this fraction will steadily grow. Several centuries hence there will surely come a day when the text is once again complete.
The reason for the progress that has been made since 1930 is the steady accumulation of new sources, particularly Late Babylonian tablets, documented in the preceding chapter. The existence of multiple witnesses for many lines of the epic enables an enquiry to be made into the textual variants that can be observed between them, and at the same time allows some preliminary remarks on the existence of distinct recensions within the Standard Babylonian text. This introduction will also call attention to noteworthy features of language and style in the Standard Babylonian poem. Finally, it will examine the spelling conventions observed in the Kuyunjik manuscripts of Gilgames.
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