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Dear friends,It's been some time my latest posting; I hope you are all fine.As you may remember, I am sometimes helping with the publication of Babylonian cuneiform sources on the Achaemenid and Hellenistic Period. One of these sources is an Astronomical Diary (http://www.livius.org/di-dn/diaries/ast ... aries.html ) that mentions Gaugamela. It has been known for some time already; it suggests that Darius was left by his demoralized troops, which contradicts the account by Arrian, who presents Darius as a coward (cf. http://www.livius.org/aj-al/alexander/alexander_z7.html ).There are many problems with this document, the main one being that it is broken and that there is no join. What we have is, so to speak, a page that is divided into three vertical zones, the central one being missing.That the two parts belong together can be shown from the fact that the astronomical observations clearly belong together. However, no one knew how much was lost. In fact, the first edition contains a strange error: in one line, the scholar who published it, added three signs, in the next one twenty-seven.The current re-editor, Bert van der Spek (some of you have met him in the British Museum), can now make an educated guess. One line mentions several prices. Price info is always very stereotypical and the number of cuneiform signs always is more or less the same. We now know that the missing part is pretty large.What does this mean? We now have evidence about the size of the gap in our knowledge. This is not very exciting of course but it is better to know how much you don't know than to have no idea whatsoever.On a more positive level: the gap is wide enough to contain a third fragment. In other words, it is possible that in the not too distant future, the gap will be filled with new information. We can even make an educated guess. This piece has not been recognized until now, which almost proves that it contains no significant names like Darius, Alexander, Mazaeus, or Bessus.Here is the reconstructed text: http://www.livius.org/cg-cm/chronicles/ ... 30_01.html .Dear friends, this is all for today. Best wishes,Jona

Thanks, Jona, that's very interesting. It's certainly nice to know a little more about what Bert has been working on (particularly having been privileged enough to have been allowed into the dusty, musty bowels of the British Museum to see the tablets!).All the best to Bert!Marcus