The five pencilled lines from the Rubaiyat, with variant readings

44 letters outside the struck line. Variants: W or M at the start of lines 1 and 3; I or V at the start of line 5; G or C at its third-last letter; the last character of the struck line read as I. An X stands above the second O of line 4. The transcription should be checked against the police photograph at full resolution.

Somerton Man (Tamam Shud)Version 1.0Licence Text from a 1949 police photograph (Australian pre-1955 photograph, public domain); transcription compiled in this projectUpdated 26 Oct 2026

Used by