Late Babylonian – Yuck!

I’m working my way through a Late Babylonian omen tablet and I spent the better part of four hours today trying to figure out how to read a single sign. Or is it two signs? I’m still not sure. Yes, context sets limits but the problem is that this mess of wedges, , is part of that context. Late Babylonian - yuck! Why didn’t they write cuneiform like everyone else? Or perhaps more to the point, why didn’t they write cuneiform like the few scribes whose work I have found somewhat easier to read?