part II, nos. 124-6 (Philadelphia, _Transactions of the American

Philosophical Society_).

In _Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets, etc., in the British Museum_, vols. i, iii, v, vii, ix, x (London, British Museum), copied by L. W. KING, 1896-1900; _Ancient Babylonian Temple Records_, copied by W. R. ARNOLD (New York, Columbia University Press, 1896); _Old Babylonian Temple Records_, are texts copied and discussed by R. J. LAU (New York, Columbia University Press, 1906); _Haverford Library Collection of Cuneiform Tablets or Documents from the Temple Archives of Telloh_, part I, 1905; part II, 1909; part III, 1914 (Philadelphia, J. C. Winston Co.), several hundreds of these texts appeared.

G. REISNER, in 1902, published _Tempelurkunden aus Telloh_ (Berlin, W. Spemann), being the collection presented to the Berlin Museum by H. SIMON. H. RADAU in his _Early Babylonian History_ (New York, 1903), published and discussed a number purchased for the E. A. Hoffmann collections in the New York Metropolitan Museum. T. G. PINCHES dealt with _Some Case Tablets from Telloh_ in the _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_ for 1905, pp. 815-29, and, in 1909, published _The Amherst Tablets_, being an _Account of the Babylonian Inscriptions in the Collection of the Right Honourable Lord Amherst of Hackney, at Didlington Hall, Norfolk_ (London, Quaritch). H. DE GENOUILLAC published and discussed some texts of H. SCHLUMBERGER’S as _Tablettes d’Ur_ in the _Hilprecht Anniversary Volume_, pp. 137-41. In 1911 T. G. PINCHES dealt with some _Tablets from Telloh in Private Collections_ in _The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, pp. 1039-62, and ST. LANGDON gave _Some Sumerian Contracts_ in the _Zeitschrift für Assyriologie_, 1911, pp. 205-14. V. SCHEIL contributed a series of _Notes d’épigraphie et d’archéologie assyriennes_ to the _Recueil de Travaux_ (Paris, E. Bouillon), vol. xvii, 1895, pp. 28-30; xviii (1896), pp. 64-74; xix (1897), pp. 44-64; xx (1898), pp. 55-72, 200-10; xxi (1899), pp. 26-9, 123-6; xxii (1900), pp. 27-39, 78-80, 149-61; xxiii (1901), pp. 18-23; xxiv (1902), pp. 24-9, in which among other priceless records he gave many extracts from the Telloh texts, some entire texts, and much elucidation of the same. Special studies devoted to the subject are: H. DE GENOUILLAC’S _Textes juridiques de l’époque d’Ur_ in the _Revue d’Assyriologie_, 1911, pp. 1-32; H. DEIMEL’S _Studien zu C. T., I, III, V, VII, IX, X_, in the _Zeitschrift für Assyriologie_, 1911, pp. 328-45; _Sátilla, textes juridiques de la seconde dynastie d’Our_ in _Babyloniaca_, iii, 1910, pp. 81-132, by F. PELÉGAUD, and _Di-tilla, textes juridiques chaldéens de la seconde dynastie d’Our_, by C. H. VIROLLEAUD (Poitiers, A. Boutifard, 1903); _Comptabilité chaldéenne_, by the same author, same place and publisher, 1903, is a series of valuable essays. G. A. BARTON gave _A Babylonian Ledger Account of Reeds and Wood_ in the _American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures_, 1911, pp. 322-7, and in the same journal, 1912, pp. 207-10, another text of the same sort.

Tablets of the same period have been found by the thousand at Jokha, the ancient Umma, for centuries the hereditary foe of Telloh, and at Dréhem, which seems to have been a closely dependent city of the Nippur district. They have already found their way in large numbers to Europe and America.

Tablets from Jokha were first noticed by V. SCHEIL in his _Notes d’épigraphie et d’archéologie assyrienne_ in _Recueil de Travaux_, vol. xix, pp. 62-3, 1897, who showed that Jokha was Umma. FR. THUREAU-DANGIN in the _Revue d’Assyriologie_ (viii), 1911, pp. 152-8, who deals with _Les noms des mois sur les tablettes de Djokha_, gives a number of these texts from the time of the Dynasties of Akkad and Ur. ST. LANGDON has published _A tablet from Umma in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford_ in the _Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology_, 1913, pp. 47-52. In contents these are very similar to the tablets from Telloh or Dréhem, and seem to have been often confused with them by the dealers.

ST. LANGDON published _Tablets from the Archives of Dréhem_ (Paris, Geuthner, 1912); L. DELAPORTE, _Tablettes de Dréhem in Revue d’Assyriologie_, 1911, pp. 183-98; P. DHORME, _Tablettes de Dréhem à Jérusalem_ in same journal, pp. 39-63; H. DE GENOUILLAC, _Tablettes de Dréhem, publiées avec inventaire et tables_. _Musée du Louvre_ (Paris, Geuthner, 1911), and _La trouvaille de Dréhem, Étude avec un choix de textes de Constantinople et Bruxelles_ (Paris, Geuthner, 1911); see also _Some Sumerian Contracts_, by ST. LANGDON, in the _Zeitschrift für Assyriologie_, 1911, pp. 205-14. A useful summary is _Some Published Texts from Dréhem_, by I. M. PRICE, in the _American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures_, 1912, pp. 211-15.

_Sumerian Administrative Documents from the Second Dynasty of Ur_, from the _Temple Archives of Nippur_, vol. iii, part i of Series A, Cuneiform Texts, in _Publications of the Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania_ (Philadelphia, 1910), deals with closely related texts.

E. HUBER wrote _Die altbabylonischen Darlehenstexte aus der Nippur-Sammlung im K. O. Museum in Konstantinopel_ as a contribution to the _Hilprecht Anniversary Volume_, pp. 189-222. V. SCHEIL in his _Notes d’épigraphie_ made some entries about those Nippur texts which reached Constantinople, see p. 78.

An allied text was given by P. DHORME in the _Journal Asiatique_, 1912, pp. 158-9, as _Un brouillon d’inventaire_.

The whole subject of these Temple Records is being studied by H. TORCZYNER, who has started with _Vorläufige Bemerkungen_ to _Altbabylonische Tempelrechnungen, umschrieben und erklärt_ in the _Anzeiger der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien_, 1910, pp. 136-40.

On the general scope and purpose of the Temple Records, see the article on _Babylonian Book-keeping_, by A. T. CLAY, in the _American Journal of Archaeology_, 1910, pp. 74 ff.

The very ancient texts from Telloh, usually called Pre-Sargonic, have been issued, beside THUREAU-DANGIN’S _Recueil de Tablettes chaldéennes_, by ALLOTTE DE LA FUŸE as _Documents présargoniques_ (Paris, E. Leroux, 1908, 1909). _Sumerian Tablets in the Harvard Semitic Museum_ was begun, by MARY IDA HUSSEY, with part 1 in 1912. _Two Tablets of the Period of Lugalanda_ were published by ST. LANGDON in _Babyloniaca_, 1911, pp. 246-7. Much the most useful publication, however, is _Tablettes sumériennes archaïques_, by H. DE GENOUILLAC (Paris, Geuthner, 1909), which gives not only texts, but transcriptions and such translation as is possible, and also an admirable account of all they imply, as to law and custom. A considerable amount of this is strikingly like the later laws. In _The Amherst Tablets_ (London, Quaritch, 1908), T. G. PINCHES published a few more. The bulk of them still await publication.

_Ancient Bullae and Seals of Shirpurla_ by N. P. LIKHATSCHEFF, published in the _Imperial Russian Archaeological Society’s Classical Section IV_, pp. 225-63, 1907, written in Russian, gives a number of similar tablets. _Oriental Antiquities_, by M. V. NIKOLSKY, in the _Oriental Commission of the Imperial Moscow Archaeological Society_, iii, Series 2, 1908, has over 300 such texts. These appear to belong to the same period.

Some valuable discussions will be found in _État des décès survenus dans le personnel de la déesse Bau sous le règne d’Urukagina_, by ALLOTTE DE LA FUŸE, in the _Revue d’Assyriologie_, 1910, pp. 139-46.

In his _Recueil de Tablettes chaldéennes_ (Paris, E. Leroux, 1903) FR. THUREAU-DANGIN gave as his third series a number of texts of the Sargonic period, dated in the reigns of Shargani-shar-ali and Naram-Sin. A number more are published or described in the _Inventaire des tablettes de Tello conservées au Musée Impérial Ottoman_, Tome I, by THUREAU-DANGIN, 1910, and Tome II, by H. DE GENOUILLAC, 1911, and several other collections are to be published shortly.

The very early texts from the ancient Shuruppak which have reached the Louvre were published by THUREAU-DANGIN in his _Recueil_ named above, and in the _Revue d’Assyriologie_, vi (1904), pp. 143-54, he wrote _Contrats archaïques provenant de Shuruppak_, with the intention of deciphering and explaining them as far as possible.

CONTRACT LITERATURE.

Many texts published in the above collections of Temple Accounts are bonds, deeds of sale, even legal decisions, &c., and really come under the head of contracts. But even among the collections of contracts some accounts have been published, and it is scarcely necessary here to quote the same book under both heads.

Curiously enough the first contracts to attract attention were of an early date. LOFTUS found at Senkereh a number of most interesting case-tablets, the principal document being invariably enclosed in a clay envelope which, as was subsequently discovered, was inscribed with an abstract or practical duplicate of the principal document. Many speculations arose as to their purpose. Some regarded them as a substitute for money, or cheques, banknotes in clay (so LAYARD in 1853), and other weird guesses. GEORGE SMITH first recognized their meaning and value for history by publishing their dates, the names which the Babylonians gave to the years, calling them after some prominent event.

Discovered in 1854, they were first published in 1882 by J. N. STRASSMAIER. Owing to some misapprehension, as given in LAYARD’S _Nineveh and Babylon_, p. 496, despite the clear statement on pp. 270-72 of LOFTUS, _Travels and Researches in Chaldea and Susiana_, they were called _Die altbabylonischen Verträge aus Warka_ in the _Beilage_ to the _Verhandlungen des V. internationalen Orientalistischen Congresses zu Berlin_, 1881. They were accompanied by a list of words and names. E. and V. REVILLOUT discussed them most interestingly in _Une Famille de commerçants de Warka_. They proved to be of the time of Hammurabi and his son Samsu-iluna after these kings had expelled Rîm-Sin from the South of Babylonia. But there were several dated in the reign of Rîm-Sin, and in those of Sin-idinnam and Nûr-adad, kings who had preceded him. Thus they showed how, despite changes of dynasty, the civil life of the subject population went on undisturbed, and customs changed but little. They show how closely the Code pictures the daily life of the people. As most illustrative of the Code, constituting a contemporary commentary on its regulations and consisting chiefly of examples of the same cases as there considered, we may here group in order of publication the collections from the First Dynasty of Babylon.

_Inscribed Babylonian Tablets in the possession of Sir Henry Peek, Bart._, 1888, contained a few texts of this period, copied, transcribed, and translated by T. G. PINCHES. This made considerable advances, but there was not yet enough material to solve many obscurities. These tablets came from Sippara.

It was evident that the only hope of understanding such technical documents lay in the publication of further material, so that by comparison of similar passages some information could be obtained as to alternative readings and phrases.

In 1893 a great advance was made by MEISSNER with his _Beiträge zum altbabylonischen Privatrecht_ (Leipzig, Hinrichs), which gave a full transliteration and translation of 111 texts, all carefully published in autography. Full notes and invaluable comments made this a standard work. The texts were chiefly from tablets found at Sippara, and stored in the British Museum, and at Berlin where a large quantity had been purchased. MEISSNER also reproduced some of the Warka texts.

In the fourth volume of SCHRADER’S _Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek_, 1896, F. E. PEISER gave a collection of contract texts in transcription and translation, arranged in chronological order. He included thirty-one texts of this period (Berlin, Reuther and Reichard). These were called _Texte juristischen und geschäftlichen Inhalts_, and marked a further advance in treatment. In this year also began the great series of publications called _Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets, &c., in the British Museum, printed by order of the Trustees_. Vols. ii, iv, vi, and viii (1896, 1897, 1898, 1899), contain copies of no fewer than 395 texts mostly of this period, a most valuable addition to our knowledge of the subject. They were from the practised hand of T. G. PINCHES, who gave in the _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, 1897 and 1899, some transliterations and translations with notes and comments on fifteen of them. They were all Sippara tablets.

In 1902 appeared _Une saison de fouilles à Sippar_ (Le Caire, Institut Français), in which V. SCHEIL gave an account of his explorations at Abu Habba, the ancient Sippara, in 1892-1893, and many texts in a preliminary form, with transcription, translation, and comments, thus making known a most valuable supplement to the earlier publications of First Dynasty tablets.

In 1906 TH. FRIEDRICH published in the _Beiträge zur Assyriologie_, vol. v, a number of texts from the tablets found by SCHEIL at Sippara, and then preserved in the Museum at Constantinople, as _Altbabylonische Urkunden aus Sippara_ (Leipzig, Hinrichs), which completed SCHEIL’S work in many ways.

In 1906, A. H. RANKE published _Babylonian Legal and Business Documents from the time of the First Babylonian Dynasty_, as vol. vi, part 1, of the Series A, Cuneiform Texts, of the _Publications of the Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania_ (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania). They probably all came from Sippara, though two may be from Babylon, unless the king was then holding Court in Sippara.

In 1908 J. É. GAUTIER gave us _Archives d’une famille de Dilbat au temps de la Première Dynastie de Babylon_ (Le Caire, Institut Français), with transcriptions and translations of sixty-six tablets from a new site, which the contents of the texts certainly prove to be that of the ancient city of Dilbat. The work was well done, but needed revision by fresh material.

About this time native diggers brought to light fresh material from several new sites. Especially valuable were the texts from Kish, Larsa, Opis, Babylon, and Shittab. These were eagerly acquired by the various Museums, and shortly gave rise to a crop of fresh publications.

In 1909 came _Babylonian Legal and Business Documents from the time of the First Dynasty of Babylon_, by A. POEBEL, being vol. vi, part 2, of Series A, Cuneiform Texts, of the _Publications of the Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania_ (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania). Again a fresh site, the ancient Nippur, yielded its contribution. Here most of the tablets exhibit the old Sumerian phraseology.

A. UNGNAD published, in 1909, a large number of texts from tablets in the Berlin Museum, acquired at various dates. They appeared as vols. vii, viii, ix of the _Vorderasiatische Denkmäler_ (Leipzig, Hinrichs). Most of them undoubtedly came from Sippara; one from Der-ez-Zor, near the Chabour, and those in vol. vii from Dilbat, apparently the modern Delam. Thus we can again compare contemporary documents from a fresh site, which proves to have been influenced by other peoples, the Mitanni, Elamites, &c. In _Urkunden aus Dilbat_, vol. vi, part 5, of the _Beiträge zur Assyriologie_ (Leipzig, Hinrichs, 1909), A. UNGNAD transcribes, translates, and comments upon the large collection of letters and contracts which had been published from Dilbat. His works brought a large amount of most valuable information for the period.

In 1910 THUREAU-DANGIN issued _Lettres et contrats de l’époque de la Première dynastie babylonienne_ (Paris, Geuthner), a most valuable work for its indexes, as well as the interesting texts. A long and extremely fine text was also given by him as _Un jugement sous Ammiditana_, in _Revue d’Assyriologie_, 1910, pp. 121-7. Here were texts from Sippara, Babylon, Dilbat, Kish, and possibly Shittab, as well as some more from Der-ez-Zor. In the _Revue d’Assyriologie_, 1911, pp. 68-79, THUREAU-DANGIN published _Sept contrats_ of the reigns of the kings of Kish, who were contemporary with the foundation of the First Dynasty and themselves Amorites. ST. LANGDON published several more of these _Tablets from Kish_ in the _Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology_, 1911, pp. 185-96, and in the same journal for 1912, pp. 109-13, gave eleven _Contracts from Larsa_.

C. E. KEISER published _Tags and Labels from Nippur_ in _The Museum Journal of Philadelphia_, vol. iii, no. 2, pp. 29-31. These closely related documents form a borderland between contracts and accounts.

These contracts are so much more important for the elucidation of the Code than any later documents that we may now notice the chief discussions of them.

Not much of this class of documents has yet come to light for the Third or Kassite Dynasty of Babylon. A. T. CLAY gave us vols. xiv, xv of the _Publications of the Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania_ (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, 1906), entitled _Documents from the Temple Archives of Nippur, dated in the Reigns of Cassite Rulers_. They showed how the old customs were preserved and modified with fresh immigrations. These were followed in 1912 by _Documents from the Temple Archives of Nippur, dated in the Reigns of Cassite Rulers, the Museum Publications of the Babylonian Section_, vol. ii, no. 2 (Philadelphia Museum), completing the collections. Some of the same sort from Nippur, in the E. A. HOFFMANN collection in the Metropolitan Museum in New York, were noted in RADAU’S _Early Babylonian History_, pp. 328-9 (New York, 1900).

F. E. PEISER, in 1905, had published _Urkunden aus der Zeit der dritten babylonischen Dynastie in Urschrift, Umschrift und Übersetzung, dazu Rechtsausführungen von J. Kohler_ (Berlin, Wolf Peiser). These appear to have belonged to a family of Babylonians, some of whom adopted Cassite names. More of the same group found their way to the Berlin Museums, and more are in private hands and in the Louvre.

C. J. BALL contributed to the _Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology_ for 1907, pp. 273-4, _A Kassite Text_.

D. D. LUCKENBILL in the _American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures_, 1907, pp. 280-322, gave a most valuable _Study of the Temple Documents from the Cassite Period_.

The scarcity of legal documents from this period may be estimated from the fact that in _Texte juristischen und geschäftlichen Inhalts_ (see p. 81, above) only the so-called boundary-stones could be quoted.

It is in the Third Dynasty of Babylon that the Boundary-Stone or Kudurru inscriptions first appear. These have been much discussed, especially from the side of the curious symbols which occur upon them, often regarded as signs of the Zodiac, or emblems of the gods.

In the _Beiträge zur Assyriologie_, vol. ii, pp. 111-204, a number of such texts were published and partly discussed by C. BELSER, as _Babylonische Kudurru-Inschriften_. PEISER incorporated some in the fourth volume of SCHRADER’S _Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek_. W. J. HINKE gave in 1907, as vol. iv of Series D of the _Publications of the Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania_ (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania), _A New Boundary-Stone of Nebuchadrezzar I from Nippur_, in which he also gave a full bibliography of the subject, collected names, words, &c., from all the texts of the sort hitherto published, and discussed the symbols. In _Babylonian Boundary-stones and Memorial Tablets in the British Museum, with an Atlas of Plates_ (London, British Museum, 1912), L. W. KING gave the whole of the British Museum material. In 1911 HINKE contributed to the _Semitic Study Series_ (Leiden, E. J. Brill), a useful collection in _Selected Babylonian Kudurru Inscriptions_. Many such inscriptions are published by V. SCHEIL with transcriptions and translations in _Mémoires de la Délégation en Perse_ (Paris, E. Leroux), vols. ii, pp. 86-94, 97-116; vi, pp. 30-47; vii, 137-53; x, 87-96. F. STEINMETZER contributed _Eine Schenkungsurkunde des Königs Melishichu_ to the _Beiträge zur Assyriologie_, vol. viii, pp. 1-38.

HINKE gives an excellent bibliography of the Babylonian _kudurru_ inscriptions, their publications, transliterations, translations, and discussions. Some are of the nature of _Freibriefe_, and MEISSNER so treated one in the _Zeitschrift für Assyriologie_, 1889, pp. 259-67, cf. pp. 403-4. He also wrote _Assyrische Freibriefe_ in the _Beiträge zur Assyriologie_ II. (1894), pp. 565-72, 581-8, giving text, transliteration, translation, and discussion of three examples from the reign of Ashurbanipal and one of Adad-nirari. In my _Assyrian Deeds and Documents_ (Cambridge, Deighton, Bell & Co., 1902), nos. 646, 647, 648, and 651, I republished these texts and added nos. 649, 650, two texts of Ashur-etil-ilâni, son and successor of Ashurbanipal, nos. 652, 653, 654, 655, 656 (= 808 in vol. ii) of Adad-nirari, nos. 657, 658 (dated in B. C. 730), 659 (names Tiglath-Pileser), 660 (now joined to other fragments as 809, an important grant by Sargon II in connexion with the site of Dur-Sargon), 661, 662(?), 663, and possibly also nos. 669, 671, 672, 673, 674 (see now no. 1101), 692 (now part of 807), 714 (now part of 809), and in vol. ii, nos. 734, 735, 736, 737, 738(?), 739, 740(?), 741(?), on to 752, all possible fragments of similar proclamations, _Freibriefe_, charters, or the schedules to them. I have collected the references here, as the texts seem to have met with insufficient attention. WINCKLER had published parts of some of them in his _Altorientalische Forschungen_ (Leipzig, E. Pfeiffer, 1898), vol. ii, pp. 4-8, and assigned the Ashur-etil-ilâni texts to Esarhaddon’s reign, and in the note on p. 192 to Sin-shar-ishkun. F. E. PEISER made some acute suggestions as to the readings of the text and their meanings.

On no. 809 MEISSNER wrote a full discussion in the _Mitteilungen der Vorderasiatischen Gesellschaft_, 1903, pp. 85-96.

In 1883 H. V. HILPRECHT published _Freibrief Nebukadnezar’s I._ (Leipzig, Hinrichs), with great advances on the previous treatment, and published others in _Old Babylonian Inscriptions_, vol. i, part 1 (1893), nos. 80, 83, part 2 (1896), nos. 149, 150. In 1891 K. L. TALLQVIST wrote on _Babylonische Schenkungsbriefe_ (Helsingfors). In the _Beiträge zur Assyriologie_, 1894, pp. 258-73, FR. DELITZSCH published and admirably treated _Der Berliner Merodachbaladan-Stein_.

ED. CUQ in _La Propriété foncière en Chaldée_ gave a new view of the meaning of these documents and the significance of their first appearing in the Kassite period. It will be seen from the titles given in the above works that no complete unanimity prevails as to their nature and purpose.

We may now turn back to the class of texts usually called contracts.

The Assyrian empire has not yielded much of this class of document, before the time of Sargon II, B.C. 785-722. A number of texts have been reported in the _Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft zu Berlin_ as found at Asshur by the German excavators there, which date from times both early and late. The publication of these texts will doubtless soon be achieved and add greatly to our knowledge. The treatment in Assyria seems to be largely reminiscent of that of Babylonia under the First Dynasty, but there are wide divergences doubtless due to the foreign elements in the Assyrian population. We are not yet possessed of sufficient material to assign the changes to their true causes, but we know enough to be sure that they were not on the whole due to contemporary developments in Babylonia.

In _Assyrian Deeds and Documents relating to the transfer of Property_, in three volumes, by C. H. W. JOHNS, published in 1898-1901 (Deighton, Bell & Co., Cambridge, 3 vols.), practically all the material of this class in the British Museum then catalogued was edited. These tablets apparently all came from Nineveh. There are now many more similar tablets in the British Museum listed in the _Supplement to the Catalogue_. Recently in _Assyrische Rechtsurkunden von J. Kohler und A. Ungnad_ (Leipzig, Ed. Pfeiffer, 1913), a series of transliterations and translations have been commenced which will form a key to the whole, including many other texts since published.

It was on these texts that J. OPPERT formed his views given in _Das Assyrische Landrecht_, and in _Le droit de retrait lignager à Ninive_, see p. 72.

V. SCHEIL published in his _Notes d’épigraphie_ in the _Recueil de Travaux_, xx, note xl (1898), pp. 202-5, four tablets which possibly did not come from Nineveh. I republished the texts as nos. 779-82 in my _Deeds and Documents_ above. The first is discussed by MEISSNER as _Eine assyrische Schenkungsurkunde_ in the _Mitteilungen der Vorderasiatischen Gesellschaft_, 1903, pp. 103-5, where he points out that my no. 619 is another like text. Here Adi-mati-ilu and other property were given to a son who was to take a double portion and divide the rest with his brothers.

F. E. PEISER in the _Orientalistische Litteraturzeitung_, 1905, cols. 130-4, gave _Ein neuer assyrischer Kontrakt_, V. SCHEIL in the same journal for 1904, col. 70, and in the _Recueil de Travaux_, xxiv, note lxii, p. 24, pointed out others, while in _Vorderasiatische Schriftdenkmäler_, vol. i, nos. 84-111, A. UNGNAD published several more from Kannu’ and Kerkûk. S. SCHIFFER discussed many of these as _Keilschriftliche Spuren der in der zweiten Hälfte des 8_. _Jahrhunderts von den Assyrern nach Mesopotamien deportierten Samarier, a Beiheft to Orientalistische Litteraturzeitung_ (Berlin, W. Peiser, 1907), with which may be compared an article in the _Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology_, 1908, pp. 107-15, 137-41, on _The Lost Ten Tribes of Israel_, by C. H. W. JOHNS. In an article _Aus dem Louvre_, F. E. PEISER published in the _Orientalistische Litteraturzeitung_, 1903, cols. 192-200, a new collation of no. 1,141 in my _Deeds and Documents_, which had been formerly treated by PLACE, OPPERT, and STRASSMAIER; and an edition of another text of this class. The new _Supplement to the Catalogue of the Tablets in the Kouyunjik Collection in the British Museum_, by L. W. KING (London, British Museum, 1914), shows that many more such texts await publication, and there are others in the Museums in England and America.

This class of document was early known for the times of the Neo-babylonian Empire, and thousands of the so-called contracts have been published down to the century before the Christian era.

J. OPPERT began the task of publishing and deciphering contracts, for which his legal training as well as his philological learning especially fitted him. His work may be gathered from the bibliography in the second volume of the _Beiträge zur Assyriologie_, pp. 523-56. His great effort was _Documents juridiques de l’Assyrie et de la Chaldée_ (Paris, Maisonneuve, 1877), but he continued to deal with contracts up to his death. Here as elsewhere comparison of fresh material continually brought new light.

A number of such tablets were copied by T. G. PINCHES(?) for the fifth volume of _Inscriptions of Western Asia_ (London, British Museum, 1909, plates lxvii, lxviii), on which OPPERT built his determination of Babylonian measures. J. N. STRASSMAIER, in 1855, published _Die babylonischen Inschriften im Museum zu Liverpool nebst anderen aus der Zeit von Nebukadnezar bis Darius_ (Leiden, J. Brill).

The tablets in the British Museum from Sippara, Babylon, Borsippa, &c., dated in the reigns of Nebuchadrezzar, Nabopolassar, Evil-Merodach, Neriglissar, Nabonidus, Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius, were also edited by J. N. STRASSMAIER as _Babylonische Texte, Inschriften von den Thontafeln des British Museums copiert und autographiert_, in twelve volumes (Leipzig, 1887-1897). On the mass of material thus rendered available to scholars were based a very large number of memoirs and monographs which may be arranged here. K. L. TALLQVIST, in 1890, published _Die Sprache der Contracte Nabû-nâ’id’s_ (Helsingfors, J. C. Frenckell), in which he collected all the words and phrases occurring in these texts, with useful indexes. R. ZEHNPFUND gave _Babylonische Weberrechnungen_ in the _Beiträge zur Assyriologie_, i, pp. 492ff. (1890): L. DEMUTH, _Fünfzig Rechts-und Verwaltungsurkunden aus der Zeit des Königs Kyros_, in the same journal, vol. iii, pp. 393-444 (1898); E. ZIEMER, _Fünfzig Rechts-und Verwaltungsurkunden aus der Zeit des Königs Kambyses_, same volume, pp. 445-92; V. MARX, _Die Stellung der Frauen in Babylonien gemäss den Kontrakten aus der Zeit von Nebukadnezar bis Darius_, same journal, vol. iv, pp. 1-77, 1902; and E. KOTALLA, _Fünfzig babylonische Rechts-und Verwaltungsurkunden aus der Zeit des Königs Artaxerxes I_, same volume, pp. 551-74. FR. DELITZSCH contributed _Notizen zu den neubabylonischen Kontrakttafeln_, same journal, vol. iii, pp. 385-92 (1898), and J. KOHLER, _Ein Beitrag zum neubabylonischen Recht_, vol. iv, pp. 423-30. F. E. PEISER, in 1889, published _Keilinschriftliche Actenstücke aus babylonischen Städten_ (Berlin, W. Peiser), and, in 1890, _Babylonische Verträge des Berliner Museums_ (Berlin, W. Peiser). This marked great advances on OPPERT’S work, owing to STRASSMAIER’S new material and the Berlin collections. He next contributed a selection of transliterations and translations to the fourth volume of SCHRADER’S _Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek_ (1896), p. 81, above. Then from 1890-1898 appeared _Aus dem babylonischen Rechtsleben_ (Leipzig, Pfeiffer), in conjunction with J. KOHLER, containing many new texts. A. B. MOLDENKE, in 1893, published for the Metropolitan Museum at New York a volume of _Cuneiform Texts_, all of this period. In 1890 appeared _Recherches sur quelques contrats babyloniens_, by A. BOISSIER (Paris, E. Leroux).

In the _Zeitschrift für Assyriologie_ (Weimar, E. Felber, 1894) Y. LE GAC published _Quelques inscriptions assyro-babyloniennes du Musée Lycklama à Cannes_, pp. 385-90, and in _Babyloniaca_ (Paris, P. Geuthner, 1910), _Textes babyloniens de la Collection Lycklama à Cannes_, pp. 33-72. In 1902 T. G. PINCHES contributed to the _Verhandlungen des XIII_. _Orientalistischen Congresses_ some _Notes on a Small Collection of Tablets from the Birs Nimroud belonging to Lord Amherst of Hackney_.

In vols. III-VI of the _Vorderasiatische Schriftdenkmäler_ (1907-1908), A. UNGNAD published many texts of this period, and gave later some valuable _Untersuchungen_ on the same, _Aus der altbabylonischen Kontrakt-literatur_, to the _Orientalistische Litteraturzeitung_, 1912, cols. 106-8.

A new source for this material was the finds at Nippur, printed in _The Publications of the Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania_, Philadelphia, Series A. _Cuneiform Texts_, vol. viii,