Explorations in Bible lands during the 19th century - H. V. Hilprecht

DURING lOTii CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 249
perty, to agriculture and stock-raising, to trade, commerce,
and industry. There are lists of offerings, furniture, slaves,
and other inventories, bills of entry, expense lists, receipts,
accounts, contracts, and letters ;
there are even land registers,
plans of houses, of fortifications, rivers, and canals. Especially
numerous are the lists of animals (temple herds, and
the like)
and statements of the produce of the fields, testifying
to the eminently agricultural and pastoral character of
the ancient principality of Lagash. Among the more interesting
specimens we mention the fragments of a correspondence
between Lugal-ushumgal, patesi of Shir-pur-la,
and a contemporaneous king of Agade (Sargon or Naram-
Sin), his suzerain. Or we refer to a number of inscribed
seal-impressions in clay, as labels attached to merchandise
and addressed to various persons and cities. 1
For we learn
from a study of these long-buried archives that northern
Babylonia largely exported grain and manufactured goods
to the south, while the latter dealt principally in cattle,
fowl, wool, cheese, butter, and eggs —
precisely the same
characteristic products which the two halves of Babylonia
exchange with each other to-day.
With regard to their age, these tablets cover a considerable
period. Some of them antedate the dynasty of Ur-
Nina (4000 b. c.) ; others bear the name of Urukagina,
" king of Shir-pur-la" whose time has not been fixed defi-
2
nitely ;
again others belong to the age of Sargon and
Naram-Sin (3800 b. c.) and are of inestimable value for
their dates, which contain important historical references ;
3
1
Comp. Heuzev in Comptes Rendus des Seances de /' Academie des Inscriptions
et Belles-Lettres, 1896 (4th series, vol. xxiv), session of April 17,
and in Revue d' Assyriologie, vol. iv, pp. 1-12.
2
According to Thureau-Dangin, he lived after Entemena. Comp. Zeitschrift
fur Assyriologie, vol. xv, p. 404, note 1.
s
Babylon, written ka-dingir-ra-ki, appears on one of these tablets — according
to our present knowledge the first clear reference to the famous city
known in history.