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,
part 1 contained _Legal and Commercial Transactions from the
Neo-babylonian Empire to Darius II_, by A. T. CLAY, 1908; vols. ix and x,
by the same author, contained _Business Documents of Murashû Sons of
Nippur in the reign of Artaxerxes I_ (1898), and _Business Documents in
the reign of Darius II_ (1904). A new series has since been commenced.
_The Museum Publications of the Babylonian Section of the University of
Pennsylvania_ (Philadelphia Museum), vol. ii, no. 1, gives _Business
Documents of Murashû Sons of Nippur_, by A. T. CLAY (1912), and vol. ii,
no. 2, _Documents from the Temple Archives at Nippur_, by the same
author (1912).
_Selected Business Documents of the Neo-Babylonian Period_ in the
_Semitic Study Series_, by A. UNGNAD (Leiden, Brill, 1908), forms a
useful introduction to the subject.
In 1911 appeared _Hundert ausgewählte Rechtsurkunden aus der Spätzeit
des babylonischen Schrifltums von Xerxes bis Mithridates, 485-93 v.
Chr._, by A. UNGNAD and J. KOHLER (Leipzig, Pfeiffer), and I. L. HOLT
contributed to the _American Journal of Semitic Languages and
Literatures_ a study of _some Tablets from the R. C. Thompson Collection
in Haskell Oriental Museum, The University of Chicago_.
Of considerable interest as in some senses a link between Babylonia and
Palestine are the Cappadocian Tablets. The first notice of them was
given by T. G. PINCHES in the _Proceedings of the Society of Biblical
Archaeology_, Nov. 1, 1881, pp. 11-18. Some tablets in the British
Museum were acquired from a dealer who said they had been found in
Cappadocia. The script was then quite unfamiliar, and they were supposed
at first to be written in a language neither Sumerian nor Semitic.
GOLENISCHEFF published in 1891 the text of twenty-four tablets of the
same class which he had acquired at Kaisareyeh. He made out that many
words were Assyrian and read many names. FR. DELITZSCH made a most
valuable study of them in the _Abhandlungen der philos.-hist. Classe der
K. Sächs. Gesellschaft d. Wissenschaften_, 1893, no. 11. In 1894 P.
JENSEN in the _Zeitschrift für Assyriologie_, vol. ix, pp. 62-81, made
many corrections and additions. F. E. PEISER then discussed them in his
introduction to the fourth volume of SCHRADER’s _Keilinschriftliche
Bibliothek_, and gave the transcription and translation of the texts of
nine, pp. 50-56. A considerable number more were discovered at Boghaz
Köi, Kara Eyuk, and elsewhere, and published by V. SCHEIL in the
_Mémoires de la Mission en Cappadoce_, and commented upon by A. BOISSIER
in the _Proceedings of the Society for Biblical Archaeology_, 1900, pp.
106 ff. Four Cappadocian tablets were published by THUREAU-DANGIN among
his _Lettres et Contrats_, see p. 82, above.
In _Babyloniaca_, 1908, pp. 1-45, A. H. SAYCE translated the
Golenischeff texts, and others published by Chantre, or found by Ramsay,
&c.
T. G. PINCHES with A. H. SAYCE published and discussed _The Cappadocian
Tablet from Yuzghat in the Liverpool Institute of Archaeology_, 1906.
In 1908 T. G. PINCHES published twenty more in the _Annals of
Archaeology of the Liverpool University_, vol. i, pp. 49-80. In the
_Florilegium de Vogüé_, pp. 591-k, THUREAU-DANGIN discussed _Un acte de
répudiation sur une tablette cappadocienne_, 1909, and in the _Revue
d’Assyriologie_, 1911, pp. 142-51, gave more texts fixing _La date des
tablettes cappadociennes_ as contemporary with the _Dynasty of Ur_ in
Babylonia, thus proving cuneiform to have been widely used in that
region to write a Semitic language long before the time of Hammurabi. In
_Babyloniaca_, 1911, pp. 65-80, A. H. SAYCE gave some _Cappadocian
Cuneiform Tablets from Kara Eyuk_, affiliating them with early Assyrian
rulers. In the same journal, 1911, pp. 216-28, A. BOISSIER gave more
texts under the title _Nouveaux documents de Boghaz Köi_. In the same
journal, 1912, pp. 182-93, A. H. SAYCE wrote upon _The Cappadocian
Cuneiform Tablets of the University of Pennsylvania_.
All these works have contributed comments of more or less value, and the
whole point to a close connexion with Babylonia and Assyria, and the
extended use of cuneiform in Cappadocia from very early times, whence it
was doubtless taken over by the later Hittites.