ssign to many of these a place in modern
schemes. But it is very easy to be premature in assigning an ancient
document to modern categories.

The groups will be subdivided according to subject-matter. The order of
the groups will be determined by the greater or less complexity of the
documents. It is best to take those first which can be easily made out.
The experience gained in discussing them will be of great service in
dealing with more complicated cases. The reader must not, however, suppose
that no obscurities will remain. Subsequent investigation will lead to
redistribution. Each such revision will, however, bring us nearer to sound
results.

One of the most interesting and instructive methods of dealing with a
large collection of documents is to group together the transactions,
distributed over a number of years, of one man, or of a single family.
This method has often been adopted and makes most fascinating reading.

Thus, M. V. Revillout, in the appendix to M. E. Revillout's lectures
entitled _Les obligations en droit egyptien_, under the title of _Une
famille des commercants_, discussed the interrelations of a large number
of tablets published by Strassmaier. These had a special connection, being
found, and practically kept, together. They are concerned chiefly with the
business transactions of three persons and their descendants. The three
men do not seem to have been related, but to have become partners. The
first transaction in which they are concerned is an equitable division of
property which they had held in common. They and their descendants lived
side by side in Larsa and gradually extended their possessions on every
side. They were neighbors to two wealthy landowners from whom and from
whose descendants they gradually acquired lands and houses. Especially did
two brothers, sons of one of the original three, buy up, piece by piece,
almost all the property of these two neighboring families. Further, in
acquiring a piece of land, they seem to have come into possession of the
deeds of sale, or leases, of that plot, which had been executed by
previous owners. Thus, we can, in some cases, follow the history of a plot
of land during several reigns.

Such a collection of documents probably did not come from the public
archives, but from the muniment-chest of a private family, or of a firm of
traders. That duplicates of some of these tablets should have been found
in other collections, points either to the