onia.

(M48) The classification of this material is no easy task. As in the case
of the Bibliography, so here, the first and apparently the only attempt
has been made by Dr. C. Bezold in his invaluable _Kurzgefasster
Ueberblick_.

The view taken there depended upon Professor Oppert's estimate of the
nature of the documents and that again was often founded on imperfect
copies of the text. A great advance has since been made in understanding
the contents of the texts then published, and the number published has
enormously increased.

The publications, where accompanied by translations, have generally given
some classification. Dr. Peiser, in the fourth volume of Schrader's
_Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek_, gives most suggestive indexes.(57) Dr.
Tallqvist, in his _Sprache der Contrakte Nabuna'id's_ gives a very
valuable classification.(58) Dr. Meissner classified his texts in
_Altbabylonische Privatrecht_.

A number of monographs have been written collecting the different texts
from many sources bearing on one subject, thus acting as a kind of
classification. A complete work on the subject is still needed.

(M49) Of great importance are Dr. F. E. Peiser's _Jurisprudentiae
Babylonicae quae supersunt, Coethen_, 1890 (Inaug. Diss.); Dr. B. Meissner's
_De Servitute babylonico-assyriaca_, Leipzig, 1882 (Inaug. Diss.); and Dr.
V. Marx, _Die Stellung der Frauen in Babylonien (Nebuchadnezzar to Darius
__B.C.__ 604-485)_ published in the _Beitraege zur Assyriologie_, Vol. IV.,
pp. 1-77. These should certainly be read by any serious student of the
times. To reproduce their contents would occupy too much space.

On the whole subject of social life, as illustrated by these contracts,
there is a valuable study by Dr. F. E. Peiser, called _Skizze der
Babylonischen Gesellschaft_.(59) Professor Sayce's _Babylonians and
Assyrians_ in the _Semitic Series_, 1900, is an excellent account, though
in some respects not sufficiently critical. But in all such preliminary
work it is easy to feel sure of conclusions which have to be revised with
fuller knowledge. Time will doubtless show this to be true of what is said
in the present work. But wherever doubt is felt by the writer, it will be
indicated.

LAWS AND CONTRACTS

I. The Earliest Babylonian Laws

(M50) We are still completely in the dark as to the rise of law in
Babylonia. As far back as we can trace the history or its written
monuments, there is no time of which w