ave been found
near it, but that fact in itself would not be sufficient evidence on
which to base any theory as to its not having originally formed part of
the archives of the city. Its unofficial character is attested by the
form of the tablet and the manner in which the information upon it is
arranged. In shape there is little to distinguish the document from the
tablets of accounts inscribed in the reign of Urukagina, great numbers
of which have been found recently at Telloh. Roughly square in shape,
its edges are slightly convex, and the text is inscribed in a series of
narrow columns upon both the obverse and the reverse. The text itself
is not a carefully arranged composition, such as are the votive and
historical inscriptions of early Sumerian rulers. It consists of a
series of short sentences enumerating briefly and without detail the
separate deeds of violence and sacrilege performed by the men of Gishkhu
after their capture of the city. It is little more than a catalogue or
list of the shrines and temples destroyed during the sack of the city,
or defiled by the blood of the men of Shirpurla who were slain therein.
No mention is made in the list of the palace of the Urukagina, or of any
secular building, or of the dwellings of the citizens themselves. There
is little doubt that these also were despoiled and destroyed by the
victorious enemy, but the writer of the tablet is not concerned for the
moment with the fate of his city or his fellow citizens. He appears to
be overcome with the thought of the deeds of sacrilege committed against
his gods; his mind is entirely taken up with the magnitude of the
insult offered to the god Ningirsu, the city-god of Shirpurla. His bare
enumeration of the deeds of sacrilege and violence loses little by its
brevity, and, when he has ended the list of his accusations against the
men of Gishkhu, he curses the goddess to whose influence he attributes
their success.

No composition at all like this document has yet been recovered, and as
it is not very long we may here give a translation of the text. It will
be seen that the writer plunges at once into the subject of his
charges against the men of Gishkhu. No historical _resume_ prefaces
his accusations, and he gives no hint of the circumstances that have
rendered their delivery possible. The temples of his city have been
profaned and destroyed, and his indignation finds vent in a mere
enumeration of their titles. To his mind the f