t is possible to construct a narrative which has the
appearance of being comparatively full and complete. With regard to
Babylonia it may be shown how dynasty succeeded dynasty, and for long
periods together the names of the kings have been recovered and the
order of their succession fixed with certainty. But the number and
importance of the original documents on which this connected narration
is based vary enormously for different periods. Gaps occur in our
knowledge of the sequence of events, which with some ingenuity may be
bridged over by means of the native lists of kings and the genealogies
furnished by the historical inscriptions. On the other hand, as if to
make up for such parsimony, the excavations have yielded a wealth of
material for illustrating the conditions of early Babylonian life which
prevailed in such periods. The most fortunate of these periods, so far
as the recovery of its records is concerned, is undoubtedly the period
of the Semitic kings of the First Dynasty of Babylon, and in particular
the reign of its greatest ruler, Hammurabi. When M. Maspero wrote his
history, thousands of clay tablets, inscribed with legal and commercial
documents and dated in the reigns of these early kings, had already been
recovered, and the information they furnished was duly summarized by
him.* But since that time two other sources of information have been
made available which have largely increased our knowledge of
the constitution of the early Babylonian state, its system of
administration, and the conditions of life of the various classes of the
population.

* Most of these tablets are preserved in the British Museum.
The principal?works in which they have been published are
Cuneiform Texts in the British Museum (1896, etc.),
Strassmaier's Altbabylonischen Vertrage aus Warka, and
Meissner's Beitrage zum altbabylonischen Privatrecht. A
number of similar tablets of this period, preserved in the
Pennsylvania Museum, will shortly be published by Dr. Ranke.

One of these new sources of information consists of a remarkable series
of royal letters, written by kings of the First Dynasty, which has been
recovered and is now preserved in the British Museum. The letters were
addressed to the governors and high officials of various great cities in
Babylonia, and they contain the king's orders with regard to details of
the administration of the country which had been brought to his notice.