for history. George Smith in 1871 gave extracts from several of them in his History of Ashurbanipal. A number were published in Rawlinson's Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia. Mr. S. A. Smith, in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology, 1887-89,[806] and in the second and third volumes of his Keilschrifttexte Asurbanipals gave some seventy more. Professor Delitzsch also published a number in his Zur assyrisch-babylonischen Briefliteratur,[807] and in his translations and comments laid the real foundation for their interpretation. In 1892 Professor R. F. Harper began the colossal task of publishing the text of all the letters from Nineveh, in his Assyrian and Babylonian Letters belonging to the K Collections of the British Museum, of which eight volumes are already published.[808]
Translations
A considerable number of scholars have busied themselves with the translation and elucidation of these texts. Professor C. Johnston in his work, The Epistolary Literature of the Assyrians and Babylonians;[809] C. van Gelderen, Ausgewählte babylonisch-assyrische Briefe;[810] A. J. Delattre, Quelques Lettres Assyriennes;[811] G. R. Berry, The Letters of the Rm. 2 Collection, in American Journal of Semitic Literature, xi., pp. 174-202; F. Martin, Lettres assyriennes et babyloniennes—besides the many articles by other scholars on particular words or subjects—have contributed to the understanding of these difficult texts. Professor R. F. Harper has published a few preliminary studies on these texts.[812] Dr. H. Winckler not only gave several important texts in his Texte verschiedenen Inhalts,[813] but translations [pg 314] and comments on them in his Altorientalische Forschungen.[814]
Late Babylonian letters
The letter-texts of the latter Babylonian period at present published are extremely few. Some may be found in Strassmaier's great collection of Babylonische Texte, among the contracts. A list of those for the reigns of Nabonidus and Nebuchadrezzar is given in Dr. K. L. Tallqvist's Die Sprache der Contracte Nabû-nâ'ids, p. xviii.
Historical value of the letters
One of the uses to which the letters may be put is to illustrate the history of the time. From the letters of Ḥammurabi we can gather a great deal of information as to the civil policy of the reign. From the Tell el Amarna tablets we may reconstruct almost a complete survey of the condition of politics in Palestine. From the Assyrian letters we can rewrite the history of affairs in Armenia at the end of Sargon's reign, or the wars with Elam in Ashurbânipal's time.
General value
The letters are also a rich mine of information on all sorts of topics, and those very often on which almost all other literatures are silent. We gain here a closer and more intimate acquaintance with humanity than at any other period of ancient history. We must not expect finality in our translations for a long while to come. Fresh documents will continually be found or published that will help us to revise our views. But that is the perennial interest of the letters. We may read and reread them, always finding something fresh to combine with every new piece of information.
Methods of classification