In 1902 appeared Une saison de fouilles à Sippar (Le Caire, Institut Français), in which V. Scheil gave an account of his explorations at Abu Habba, the ancient Sippara, in 1892-1893, and many texts in a preliminary form, with transcription, translation, and comments, thus making known a most valuable supplement to the earlier publications of First Dynasty tablets.
In 1906 Th. Friedrich published in the Beiträge zur Assyriologie, vol. v, a number of texts from the tablets found by Scheil at Sippara, and then preserved in the Museum at Constantinople, as Altbabylonische Urkunden aus Sippara (Leipzig, Hinrichs), which completed Scheil’s work in many ways.
In 1906, A. H. Ranke published Babylonian Legal and Business Documents from the time of the First Babylonian Dynasty, as vol. vi, part 1, of the Series A, Cuneiform Texts, of the Publications of the Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania). They probably all came from Sippara, though two may be from Babylon, unless the king was then holding Court in Sippara.
In 1908 J. É. Gautier gave us Archives d’une famille de Dilbat au temps de la Première Dynastie de Babylon (Le Caire, Institut Français), with transcriptions and translations of sixty-six tablets from a new site, which the contents of the texts certainly prove to be that of the ancient city of Dilbat. The work was well done, but needed revision by fresh material.
About this time native diggers brought to light fresh material from several new sites. Especially valuable were the texts from Kish, Larsa, Opis, Babylon, and Shittab. These were eagerly acquired by the various Museums, and shortly gave rise to a crop of fresh publications.
In 1909 came Babylonian Legal and Business Documents from the time of the First Dynasty of Babylon, by A. Poebel, being vol. vi, part 2, of Series A, Cuneiform Texts, of the Publications of the Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania). Again a fresh site, the ancient Nippur, yielded its contribution. Here most of the tablets exhibit the old Sumerian phraseology.
A. Ungnad published, in 1909, a large number of texts from tablets in the Berlin Museum, acquired at various dates. They appeared as vols. vii, viii, ix of the Vorderasiatische Denkmäler (Leipzig, Hinrichs). Most of them undoubtedly came from Sippara; one from Der-ez-Zor, near the Chabour, and those in vol. vii from Dilbat, apparently the modern Delam. Thus we can again compare contemporary documents from a fresh site, which proves to have been influenced by other peoples, the Mitanni, Elamites, &c. In Urkunden aus Dilbat, vol. vi, part 5, of the Beiträge zur Assyriologie (Leipzig, Hinrichs, 1909), A. Ungnad transcribes, translates, and comments upon the large collection of letters and contracts which had been published from Dilbat. His works brought a large amount of most valuable information for the period.
In 1910 Thureau-Dangin issued Lettres et contrats de l’époque de la Première dynastie babylonienne (Paris, Geuthner), a most valuable work for its indexes, as well as the interesting texts. A long and extremely fine text was also given by him as Un jugement sous Ammiditana, in Revue d’Assyriologie, 1910, pp. 121-7. Here were texts from Sippara, Babylon, Dilbat, Kish, and possibly Shittab, as well as some more from Der-ez-Zor. In the Revue d’Assyriologie, 1911, pp. 68-79, Thureau-Dangin published Sept contrats of the reigns of the kings of Kish, who were contemporary with the foundation of the First Dynasty and themselves Amorites. St. Langdon published several more of these Tablets from Kish in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, 1911, pp. 185-96, and in the same journal for 1912, pp. 109-13, gave eleven Contracts from Larsa.
C. E. Keiser published Tags and Labels from Nippur in The Museum Journal of Philadelphia, vol. iii, no. 2, pp. 29-31. These closely related documents form a borderland between contracts and accounts.
These contracts are so much more important for the elucidation of the Code than any later documents that we may now notice the chief discussions of them.