INTRODUCTION. 



The cuneiform tablets and stone inscriptions, excavated by the Expedition in 

 _N"ippnr, embrace a period of about 3350 years — c. 3800 to c. 450 1 B. C. About one 

 hundred and twenty kings of Babylon, Ur and other cities are known to belong to 

 this period of Babylonian history. Forty-five of these, according to our present 

 knowledge, have left personal inscriptions or documents dated according to their reigns 

 in Nippur. Several of these rulers, whose names were only partly preserved or other- 

 wise obscure, or whose chronology and duration of reign were doubtful, have been 

 placed in new light by the American excavations, while others can now for the 

 first time be studied from their own inscriptions. Among other points the following 

 have been established : The correct reading of Ur-Ninib of Isin, instead of Qamil- 

 Ninib 2 as heretofore; the proof of the existence of King Ibil-Sin, or better, Ini- 

 Sin of Ur, 3 already discovered by George Smith, 4 but not generally accepted by 

 Assyriologists ; the proper pronunciation of the name Nazi-Maruttash f the correct 

 transcription of the group Ka-dash-man, instead of the hitherto Ka-ara, in a series of 

 Cassite proper names; the completion of the name of the twenty-seventh king in 

 the Babylonian list b 7 to Sliagaslialti-Sliuriasli* (Shamash is deliverance), instead of 

 the usual Sliagashalti-Buriash 9 (Ramman is deliverance) ; the completion of the Cas- 

 site king [ i]a-s7m in 8. 2106, Obv. 1. 9, 10 to Bibeiashu, and the identity of 



the latter with Bibe? the son of Shagashalti-Shuriash; the first inscription of the 



1 Contract dated in the reign of King Artaxerxes I. A number of coins, about one hundred terra cotta bowls 

 bearing Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic inscriptions, and many other objects, which belong to the Nippur of the Christian 

 era, are here excluded. 



8 Hilprecht, "Die Votiv-Inschrift eines nicht erkannten Kassitenkonigs " in Z. A. VII, p. 815, note 1. 



3 Hilprecht, "Koniglni-Sin von Ur" in Z. A. VII, pp. 343-346. 



* Trans. Soc. Bibl. Arch. I, p. 41. 



5 Hilprecht, I. c, pp. 310, 311. 



6 Hilprecht, I. c, pp. 309, 314, 315. 



7 Winckler, Vhtersuchungen zur Altorientalischen GescMchte, p. 146, col. ii, 6. 



8 Hilprecht, "Die Ergauzung der Namen zweier Kassitenkonige," Z. A., in print. 



9 Cf. Winckler in Z. A. II, p. 310, and Unters., p. 30. 



10 Winckler, Unters., p. 152. 



