earlier document, he naturally wrote more fully, as it was more
vividly in his mind and therefore seemed to him to have a greater
importance. Now it would seem that all Assyriologists should have long
ago recognized that _any one of these editions is of value only when
it is the most nearly contemporaneous of all those preserved. When it
is not so contemporaneous, it has absolutely no value when we do have
the original from which it was derived._ Yet it still remains true
that the most accessible editions of these annals are those which are
the latest and poorest. Many of the earlier and more valuable editions
have not been republished for many years, so that for our most
contemporaneous sources we must often go to old books, long out of
print and difficult to secure, while both translation and commentary
are hopelessly behind the times. Particularly is this the case with
the inscriptions of Sennacherib and Ashur bani apal. The greatest boon
to the historian of Assyria would be an edition of the Assyrian
historical inscriptions in which would be given, only those editions
or portions of editions which may be considered as contemporaneous and
of first class value. With such a collection before him, notable as
much for what it excluded as for what was included, many of the most
stubborn problems in Assyrian history would cease to be problems.

The historian of Assyria must test his sources before he can use them
in his history. To do this, he must first of all be able to
distinguish the primary sources which will reward future study from
those which are secondary and are based on other and more contemporary
documents which even now are actually in our possession. When these
latter are cast aside as of no practical value, save perhaps as they
show the peculiar mental operations of the Assyrian editor, we are
then ready to test the remainder by the various methods known to the
historian. The second part of this task must be worked out by the