those where error has seemed at all likely.--For the English speaking
reader, practically all the inscriptions for the earlier half of the
history are found in Budge-Kjing, _Annals of the Kings of
Assyria. 1_. For the remainder, Harper, _Assyrian and Babylonian
Literature_, is adequate, though somewhat out of date. Rogers,
_Cuneiform Parallels to the, Old Testament_, gives an up to date
translation of those passages which throw light on the Biblical
writings. Other works cited are generally of interest only to
specialists and the most common are cited by abbreviations which will
be found at the close of the study.]

The Assyrians derived their historical writing, as they did so many
other cultural elements, from the Babylonians. In that country, there
had existed from the earliest times two types of historical
inscriptions. The more common form developed from the desire of the
kings to commemorate, not their deeds in war, but their building
operations, and more especially the buildings erected in honor of the
gods. Now and then we have an incidental reference to military
activities, but rarely indeed do we find a document devoted primarily
to the narration of warlike deeds. Side by side with these building
inscriptions were to be found dry lists of kings, sometimes with the
length of their reigns, but, save for an occasional legend, there seem
to have been no detailed histories. It was from the former type that
the earliest Assyrian inscriptions were derived. In actual fact, we
have no right to call them historical in any sense of the word, even
though they are our only sources for the few facts we know about this
early period. A typical inscription of this type will have the form
"Irishum the vice gerent of the god Ashur, the son of Ilushuma the
vice gerent of the god Ashur, unto the god Ashur, his Lord, for his
own life and for the life of his son has dedicated". Thus there was as