soon be much amplified. In part, our expectations have been
gratified. We now know the names of many new rulers and the number of
new inscriptions has been enormously increased. But not a single
annals inscription from this earlier period has been discovered, and
it is now becoming clear that such documents are not to be
expected. Only the so-called "Display" inscriptions, and those with
the scantiest content, have been found, and it is not probable that
any will be hereafter discovered.

It was not until the end of the fourteenth century B. C. with the
reign of Arik den ilu, that we have the appearance of actual
annalistic inscriptions. That we are at the very beginning of
annalistic writing is clear, even from the fragmentary remains. The
work is in annals form, in so far as the events of the various years
are separated by lines, but it is hardly more than a list of places
captured and of booty taken, strung together by a few
formulae. [Footnote: Scheil, OLZ. VII. 216. Now in the Morgan
collection, Johns, _Cuneiform Inscriptions_, 33.]

With this one exception, we do not have a strictly historical document
nor do we have any source problem worthy of our study until the time
of Tiglath Pileser I, about 1100 B.C. To be sure, we have a good
plenty of inscriptions before this time, [Footnote: L. Messerschmidt,
_Keilschrifttexte aus Assur_. I. Berlin 1911; _Mittheilungen
der Deutschen Orient Gesellschaft_; cf, D. D. Luckenbill,
AJSL. XXVIII. 153 ff.] and the problems they present are serious
enough, but they are not of the sort that can be solved by source
study. Accordingly, we shall begin our detailed study with the
inscriptions from this reign. Then, after a gap in our knowledge,
caused by the temporary decline of Assyrian power, we shall take up