of originals written on clay and suggest that this was the case with
their earlier counterparts, too. Understanding of their content is still
limited.1.3.3 Sources from ca. 2600 (Fàra period) onward are scattered in
time and space. Most are written in Sumerian on clay tablets found
at ”uruppag/k (Tall Fàra), ΩGirsu (Tellò) and Uruk (Warka) and after
the Fàra period; there are also sources from Adab (Bismaya), Isin
(I“àn Ba ̇rìyàt), and Nippur.1.3.4 Fragments of stone objects with logographic inscriptions and
dated roughly to the Fàra period were found at Ki“ in northern
Babylonia (ELTS 16a–j, 17). These and some late ED stone tablets
from Sippir, Dilbat and unknown provenance (ELTS nos. 34–38)
are to be read in a pre-Old Akkadian dialect.1.3.5 In the Sargonic period, tablets from northern Babylonia, from
the Diyala region, from Ki“, and from Mugdan (Umm al-]ìr) widen
the geographical horizon.1.3.6 The majority of stone and clay documents record field and
house purchases. Written records of purchases of movable property
(slaves) begin in the early twenty-fourth century. Later in that cen-
tury, contracts of all kinds, debt notes, and records of litigation are
committed to writing.1.4 Non-legal sources
1.4.1 Administrative sources provide information on taxes and other
dues and purchases made by the state or temple administration.
Royal inscriptions and letters provide details of legal procedure.1.4.2 With the invention of writing there began a rich tradition of
texts used to teach the writing system. Early school texts mainly took
the form of word lists arranged in semantically related and often
hierarchically ordered groups.^16 One of the best documented lists(^16) Englund, “Texts.. .,” 82–110.
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