Sumerian and Semitic Religious and Historical Texts

PREFACE.

The series of Oxford Editions of Cuneiform Inscriptions, which begins with this volume, has been planned primarily for the purpose of publishing the tablets and inscribed monuments presented to the University of Oxford by Mr. H. Weld-Blundell of Queen's College. The material contained in the earlier volumes was obtained by Mr. Weld-Blundell by purchase during his first visit to Mesopotamia in the spring of 1921, and later through the valuable assistance of Captain Cook of the Ministry of Awqaf in Baghdad. The munificent patron of the university then decided to send out an expedition to excavate in Mesopotamia, and after a prolonged conference with the writer, he decided to excavate Kish, the ancient capital of Babylonia, for the University of Oxford. In view of the heavy expense involved in such a project—for the ruins of Kish consist of two great mounds, Tel-el-Aḥaimer and Umm Gharra, which revert to the oldest period of human history—we gladly accepted the generous offer of the Director of the Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago), under the sanction of his Board of Trustees, to form a joint expedition. The philological material that shall accrue to Oxford and the Field Museum will be published in this series. The Field Museum has undertaken to publish all the archaeological results. We are under no misapprehension concerning the difficult task of excavating one of the largest mounds or double mounds in Mesopotamia. It is already obvious from the experience obtained in the first year's work that the buried remains of these vast ruins cannot be obtained without long and patient exploration.

In the first season's work, the temple tower Unirkidurmah was laid bare on the southeastern and northeastern sides; the platform of the temple Emete-ursag, dedicated to the god Ilbaba and the goddess Innini, was located and defined. The remains of restorations both of the temple and tower by Samsuiluna, Ramman-apal-idinnam, and Nebuchadnezzar were found in rapid succession, and at the close of the excavations in May 1923, the excavator, Mr. Mackay, came upon older walls of the pre-Sargonic period in the temenos area. The ziggurat stepped pyramid temple which stood on the western side of the temple area was found to have been