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HlSTORICAL OUTLINE 5
connected with the Nippurian pantheon, go back to a period considerably
anterior to that to which the earliest long inscriptions of Nippur belong.
A few fragments from Nippur date, however, from the earliest period,
so that a decision as to the greater antiquity of either city is impossible.
For practical purposes 1 have divided the literary remains of the Sume­
rians into two great periods, those whieh were written before the dynasty
of UI' founded by Ur-Engur [circa 2474 B.C.], and those which belong
to the period of the dynasties of Ur [2474-2357], Isin [2357-2132], Larsa 1
and Babylon [2232-1929].
§ 5. The literature of the classical period may be divided into three
elasses, historical, commercial and religious. Doeuments of the third
type are extremely rare in this periodo If the Sumerians composed
hynms, liturgies, epics and mythologies before 2500 B.C. none have sur­
vived '. The only document which we might designate as distinetly
religious in motif of eomposition, the aecount of the building and
dedication of the temple of Lagash (Sirpurla) recorded on two great elay
cylinders of Gudea [circa 2500] offers little opportunity for estimating the
kind of religious literature which the ancient Sumerians must have
possessed. Gudea speaks of his sacred literature" and the temple singers
are mentioned from the earliest period onwards '. The type of doeument
classified under the general heading of eommereialliterature, if we may
apply the term literature to contraets, sales, eonveyances, lists of temple
3,nd private property, yearly and monthly aeeounts of templeand palace
estates, constitutes by far the most fully represented source of Sumerian
1. The principal kings of this dynasty are Eriaku and Rim-Sin.
2. The two Sumerian epics concerning Ninib of which late fragmentary copies
have been published by HROZNY, MV AG. 190;" pt. 5, are copies of Sumerian originals,
fragments of which have been excavated at Nippur and published by
RADAU, BE. XXIX, and translated BE. Series D, vol. V, pt. 2. The original text
comes from the period of the Isin dynasty.
3. St. B. 8, 21.
4. See the introduction to my Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms. Also the
following passages; the "chief temple singer", TSA., no.2, rey. Ij no. 5, obv. n,
period 01 Urukagina. The "inferior temple singer", DP. 87, II (Lugalanda);
DP. 9~, IV; 100, IV.
Types of
literature.