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Records of the Past, 2nd Series, Vol. IV

By A. H. Sayce

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Introduction-Babylonian Contract-Tablets with Historical References

As it is naturally rare to find contract-tablets with historical references, and as, when such are found, they possess contemporaneous authority on account of their referring to events acknowledged to have taken place, or conditions known to exist, either at or shortly before the date of the document recording them, it is manifest that such documents must be of special interest and unimpeachable trustworthiness. For this reason it has been thought well to collect here a few of the more noteworthy of these important texts—texts which have an additional value in that they do not refer to events touched upon in any known history, though it is possible that references to some of them may be found hereafter.