and on the bricks and the whole surrounded by reed matting.
They were covered by three unbaked bricks. This accounts for their fine
preservation.

Others were stored in pots made of unbaked clay. The pots, as a rule, have
crumbled away, but they kept out the earth around. Sometimes this broke in
and crushed the tablets. In some cases they were laid on shelves round a
small room; but in others they seem to have been kept in an upper story,
and so were injured, when the floor fell through.

(M17) It seems certain that as a rule all deeds were executed in
duplicate, each party receiving a copy. The scribe often appears to have
kept another. At one time copies were also deposited in the public
archives, most probably the city temple or the governor's palace. There
are indications that copies of deeds executed in the provinces were sent
to the capital. Whether this was in pursuit of a general policy of
centralization or only accidental in the few cases known to us is not
quite clear. In many instances we actually possess duplicates, sometimes
three copies of the same deed.

(M18) These documents are exceedingly varied in contents. The most common
are deeds relating to the sale or lease of houses, fields, buildings,
gardens, and the like; the sale or hire of slaves and laborers; loans of
money, corn, dates, wool, and the like; partnerships formed or dissolved;
adoption, marriage, inheritance, or divorce. But almost any alienation,
exchange, or deposit of property was made the subject of a deed. Further,
all legal decisions were embodied in a document, which was sealed by the
judge and given to both parties to the suit. These were often really deeds
by which the parties bound themselves to accept and abide by the
decisions. Some are bonds or acknowledgments of debt. A great many closely
allied documents are lists of money or goods which had been given to
certain persons. They were evidence of legal possession and doubtless a
check on demand for repayment.

(M19) The bibliography of the subject is best dealt with under each
general division; but reference must be made to works dealing with the
subject as a whole. Professor J. Oppert's _Documents Juridiques_ was the
first successful attempt to deal with contracts in general and laid the
foundation of all subsequent work. Dr. F. E. Peiser and Professor J.
Kohler's _Aus Babylonischen Rechtsleben_ deals with the later Babylonian
documents as far as they throw light upon social l