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BIBLICAL LIBRARIES

ments deposited there as in a record office, as was the case at both Lagash and Sippara.

The school collection (begging the question whether it contained also the liturgical collection of the temple) contained writing exercises, syllabaries, multiplication tables, etc. There were also a number of literary works and a few of these at least were of extraordinary literary interest as has been shown in recent publications. The temple collections were in short "a complete parallel to the discoveries at Abu Habba" (Jastrow). Altogether we have here at Nippur, Temple archives, Palace archives, private business archives, private family archives, a school library and a collection of religious literature.

Perhaps the best single detail which Nippur contributes to our knowledge of the early libraries is the store room of the period of Sargon I with ledges on which

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