A Sumerian Chrestomathy by Konrad Volk has been written for beginners studying Sumerian within
the academic curriculum. The volume contains 44 texts of varying contents: royal inscriptions
legal and economic documents dating from the Early Dynastic (ca. 2500 B.C.) to the Old
Babylonian Period (ca. 1750 B.C.) when Sumerian was no longer a spoken language. Some of the
autographed texts are accompanied by a version in Neo-Assyrian script so that the student can
learn the Neo-Assyrian sign forms which are of fundamental importance for the use of the sign
list in this book and in general for most Assyriological sign lists. Each inscription can be
studied with the help of the sign list which is intentionally limited to the signs that occur
in this book. Reference is given to the most recent works in the field by R. Borger and C.
Mittermayer. Also included are individual and detailed glossaries: General Vocabulary Divine
Names Personal Names Place Names Sacred Buildings Year Dates Year Names Festivals. These
glossaries not only quote the lexical items found in the inscriptions but also give the
Akkadian equivalents for Sumerian words and refer - wherever necessary - to the most recent
Sumerological literature.
