Besides affording information with regard to the racial characteristics of the inhabitants of Southern Babylonia, the official lists and commercial documents of this period indirectly throw light upon historical events. In the first great collection of tablets found by M. de Sarzec at Tello, the majority of those belonging to Dungi's period were dated in the later years of his reign; but among the tablets recovered during the more recent diggings on the site are many dated in his earlier years. The date-formulæ inscribed upon these documents, in conjunction with fragmentary date-lists, have rendered it possible to arrange the titles of the years in order for the greater part of his reign; and, since the years were named after important occurrences, such as the building or inauguration of temples in different cities and the successful prosecution of foreign campaigns, they form a valuable source of information concerning the history of the period.[11] From these we can gather some idea of the steps by which Dungi increased his empire, and of the periods in his reign during which he achieved his principal conquests. During his earlier years it would seem that he was occupied in securing complete control within the districts of Northern Babylonia, which he had nominally inherited from his father. The sack of Babylon may well have been commemorated in the title for the year in which it took place, and, if so, it must be placed within the first decade of his reign, where a gap occurs in our sequence of the date-formulæ. Such of the earlier titles as have been recovered refer for the most part to the building of palaces and temples, the installation of deities within their shrines, and the like. It is not until the thirty-fourth year of his reign that a foreign conquest is explicitly recorded.