The principal inscriptions of this period consist of texts on bricks and on signet cylinders, and some of the latter may be of much greater antiquity. Passing down to a time when the country was again divided into the kingdoms of Karrak, Larsa, and Agané, we find a great accession of literary material, almost every class of writing being represented by contemporary specimens. Each of the principal cities had its library, and education seems to have been widely diffused. From Senkereh, the ancient Larsa, and its neighbourhood have come our oldest specimens of these literary tablets, the following being some of the contents of this earliest known library:— 1. Mythological tablets, including lists of the gods, and their manifestations and titles. 2. Grammatical works, lists of words, and explanations. 3. Mathematical works, calculations, tables of cube and square roots, and tables of measures. 4. Works on astronomy, astrology, and omens. 5. Legends and short historical inscriptions. 6. Historical cylinders, one of Kudur-mabuk, B.C. 1800 (?) (the earliest known cylinder), being in the British Museum. 7. Geographical tablets, and lists of towns and countries. 8. Tablets containing laws and law cases, records of sale and barter, wills and loans. Such are the inscriptions a single library of Babylonia has produced, and beside these there are numerous texts, only known to us through later copies, but which certainly had their origin as early as this period. Passing down from this period, for some centuries we find only detached inscriptions, accompanied by evidence of the gradual shifting of both political power and literary activity from Babylonia to Assyria. In Assyria the first centre of literature and seat of a library was the city of Assur (Kileh Shergat), and the earliest known tablets date about B.C. 1500. Beyond the scanty records of a few monarchs nothing of value remains of this library, and the literary works contained in it are only known from later copies. A revival of the Assyrian empire began under Assur-natsir-pal, king of Assyria, who ascended the throne B.C. 885. He rebuilt the city of Calah (Nimroud), and this city became the seat of an Assyrian library. Tablets were procured from Babylonia by Shalmaneser, son of Assur-natsir-pal, B.C. 860, during the reign of Nabu-bal-idina, king of Babylon, and these were copied by the Assyrian scribes, and placed in the royal library. Rimmon-nirari, grandson of Shalmaneser, B.C. 812, added to the Calah library, and had tablets written at Nineveh. Assur-nirari, B.C. 755, continued the literary work, some mythological tablets being dated in his reign.