of a name and title.  The cylinder was rolled, or, in the case of the cone, merely pressed on the clay, in the space reserved for it.  In several localities the contracting parties had recourse to a very ingenious procedure to prevent the agreements being altered or added to by unscrupulous persons.  When the document had been impressed on the tablet, it was enveloped in a second coating of clay, upon which an exact copy of the original was made, the latter thus becoming inaccessible to forgers:  if by chance, in course of time, any disagreement should take place, and an alteration of the visible text should be suspected, the outer envelope was broken in the presence of witnesses, and a comparison was made to see if the exterior corresponded exactly with the interior version.  Families thus had their private archives, to which additions were rapidly made by every generation; every household thus accumulated not only the evidences of its own history, but to some extent that of other families with whom they had formed alliances, or had business or friendly relations.*

* The tablets of Tell-Sifr come from one of these family collections.  They all, in number about one hundred, rested on three enormous bricks, and they had been covered with a mat of which the half-decayed remains were still visible:  three other crude bricks covered the heap.  The documents contained in them relate for the most part to the families of Sininana and Amililani, and form part of their archives.

[Illustration:  279.jpg THE TABLET OF TELL-SIFR, BROKEN TO SHOW THE TWO TEXTS.]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Loftus.

[Illustration:  280.jpg TABLET BEARING THE IMPRESS OF A SEAL]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Layard.

The constitution of the family was of a complex character.  It would appear that the people of each city were divided into clans, all of whose members claimed to be descended from a common ancestor, who had flourished at a more or less remote period.  The members of each clan were by no means all in the same social position, some having gone down in the world, others having raised themselves; and amongst them we find many different callings—­from agricultural labourers to scribes, and from merchants to artisans.  No mutual tie existed among the majority of these members except the remembrance of their common origin, perhaps also a common religion, and eventual rights of succession or claims upon what belonged to each one individually.  The branches which had become gradually separated from the parent stock, and which, taken all together, formed the clan, possessed each, on the contrary, a very strict organization.  It is possible that, at the outset, the woman occupied the more important position, but at an early date the man became the head of the family,* and around him were ranged the wives, children, servants, and slaves, all of whom had their various duties and privileges.