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Excerpt from The Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania, Vol. 10: Series A, Cuneiform Texts Greatly facilitated as the researches of the Assyriologist occupied with a study of proper names at present are, compared with what they were but a few years ago, the difficulties confronting him at every step, as indicated in the Introduction to Vol. IX, p. 9, are still extraordinary. In some cases, therefore, no effort was made to analyze the names published in the following pages. In other instances the view set forth must be regarded merely as a first attempt to offer a solution, While in still other cases several theories have been proposed, each of which will have to be examined with regard to its own merits. In scarcely another branch of Semitic philology we have to confess our ignorance as often as in the interpretation of proper names, which to a certain degree may be compared with geological stratifications and petrifactions reecting the Werde process of by-gone ages. We see the results of this process before us, but we are frequently at a loss to understand the causes which led to peculiar developments in certain directions, and to fix the historical order of the different stages through which it passed. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.