In 1965 Richard D. Barnett, then keeper of Western Asiatic Antiquities at the British Museum, asked me to undertake the compilation of a catalogue of the Sippar collection of cuneiform tablets in the British Museum. This collection, containing more than 30,000 tablets, was obtained by Rassam and others towards the end of the last century and at the beginning of this one. Most of the Sippar collection consists of economic texts from the Neo-Babylonian period. However some texts from other periods and other genres and even texts from other sites are included. Since 1965 I have spent almost every summer working on the Sippar catalogue. The project is now drawing to a close and the resulting catalogue will appear soon in three volumes. It seems only fitting that I use this opportunity to honour Richard D. Barnett by publishing a most interesting text from the Sippar collection.

The text published below is a deposition by a man named Bel-epuš in which he divides all of his worldly goods between his wife and his servants. The reasons he may have had for writing this deposition are suggested below.