Note 76 — Chapter III

The Pennsylvania documents published by Poebel (see above, p. 114, n. 1) suggest that variant traditions were current with regard to the number of mythical and semi-mythical rulers of Babylonia and the duration of their rule. For instance, in two of the lists drawn up under the Nîsin kings, and separated from one another by an interval of only sixty-seven years, the total duration of the preceding dynasties appears to be given in one as 32,243, and in the other as 28,876 years. But this fact does not, of course, prevent the use of the figures which have come to us from Berossus, in order to ascertain the beginning of the historical period in the system he employed.