The ordinary documents of everyday life sometimes reveal more than official records do. Nesbit demonstrates how this fact applies in the case of ancient Sumer. Here publishing thirty Sumerian tablets in his own possession, Nesbit offers an exhaustive study of this cross-section of daily life in Drehem. While the texts are generally classified as business documents they reveal much about the religious life of the inhabitants of this city. Nesbit presents each of these tablets in transliterated Sumerian, English translation, and as line drawings of the original documents. By way of introduction he provides a physical description of the tablets, a description of the distinct elements of the Sumerian language, and the divine names and animals listed in the texts. Anticipating the needs of Sumerologists, Nesbit included a sign-list of the Sumerian cuneiform and a glossary.

William Marsiglia Nesbit (1881-1950) completed his doctoral work at Columbia University.