Of all the known languages of the world, Sumerian may undoubtedly be regarded as the oldest. We possess now inscriptions (e.g. of the ancient Chaldean King Ur-ģanna of Sigrulla) which are of an even earlier date than the timeof the half-mythical Egyptian King Menes. Our sources for the knowledge of this language—the language of the founders of the Babylonian civilization—are twofold, namely: a long series of bilingual incantations, hymns, psalms, etc., preserved in late copies, giving the original text, line for line, with its Semitic (Babylonian or Assyrian) translation; and a great many inscriptions, in Sumerian only, of the early kings, most of them very short, but some of considerable length.