The Yale Babylonian Collection has always been a special place for me. After receiving my degree from the Oriental Studies Department ofthe University of Pennsylvania in 1972, Bill Hallo invited me to Yale on a post-doctoral fellowship. During that year Bill opened up the wondrous Yale Babylonian Collection to me and encouraged me to go “hunting” in it, permitting me to publish anything that had not already been assigned. I was a kid in a candy shop. In 1974, Bill invited me back for two more years, now as Associate Curator ofthe Yale Babylonian Collection. Bill always referred to those early 1970s as the “golden years” at Yale, when the graduate students included Tim Doty, Ben Foster, Rene Gallery, Peter Machinist, Marcel Sigrist, Dan Snell, and Norm YofFee. And Peter Michalowski was continually in and out working on his dissertation. It was stimulating and fun for me to be with such a won- derful group ofpeople.
