======= Official Texts ======

^  Period  ^  Chronological Range  ^  Royal Inscription  ^  Votive texts  ^  Annals  ^  Standard inscription  ^  Chronicles  ^  Autobiographies  ^
| Pre-Writing  | ca. 8500-3500 BC |
| Uruk V  | ca. 3500-3350 BC |
| Uruk IV  | ca. 3350-3200 BC |
| Uruk III  | ca. 3200-3000 BC |
| Proto-Elamite  | ca. 3100-2900 BC |
| Early Dynastic I-II  | ca. 2900-2700 BC | very few ([[http://cdli.ucla.edu/P453401|see for example here]]) |
| Early Dynastic IIIa  | ca. 2700-2500 BC | few ([[http://cdli.ucla.edu/P222741|see for example here]]) |
| Early Dynastic IIIb  | ca. 2500-2340 BC | common |
| Ebla  | ca. 2350-2250 BC |
| Old Akkadian  | ca. 2340-2200 BC | common |
| Linear Elamite  | ca. 2200 BC | corpus consists only of royal inscriptions  |
| Lagash II  | ca. 2200-2100 BC | common |
| Harappan  | ca. 2200-1900 BC |
| Ur III  | ca. 2100-2000 BC | common |
| Early Old Babylonian  | ca. 2000-1900 BC |
| Old Assyrian  | ca. 1950-1850 BC |
| Old Babylonian  | ca. 1900-1600 BC |
| Middle Hittite  | ca. 1500-1100 BC |
| Middle Babylonian  | ca. 1400-1100 BC |
| Middle Assyrian  | ca. 1400-1000 BC |
| Middle Elamite  | ca. 1300-1100 BC |
| Neo-Assyrian  | 911-612 BC | yes |  | yes | yes |  | yes |
| Neo-Elamite  | 770-539 BC |
| Neo-Babylonian  | 626-539 BC |
| Achaemenid  | 547-331 BC |
| Hellenistic  | 323-63 BC |
| Parthian  | 247 BC - 224 AD |
| Sassanian  | 224-641 AD |