The inventories for archaeological finds in museums are usually arranged in chronological order, based on the dates on which the museum receives the finds. However, this has not been the case for the inventories of the West Asian collections of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. This can partly be explained by the history of the founding of the Ancient Near East Department. Though founded in 1899 as an independent division of the Royal Museums, artefacts from the Near East were already represented in private German collections in 18th century (acquired by the likes of Philipp von Stosch). From there, they made their way to the Königliche Kunstkammer, which in 1830 became the Royal Museums (Königliche Museen zu Berlin). The first large Assyrian monuments arrived in Berlin in 1855, and Adolf Erman, director of the Egyptian Department until 1885 (when he was replaced by Friedrich Delitzsch), made a number of important acquisitions in an effort to consolidate and expand the Assyrian-Babylonian collection.

Although efforts were apparently made to make inventories of acquisitions relatively quickly, staff struggled to keep it with the workload, since only the director or staff directly under him were legally authorised to catalogue the finds. When large numbers of artefacts made their way to Berlin as part of the partage agreements made with representatives of the Ottoman Empire (for the last time in 1914 for Assur as part of a special agreement), the French-Syrian Mandate Administration (founded in 1920), the Iraqi Antiquities Administration (founded in 1922) and the Syrian Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums (from 1946), inventories were often only made once work was carried out on the onjects. This led to situations where, for example, a number of terracottas from Babylon arrived in Berlin in 1927, but were not properly catalogued until 2005. This process is still ongoing.

At one point, archaeologists made the decision to label finds from excavations by extending the original inventory number – with “Ass” short for Assur, “Bab” for Babylon, “Hab” for Habuba Kabira etc. – meaning that new inventory logs had to be created. There are thus finds from Assur that have either a VA (Vorderasiatische Abteilung, the former name of the Vorderasiatisches Museum, renamed in 1953) number or a VA Ass number. This principle was ultimately abandoned in 2014, in an attempt to establish greater clarity. Since then, archaeological finds have again been given a uniform VA call number.

The excavation finds from Samʼal (Zincirli), which the German Orient Committee helped to acquire, have been given “S” numbers. The Sam’al inventories have not been given a distinguishing number as part of the digitisation process; rather, the same acquisition period is used for all four volumes, 1888 (when the first purchase was made) to 1902 (when the last acquisition was made).

When it comes to cataloguing clay tablets, the abbreviation VAT followed by consecutive numbers was established.

Not all additional abbreviations (Ass, Bab, Hab, etc.) have since been abandoned. Researchers will continue to use the labels “VAK” for works of art, “VAG” for modern plaster casts or “VAA” for squeezes (paper impressions).

There is uncertainty about the year of acquisition for entries in the VAK inventory, since the date of production does not necessarily reflect the year of acquisition. For example, drawings by Robert Koldewey (1855–1925) may have come into the VAM as part of a bequest, meaning they might have joined the collection after the artists death, or during his lifetime. The same goes for Walter Andrae’s watercolours, which he painted in 1902. Since these acquisitions cannot be traced through the acquisition journal, 1931 has been chosen as the first date, as this was a verifiable acquisition date.

It was only in recent years that new inventories were also given dates and abbreviations, making it possible for entries to be traced in the future.