Akkadian disputations
The Akkadian disputation poem or Akkadian debate, also known as the Babylonian disputation poem, is a genre of Akkadian literature in the form of a disputation. They feature a dialogue or a debate involving two contenders, usually cast as inarticulate beings such as particular objects, plants, animals, and so forth. Extant compositions from this genre date from the early 2nd millennium BC, the earliest example being the Tamarisk and Palm, to the late 1st millennium BC. These poems occur in verse and follow a type of meter called 2||2 or Vierheber, which is the same meter found in some other Akkadian texts like the Enuma Elish. None of the known Akkadian disputation poems are translations of works of the same, but earlier genre, in the Sumerian language, namely the Sumerian disputations; Akkadian disputations utilize different literary conventions and verse structure, debate different topics, and so on, although Tamarisk and Palm has one Sumerian loanword.