[1] Like other Sumerian disputation poems, it features two typically inarticulate things (in this case, two metals) debating over which one is superior.
[3] The prologue is largely lost, although it appears that at some point during it, silver and copper bring Enlil offerings.
Although the adjudication scene is almost entirely lost, enough survives that it is clear that Copper won the debate (making it the only Sumerian disputation poem where the contender who does not give the first speech goes on to win).
[6] The poem also praises Ur-Namma, indicating its composition in the Ur III period.
[5] Two of the other six disputation poems (Bird and Fish, Tree and Reed) also mention and praise a particular king from this era, which supports the contention by some historians that the Sumerian disputation poems were courtly compositions of the Ur III era, although some of them might have been earlier and simply underwent additional recensions in the Ur III era.