Assurbanipal
Topic: Bronze Age Civilisations: Mesopotamia, Egypt, China · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 1 "Writing and City Life"
Meaning
Assurbanipal (668–627 BCE) was the last great king of Assyria. He ruled from Nineveh in the north, but he saw Babylonia in the south as the home of high culture. He collected old writings from there and set up one of the world's earliest libraries. He is a good example of how ancient rulers saved and used their own past.
Example
At Nineveh, Assurbanipal gathered about 1,000 texts written on some 30,000 clay tablets. He had people bring old tablets from the south and copy them. The texts covered history, epics, omens, astrology, hymns and poems. They were catalogued with clay labels on the baskets that held them, such as "n tablets about exorcism, written by X". Thanks to schooling and copying, tablets written in 2000 BCE could still be read in 650 BCE.
Don't confuse with
- Nabonidus: the last ruler of independent Babylon. He is remembered as an early archaeologist because he dug up and repaired old objects. Assurbanipal was a collector who built a library.