Library of Assurbanipal
Also called: Nineveh library · Topic: Bronze Age Civilisations: Mesopotamia, Egypt, China · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 1 "Writing and City Life"
Meaning
This was a library at Nineveh, built up by Assurbanipal, the last great king of Assyria (668–627 BCE). He saw Babylonia as the home of high culture, so he had old tablets from the south collected and copied. The library is one of the earliest known collections that was organised and catalogued. It shows how writing and schooling allowed knowledge to build up over many centuries.
Example
The library held about 1,000 texts on some 30,000 clay tablets. The topics included history, epics, omens, astrology, hymns and poems. Copies of the Epic of Gilgamesh were among them. Tablets were kept in baskets with clay labels, such as "n tablets about exorcism, written by X". Sumerian had stopped being spoken c. 1800 BCE but was still taught, so tablets from 2000 BCE could still be read in 650 BCE.
Don't confuse with
- Egyptian libraries: from 2000 BCE, Egyptians kept papyrus scrolls in labelled jars. Assurbanipal's library held clay tablets written in cuneiform.