Ancient Neo-Assyrian Empire's Library of Ashurbanipal
The Ancient Library of Ashurbanipal: A Treasure Trove of Mesopotamian Knowledge
The Library of Ashurbanipal, established in Nineveh around 668 BCE during the reign of Neo-Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, was the oldest known systematically organized library in the world. This scholarly institution, a monumental testament to the king's thirst for knowledge, served as a repository for the preservation of Mesopotamian history, culture, and intellectual traditions.
Ashurbanipal, the middle son of Neo-Assyrian king Esarhaddon, was sent to the edubba ("House of Tablets"), the scribal school, where he received the standard education necessary to become a scribe. His keen interest in divination led him to amass texts on the subject, especially those that could guide him in making future decisions.
The library's collection spanned a wide range of topics, including administrative matters, astronomy, astrology, botany, personal and royal correspondence, foreign correspondence, royal decrees, divination texts, religious texts and hymns, historical inscriptions, literature, and medical texts. Many of these texts were taken from Babylon after it fell to Ashurbanipal in 649/648 BCE.
The Library of Ashurbanipal was not the first library in the world; libraries existed in Sumer by the Early Dynastic Period (2900-2334 BCE). However, Ashurbanipal's library was unique in its scope and systematic organization.
The library's texts were copied onto clay tablets but also onto writing boards - panels of ivory or wood covered in wax. Scribes copied and housed the acquired texts in the library, following a standard format with uniform cuneiform script and tablet layout. Colophons on the tablets indicated that they were kept to provide authorized versions for diviners and exorcists.
Parties, including scribes, were sent throughout the empire to secure texts for Ashurbanipal's library. Each tablet, once copied and checked for accuracy by a superior, was placed on a shelf or in a nook along the walls of the library. Over 30,000 texts were discovered at Nineveh in the mid-19th century, but the original collection is thought to have been much larger. Apprentice scribes would sign their work after it had been checked for accuracy.
The enemies of the Assyrians sought to wipe all memory of them from history, but the fires that baked the tablets of the Library of Ashurbanipal preserved them instead. The library only stood for approximately 30 years before it was burned in the sack of Nineveh in 612 BCE by a coalition of Babylonians, Medes, and Persians.
Despite its brief existence, the Library of Ashurbanipal's impact on preserving Mesopotamian culture lies in the fact that these tablets survived the destruction of Nineveh. This survival allowed for their recovery and study millennia later, providing invaluable insights into the civilization’s history, governance, religion, and science. The library's rediscovery in the 19th century by archaeologists such as Sir Austen Henry Layard and Hormuzd Rassam made it one of the foundational sources for modern understanding of ancient Near Eastern civilization, language, and intellectual traditions. The tablets and reliefs from Ashurbanipal’s palace are now pivotal primary sources housed in museums such as the British Museum.
In summary, the Library of Ashurbanipal played a crucial role in the preservation and transmission of Mesopotamian culture by collecting a vast corpus of knowledge in durable clay tablets whose survival through the empire’s collapse enabled their recovery and study millennia later.
TheLibrary of Ashurbanipal, being a repository for various intellectual traditions, housed texts on subjects such as science, technology, education-and-self-development, and lifestyle, showcasing the king's inclination towards diverse areas of knowledge.
The Library of Ashurbanipal, a treasure trove of Mesopotamian knowledge, not only preserved historical and cultural artifacts but also provided invaluable insights into the science, technology, education-and-self-development, and lifestyle of the civilization, fostering a deeper understanding of ancient Near Eastern civilization even today.
