Post One

The library of Ashurbanipal

This library is situated in Nineveh, which is near what we know as Mosul in Iraq.

The library was recovered by Austen Henry Layard an archaeologist. Austen recovered the library in the mid 19^th century. The library included 25,000 clay tablet fragments adding up to about 1,200 texts written in cuneiform. Cuneiform is one of the earliest forms of writing. The symbols are formed from wedge shaped objects pressed into clay tablets.

The libraries tablets cover many different areas such as religion, science, mathematics, poetry, medicine and more. The tablets were written when the Assyrian King, Ashurbanipal reigned, this was between 668-627 BC.

A photograph of the tablets with the cuneiform writing styles:

 These writings were considered to be the writings of god. They were believed this because the tablets held multiple layers of meanings embedded within the multiple possible interpretations of every sign and word.

Some of the stories that have been uncovered are:

“...the Enuma Elish , also known as the Epic of Creation,[20] which depicts a traditional Babylonian view of creation where the god Marduk slays Tiamat, the personification of salt water, and creates the world from her body. In this particular version, man is created from the blood of a revolting god, Quingu, in order to toil on behalf of the gods. Also found in Nineveh, The Epic of Gilgamesh[21] is a compelling account of the hero and his friend Enkidu seeking out to destroy the demon Humbaba. The Gods punish the pair for their arrogance, however, by having Enkidu die from illness. After Enkidu’s death Gilgamesh seeks Ut-napishtim, the survivor of the Deluge, in order to find out the secret of immortality.”- [Ashurbanipal 2012]

Now that we know about the library and its resources let’s look at the King who shares its name.

King Ashurbanipal- He was born toward the end of a fifteen-hundred-year period of Assyrian ascendancy. He was brought up in the small palace called bit redui, meaning house of succession. He did not expect to become heir to the throne, due to his father and grandfather being assassinated so he became trained in scholarly pursuits as well as the usual horsemanship, hunting, charioty, soldierliness, craftsmanship, and royal decorum. Ashurbanipal considered his youthful scholarly pursuits as having included oil divination, mathematics, and reading and writing. He was the only Assyrian king who learned how to read and write.

Ashurbanipal was proud of his scribal education. He was one of the few kings who could read the cuneiform script in Akkadian and Sumerian, not only could he read these but he claimed that he could understand texts from before the great flood. Along with reading he could solve mathematical problems. Because of his interests and abilities he collected cuneiform texts from all over Mesopotamia.

He achieved many remarkable military accomplishments, due to this he became feared and hated by other kings because of his cruelty to defeated kings. One story is recorded of him keeping a defeated king on a chain and had him live like a dog.

I found this information through using Google which led me to various websites referenced below, I think these websites were very helpful and interesting because I discovered things I had no idea about.

A great resource for this library would be the British museum in London.

The history of king Ashurbanipal and the library of Nineveh 2012, Yahoo! Voices, viewed 22 April 2012, <http://voices.yahoo.com/the-history-king-ashurbanipal-library-of-10988876.html>

Cuneiform 2012, About.com, viewed 22 April 2012, <http://archaeology.about.com/od/cterms/g/cuneiform.htm>

Ashurbanipal 2012, NetHelper, viewed 22 April 2012, <http://nethelper.com/article/Ashurbanipal>

Google is used for all images