British Museum- Project Library

The Ashurbanipal Library

Walking through the British Museum at first was extremely overwhelming.  With thousands of ancient artifacts and noise surrounding me, my eyes did not know what to focus on.  As the class was walking through the Mesopotamia exhibits to get to the infamous Harry Potter chess set, a wall of clay tablets stuck out to me.  Next to the clay tablet was a quote that said:

"The first library to contain all knowledge." 

Having a fascination with books and libraries, this instantly got my attention. So I read the didactic to enquire more information:

However, this did not satisfy me.  I wanted to know why it was created and how it was found, so I researched it and found the following:

This library was created around the 7th century BC by King Ashurbanipal of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (Ashurbanipal Library Phase 1).  The Neo-Assyrian empire is an ancient empire, located in modern-day middle east.  The oldest written piece of history is from the 30th century BC, 2,300 years before this library was created (Historic Writing).   One reason it might have taken so long for the first library to be created is because of the lack of books.  With writing being a new form of communication, it took a while for scholars to write everything down.  Also, it took a long time for someone to copy down each book because they had to do it by hand.

The British museum is trying to decode the books by using other pieces of history like the Rosetta Stone that help them understand how ancient language worked.  Austen Henry Layard, an archeologist, found the library in the 19th century at Nineveh, in modern-day Iraq.  Around 30,000 works of cuneiform-tablet literature, of multiple specialties, was unearthed.  The discovery of this library was vital to historians understanding of the ancient middle east (Ashurbanipal Library Phase 1).   

Why did King Ashurbanipal create this library? And why did no King try before him?
Although most kings were able to read, King Ashurbanipal was especially well-versed in literature because he was not originally meant to inherit the throne, his older brother was.  However, due to his brother's death, he ended up inheriting the throne, and therefore was King from 668 BC to 627 BC.  Since he had pursued education for years, he thoroughly appreciated literature, which is believed to be his reasoning to starting The Ashurbanipal Library (Dhwty).

This library was not only important for modern-day historians' knowledge of ancient middle east, but it also inspired other Kings to create one for their people.  It is rumored that this Library inspired Alexander the Great's infamous library, The Library of Alexandria, that was unfortunately burned down by Julius Cesar in his attempts to gain control over Alexandria (Dhwty).

An excerpt from a book in this library:
"'Belch like a drunkard, snort like a baby gazelle, until your mother comes, strokes you and picks you up' -Magic spell to make a baby sleep"


Sources:
“Ashurbanipal Library Phase 1.” British Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/research_projects/all_current_projects/ashurbanipal_library_phase_1.aspx.

Dhwty. “Ashurbanipal: The Oldest Surviving Royal Library in the World with Over 30,000 Clay Tablets.” Ancient Origins, Ancient Origins, 3 Dec. 2016, www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-asia/ashurbanipal-oldest-surviving-royal-library-world-over-30000-clay-tablets-007127.

“Historic Writing.” British Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/explore/themes/writing/historic_writing.aspx.