If ancient history is your interest at all, you know of the Great Library at Alexandria. It’s not one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, but was a major intellectual achievement all the same. But it was not the only major library from ancient times. The Library of Ashurbanipal also ranks among the great repositories of ancient knowledge.
The library was located at Nineveh, capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 705 to 612 BCE. It’s named for the ruler who is associated with its construction, the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal. He ruled the empire from 669 to 631 BCE.
The Assyrians were the military giant of their time. (Their empire dates from 911 to either 609 or 605 BCE.) Their armies were large and well-equipped. The Assyrians conquered a vast swath of territory. See the map below for the extent of their empire.
Library of Ashurbanipal Facts
Given the marital traditions, it’s a little surprising that Assyria also can lay claim to an achievement like the royal Library of Ashurbanipal. But the ruler Ashurbanipal appears to have been a very versatile man. Or, at least, that’s what he wanted posterity to believe.
He came to the throne at age sixteen after training in diplomacy and royal administration. Ashurbanipal also claimed mastery of history, literature, and philosophy. He certainly had military conquests, too—Assyrian territory expanded under his rule. But that wasn’t the only thing in which Ashurbanipal took pride. In one inscription he boasts, “I, Ashurbanipal, learned the wisdom of Nabu, laid hold of scribal practices of all the experts, as many as there are.” He also claimed the ability to read ancient languages, solve mathematical problems, and discuss matters with court seers and sages. Ashurbanipal event went so far as to oversee the copying of some important texts himself.
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Thus he began to expand the holdings of the library at Nineveh. Some texts (the surviving ones are clay tablets, although possibly wax tablets and other perishable texts like papyrus scrolls and leather scrolls were once part of the library as well) Ashurbanipal acquired by persuasion, others through conquest. Either way, the royal Library of Ashurbanipal became enormous.
The topics of these texts were varied, as we might expect. A few were mathematical, concerning astronomy especially, and a handful were literary. The collection did include the Epic of Gilgamesh, however, plus a few other classics of the region. Some of the texts were medical or dealt with magic, divination, and ritual, all important for a monarch seeking to maintain power. Many were administrative or legal, featuring royal decrees and laws. The total number of tablets collected exceeded 30,000, although many of those appear to be fragments of larger pieces.
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Who Destroyed the Library of Ashurbanipal?
Well, obviously, not all of it was destroyed. After all, the 30,000 or so tablets recovered so far were not destroyed. The royal building itself was (there may have been two separate locations originally), however, shortly after the death of Ashurbanipal. After 627 BCE, civil wars afflicted the kingdom.
Then, in 616, several neighboring kingdoms and vassals combined against Assyria. While expert conquerors, it appears the Assyrians treated the conquered people rather harshly. Rebellion was, then, naturally a constant threat. The Babylonians, Chaldeans, Medes, Persians, Scythians, and Cimmerians combined forces. The fact that it took so many opponents might be a good indication of Assyrian military strength.
These opponents sacked Nineveh in 612 BCE, damaging the structures housing the Library of Ashurbanipal. The city became a ruin. It was not until 1849 that the Library of Ashurbanipal was rediscovered by the British archaeologist Austen Henry Layard. His excavations and discoveries helped set off a minor wave of interest in Assyria at the time.
Because of the durability of clay tablets, however, much ancient knowledge survived the sack of the city. These are the documents we still have today.
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