The most famous and ancient library of clay books, which was created by the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal in the 7th century BC. e., has survived to this day. Twenty-five thousand clay books are in the British Museum today.
Wise Ashurbanipal
In the capital of Ancient Assyria, Nineveh, King Ashurbanipal ruled. He was the only Assyrian king who could read and write, and he was extremely proud of it. Ashurbanipal's dream was not new seized lands and riches, but the knowledge of all mankind, collected in his library. The king was interested in any texts, but especially political, medical, administrative, economic, astrological, historical, poetic. Everything that he found and obtained in numerous campaigns, he forced his scribes to rewrite in six copies in Assyrian, Akkadian and Babylonian and other languages. This greatly facilitated the work of modern scientists to decipher the richest heritage of antiquity - the Mesopotamian culture.
Other Assyrian kings - predecessors of Ashurbanipal - also tried to collect libraries. But only he managed to achieve such an unprecedented scale. In addition, he was the only one who could read copies of his unique and richest collection. The scribe team has been working around the clock for 25 years. The tsar sent them to different regions to make copies of all the texts they found. During the campaigns, he captured entire libraries, which were delivered to the palace and also copied.
One tenth
After the death of Ashurbanipal, 90% of the library was scattered across different palaces. The 25,000 books discovered by British archaeologists in the mid-19th century were only one-tenth of the funds collected by Ashurbanipal.
The wise king personally supervised the ordering of the clay books. Each book has his name and the title of the original from which the copy was made. There were wax tablets, papyri, and parchments in the library, but they died in the fires. But the clay books were only hardened by fire and brought to our days the unique knowledge of antiquity.
Firsthand
When, in 1849, during the excavation of a palace on the banks of the Euphrates, the British archaeologist Layard discovered most of the surviving clay books, and three years later his compatriot found the second part in another wing of the palace, all finds were sent to the British Museum. This caused a sensation in the scientific community and allowed scientists to learn about the culture of Assyria not from the works of the historians of Hellas, but "from the first hand."
Today British scientists are still sorting the individual pieces. The exhibits can be seen at the British Museum. And Iraqi scientists are working to create a museum of reproductions of original clay books in Iraq.
