Dr Jon Taylor on Reading the Library of Ashurbanipal

The enormous collection of cuneiform tablets that once belonged to Ashurbanipal, 7th century BC king of Assyria, has dominated Assyriology for the last 170 years. This incredible find comprises scholarly literature written in the clearest possible handwriting, on immaculately crafted clay tablets, often in multiple copies. As scholars have reconstructed the broken fragments of those tablets, we have been able to read and study a rich array of texts ranging from medical handbooks to the Gilgamesh Epic. But the sheer scale and complexity of the collection has hindered our understanding of the “Library” itself. New research by the British Museum and the LudwigMaximilian University Munich, has revealed many of Ashurbanipal’s secrets. What was really in the scholarking’s Library? How was it assembled? And how does the modern museum collection relate to the ancient collection?

Jon Taylor is a curator in the Department of the Middle East at the British Museum. Since 2008 he has directed a longterm initiative to document and study the Library of Ashurbanipal. And since 2020 he has codirected a major collaborative research project exploring the Library’s origins and composition.