Ashurbanipal Library Phase 1
Project leader: Irving Finkel
Department: Middle East
Project start date: 2002
End date: 2010
Other British Museum staff: Jonathan Taylor
Project funded by: The Townley Group
External partners: Professor Emeritus Riekele
Borger, Assyriologie, University of Göttingen
Description:
The Ashurbanipal Library Project is the fruit of a long-term
cooperation with Iraqi colleagues in Mosul University in Iraq. Well
over 20,000 cuneiform tablets were excavated at the Assyrian
capital Nineveh (modern Kuyunjik) by the British Museum during the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The tablets came from the royal
state library of King Ashurbanipal (668-631 BC), both a military
and literary visionary.
We know from
internal evidence that the king’s agents travelled the country in
pursuit of new manuscripts, some of which were in Assyrian
cuneiform and some in Babylonian cuneiform A major catalogue was
published by the Trustees of the British Museum over the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries, but thanks to the labours of many scholars
much more is now known about ancient Mesopotamian languages and
what is written in them. In addition, the library was in fragments
when discovered, and Assyriologists have spent the last century and
a half looking for pieces that can be rejoined in the hope of
retrieving complete compositions. The Museum’s Collections Database
now tells us that, of the 30,943 "tablets" in this collection,
5,505 have been joined, reducing the number of separate manuscripts
to 25,358.
The Ashurbanipal library is the single most important discovery
from ancient Iraq and it is to the work of these royal scribes that
we must be thankful for our extensive knowledge of Assyrian
literary, administrative and scientific thinking. Our new research
activities on this collection are designed to tie in with the
University of Mosul’s Institute of Cuneiform Studies which is
currently under construction.
Objectives:
The first stage of this project has investigated all the Nineveh
tablets in Babylonian script. It has been carried out over three
sessions by Dr Jeanette Fincke (Universities of Heidelberg and
Leiden). This programme produced a new database for classifying the
document type for each Babylonian fragment (religious, magical,
ritual, medical, lexical or letter) and its formal appearance
(shape, colour, number of columns, rulings and dividing lines).
This work led to many new ‘joins.’ Dr Fincke then shifted her
attention to astrological fortune-telling texts from Nineveh in
Assyrian script.
We are now taking the
Project forward with the invaluable help of Professor Riekele
Borger, For forty years this scholar has been coming to the Museum,
identifying and joining fragments from the Library. The fruits of
his work will be incorporated in the Trustees’ new and up-to-date
catalogue of the entire Nineveh library tablets. This great work
will include not just pieces in Babylonian script, but also the far
greater number in Assyrian. The new catalogue will constitute the
foundation for many investigations and publications, both academic
and popular.
Since the Ashurbanipal library is the oldest library in the
world and one of the treasures of the Museum, the importance of
this achievement would be hard to over-estimate.
Further information:
For more information on the Nineveh Tablet Collection please go
to fincke.uni-hd.de.
Publications:
J. Fincke, The British Museum's Ashurbanipal Library Project,
Iraq 66, (2004) pp. 55-60
J. Fincke, The Babylonian Texts of Nineveh. Report on the
British Museum's Ashurbanipal Library Project, AfO 50
(2003/2004) pp. 111-149
J. Fincke, Babylonische Gelehrte am neuassyrischen Hof: zwischen
Anpassung und Individualität, in Akten der 52ten Rencontre
Assyriologique Internationale, (Münster, forthcoming)
Images (from top):
- Source material: Nineveh tablets and fragments in their boxes
within the collection in the Arched Room
- A typical Royal Library tablet from Nineveh: Assyrian magic
against evil demons and spirits (K 1283)
- Professor Riekele Borger at work on the Library in the Arched
Room