Library of Ashurbanipal: tablet
- Gallery: Room 55
- Culture: Late Babylonian
- Date: 7thC BC
- Object type: tablet
- Materials: clay
- Museum number: K.195
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
Listen to the free audio guide
About this object
Before you is a clay tablet from the Late Babylonian period, shaped like a flat brick. This small artifact carries a significant history, marked in cuneiform script across its surface. The text features a request for an oracle, seeking guidance on a matter of royal succession.
You can see the impressed lines of cuneiform writing—this script was made by pressing wedge-shaped tools into soft clay. The text references Esarhaddon, an Assyrian king who reigned in the mid-7th century BCE, suggesting he was seeking divine approval to appoint his son, Sin-nadin-apli, as his successor.
This tablet was discovered in Kouyunjik, a site linked to the ancient Assyrian capital of Nineveh. It is one of many from the famed Library of Ashurbanipal, showcasing the use of clay tablets as a primary recording medium in the ancient world.
See it in person
Library of Ashurbanipal: tablet is on display in Room 55 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and take a photo of it to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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