Library of Ashurbanipal: tablet
- Gallery: Room 55
- Culture: Neo-Assyrian
- Object type: tablet
- Materials: clay
- Museum number: K.56
- 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 the "Library of Ashurbanipal," a Neo-Assyrian clay tablet that offers a glimpse into the scholarly traditions of ancient Mesopotamia. The tablet is inscribed with cuneiform writing on both sides and contains a bilingual lexical list, presenting grammatical paradigms and short sentences. Part of a scholarly work known as ana ittishu, the tablet originally had four columns, with each containing dozens of lines filled with clear Assyrian script.
This artifact was excavated at Kouyunjik, the remains of ancient Ninevah, and is connected to the famed Assyrian king Ashurbanipal. Though only part of the tablet remains, it reveals careful craftsmanship and a deep interest in language and learning. The tablet's detailed layout shows how ancient scribes approached education, preserving knowledge in ways that still intrigue scholars today.
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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