Library of Ashurbanipal and Neo-Assyrian Cuneiform Archives (c. 7th century BCE)

1. Nineveh falls to a Babylonian-led alliance

   Aug 1, 612Labels: Nineveh, Babylonian alliance

   • Britannica Nineveh
   • WHE Library

2. Ashurbanipal’s reign ends; tablets remain in palace archives

   Jan 1, 627Labels: Ashurbanipal, Nineveh

   • Britannica
   • WHE Library

3. Ashurbanipal records campaigns in the Rassam Cylinder

   Jan 1, 643Labels: Rassam Cylinder, Ashurbanipal

   • Rassam Cylinder

4. Royal tablet-collecting program takes shape

   Jan 1, 660Labels: Library of, royal scribes

   • Britannica
   • Guinness
   • WHE Library

5. Ashurbanipal begins reign at Nineveh

   Jan 1, 668Labels: Ashurbanipal, Nineveh

   • Britannica
   • WHE Library

6. Behistun Inscription becomes key to cuneiform decipherment

   Jan 1, 1846Labels: Behistun Inscription

   • Rawlinson 1846
   • CDLI

7. Layard’s excavations at Kouyunjik uncover tablets

   Jan 1, 1849Labels: Kouyunjik, Austen Henry

   • WHE Library
   • BM Object

8. Rassam and colleagues recover major library deposits

   Jan 1, 1853Labels: Hormuzd Rassam, Library of

   • Ashurbanipal
   • WHE Library

9. George Smith announces the Gilgamesh flood narrative

   Dec 3, 1872Labels: George Smith, Epic of

   • Nature HSS
   • Met Museum

10. British Museum organizes the Kouyunjik tablet collection

    Jan 1, 1880Labels: British Museum, Kouyunjik collection

    • BM Term
    • BM Term

11. British Museum launches the Ashurbanipal Library Project

    Jan 1, 2002Labels: British Museum, Ashurbanipal Project

    • Library Project
    • BM Term

12. Medical texts are reconstructed from library fragments

    Jan 1, 2018Labels: Neo-Assyrian medicine, British Museum

    • BM Medical

13. Modern scholarship reframes Nineveh’s library as a knowledge system

    May 3, 2025Labels: Library of, knowledge system

    • FT Review
    • Britannica