The Library of Ashurbanipal (2025)

This has nothing to do with the library of Ashurbanipal itself, but is still worth mentioning. Ashurbanipal's library gets referenced in the VERY clever parody song "I Am the Very Model of a Biblical Philologist", which you can watch on the author's channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x2SvqhfevE (video is under 4 minutes long).

Depending on your knowledge of ancient history and archaeology, you may find the song either mildly funny, or side-splittingly hilarious. (And no particular religious position is advanced in the song, it's pure silliness. Putting that out there in case anyone was worried by the title). Personally, I landed on the "hilarious" side of things, which is why I wanted to share this video with you all.

I hope this brightens up your day a little.

I find it fascinating how self-aware the Mespotamians were of their own literary culture and history. Later rulers would do early forms of archaeology and dig up the ruins of earlier kings. The Library of Ashurbanipal has sign lists (proto-dictionaries) which go way, way back, to the early Sumerian period, and it seems the Assyrian elite could still read inscriptions that were over two thousand years old, when Nineveh fell in 612 BC.

> There are simply too few historians trained to read them to be able to cope with the supply.

Surely this is something AI tools will (eventually?) be able to help with?