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Where are many tablets from Ashurbanipal’s library preserved?
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Ashurbanipal
Ashurbanipal depicted in a lion hunt in an Assyrian relief from his northern palace in Nineveh; now in the British Museum.
Many of the tablets and fragments from Ashurbanipal’s library are preserved in the British Museum in London.1
The library, which was established by the king at Nineveh, contained a vast collection of ancient texts covering a wide range of subjects, including literature, religion, and science. Following the city's destruction in 612 BCE, these artifacts remained buried until they were rediscovered by archaeologists, most notably Hormuzd Rassam, who excavated significant portions of the royal library for the British Museum during the 19th century. Approximately 20,720 tablets and fragments from this collection are currently held by the museum.213