# Was the Ashurbanipal Library at Nineveh the oldest library in history? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 23, 2013, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-ashurbanipal-library-at-nineveh-the-oldest-library-in-history/677017 "2013-12-23T15:20:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-ashurbanipal-library-at-nineveh-the-oldest-library-in-history/677017/1 "2013-12-23T15:20:19Z")
Was the Ashurbanipal Library at Nineveh the oldest library in history as some historians claim or was it the the archive found in Ras Shamra, Syria ( in the ancient city-state of Ugarit)? I look forward to your feedback. davidmich ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-ashurbanipal-library-at-nineveh-the-oldest-library-in-history/677017/2 "2013-12-23T15:30:06Z")
Here the article calls the Ras Shamra, Syrian (ancient city-state of Ugarit) archive the world’s oldest library > **[The Daily Notes from Canonsburg, Pennsylvania - Newspapers.com](http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/53468552/)** > > Get this The Daily Notes page for free from Tuesday, February 25, 1930 PAGE THREE TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1930 THE CANONSBURG, PA, DAILY NOTES Pinchot Maintains L. L'aimt!. Edition of The Daily Notes but In his book “The House of Wisdom” Professor Jim Al-Khalili calls the Ashurbanipal Library At Nineveh the world’s first real library. davidmich ---
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2013, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-ashurbanipal-library-at-nineveh-the-oldest-library-in-history/677017/3 "2013-12-24T01:45:01Z")
What do you consider a library? Writing in Egypt goes back to at least the 3rd or 4th millenium BCE and Ashurbanipal lived only in the first millenium. So I’m guessing that it probably wasn’t the first “library” depending upon your definition. ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2013, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-ashurbanipal-library-at-nineveh-the-oldest-library-in-history/677017/4 "2013-12-24T09:28:01Z")
from wikipedia: > **[Library](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library)** > > A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a virtual space, or both. A library's collection can include printed materials and other physical resources in many formats such as DVD, CD and cassette as well as access to information, music or other content held on bibliographic databases. > A library, which ... Early libraries (2600 BC – 800 BC)[edit] The first libraries consisted of archives of the earliest form of writing—the clay tablets in cuneiform script discovered in temple rooms in Sumer,[3][4] some dating back to 2600 BC.[5] These archives, which mainly consisted of the records of commercial transactions or inventories, mark the end of prehistory and the start of history.[6][7] Things were much the same in the government and temple records on papyrus of Ancient Egypt.[4] The earliest discovered private archives were kept at Ugarit; besides correspondence and inventories, texts of myths may have been standardized practice-texts for teaching new scribes. There is also evidence of libraries at Nippur about 1900 BC and those at Nineveh about 700 BC showing a library classification system.[8] Over 30,000 clay tablets from the Library of Ashurbanipal have been discovered at Nineveh,[9] providing modern scholars with an amazing wealth of Mesopotamian literary, religious and administrative work. Among the findings were the Enuma Elish, also known as the Epic of Creation,[10] which depicts a traditional Babylonian view of creation, the Epic of Gilgamesh,[11] a large selection of “omen texts” including Enuma Anu Enlil which “contained omens dealing with the moon, its visibility, eclipses, and conjunction with planets and fixed stars, the sun, its corona, spots, and eclipses, the weather, namely lightning, thunder, and clouds, and the planets and their visibility, appearance, and stations”,[12] and astronomic/astrological texts, as well as standard lists used by scribes and scholars such as word lists, bilingual vocabularies, lists of signs and synonyms, and lists of medical diagnoses. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2013, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-ashurbanipal-library-at-nineveh-the-oldest-library-in-history/677017/5 "2013-12-24T12:06:30Z")
In [How did public libraries get started? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2236/how-did-public-libraries-get-started) I stated > [@](#): > > A man named Amit Anu had the title “Tabl Keeper” at the royal library at Ur in roughly 2000 BC. He was the earliest known librarian. ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2013, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-ashurbanipal-library-at-nineveh-the-oldest-library-in-history/677017/6 "2013-12-24T15:04:05Z")
Thanks CK Dexter Haven . Very helpful davidmich ---
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2013, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-ashurbanipal-library-at-nineveh-the-oldest-library-in-history/677017/7 "2013-12-24T16:45:42Z")
I would point out that since the Egyptians used papyrus rather than clay tablets, the likelihood of finding any libraries from ancient Egypt is a lot smaller than finding such from the area of Mesopotamia. I’m willing to bet that is why the focus is in on the Sumerians and Akkadians. Clay tablets tend to survive the centuries better than papyri.