September 2, 2025 • 16 mins
Dive into the captivating world of ancient Babylon with this insightful monograph, which explores the legendary flood myth and the renowned Epic of Gilgamesh, particularly the Standard Babylonian version dating back to the 7th century BC. Unearthed from the clay tablets of the Royal Library of Ashurbanipal at the historic Nineveh, the capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, this work not only narrates these timeless stories through a blend of direct translation and engaging paraphrase but also provides a vivid description of the library and the intriguing tale of its discovery. Accompanied by eighteen stunning illustrations, this book offers a rich glimpse into a fascinating chapter of human history. - Summary by Kazbek
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section two of the Babylonian Story of the Deluge and
the Epic of Gilgamesh, with an account of the Royal
Libraries of Nineveh by E. A. Wallace Budge. This LibriVox
recording is in the public domain discovery of the Palace
Library of Ashur Banipal. In the spring of eighteen fifty two,
(00:22):
Layard was obliged to close his excavations for want of funds,
and he returned to England with Rassam, leaving Olden northern
half of the Great Mound of Koyuncic unexcavated. He resigned
his position as director of Excavations to the Trustees of
the British Museum, and Colonel later Sir H. C Rawlinson,
(00:45):
Consul General of Baghdad, undertook to direct any further excavations
that might be possible to carry out. Later on, during
the summer, the trustees received a further grant from the
Parliament for excavations in a sc Syria, and they despatched
Russam to finish the exploration of Koyunjik, Knowing that the
(01:06):
lease of the Mount of Koyunjik for excavation purposes, which
he had obtained from its owner had several years to run.
When Russam arrived at Mosul in eighteen fifty three and
was collecting his men for work, he discovered that Rawlinson,
who knew nothing about the lease of the mound which
(01:26):
Rossam held, had given the French Council Monsieur Plas' permission
to excavate the northern half of the mound, I e.
That part of it which he was most anxious to
excavate for the British Museum. He protested, but in vain,
and finding that Monsieur Plaz intended to hold Rolenson to
(01:47):
his word, devoted himself to clearing out part of the
Southwest Palace, which Layard had attacked in eighteen fifty two. Meanwhile,
Monsieur Plas was busily occupied with the French excavations at Rzabad,
a mound which contained the ruins of the Great Palace
of Sargon the Second, and had no time to open
(02:09):
up excavations at Koyunjik. In this way, a year passed
and as Monsieur Place made no sign that he was
going to excavate at Koyunjik, and Russam's time for returning
to England was drawing near the owner of the mound,
who was anxious to get the excavations finished so that
(02:30):
he might again graze his flocks on the mound, urged
Russam to get to work. In spite of Rowlinson's agreement
with Monsieur Place, he and Russam made arrangements to excavate
the northern part of the mount clandestinely and by night,
and on twentieth December eighteen fifty three, the work began.
(02:52):
On the first night, nothing of importance was found. On
the second night the man uncovered a portion of a
large bas relief, and on the third night a huge
mass of earth collapsed, revealing a very fine bas relief,
sculptured with a scene representing Ashur Banipal standing in his chariots.
(03:15):
The news of the discovery was quickly carried to all
parts of the neighborhood, and as it was impossible to
keep the diggings secret any longer, the work was continued
openly and by day. The last mentioned bas relief was
one of the serious that lined the chamber, which was
fifty feet long and fifteen feet wide and illustrated a
(03:39):
royal lion hunt footnote. These bas reliefs showed that lions
were kept in cages in Nineveh and led out to
be killed by the king with his own hand. There
seems to be an allusion to the caged lions by
Naeem chapter two, verse eleven, who says, where is the
(04:01):
dwelling of the lions and the feeding place of the
young lions? Where the lion, even the old lion, walked,
and the lion's wealth, and none made them afraid? End quote,
and a footnote this serious, that is to say, all
of it that the fire which destroyed the palace had
spared is now in the British Museum see the gallery
(04:25):
of the Assyrian Saloon. Whilst the workmen were clearing out
the chamber of the Lion Hunt, they came across several
heaps of inscribed baked clay tablets of quote, all shapes
and sizes end quote, which resembled in general appearance the
tablets that Layard had found in the Southwest Palace the
(04:46):
year before. There were no remains with them or near
them that suggested they had been arranged systematically and stored
in the chamber of the Lion Hunt, And it seems
as if they had been brought there from another place,
and thrown down hastily, for nearly all of them were
broken into small pieces, as some of them bore traces
(05:10):
of having been exposed to great heat. They must have
been in that chamber during the burning of the palace.
When the tablets were brought to England and were examined
by Rowlinson, it was found from the information supplied by
the colophants that they formed a part of the great
private library of Ashurbanny pal which that king kept in
(05:32):
his palace. The tablets found by Layard in eighteen fifty
two and by Russum in eighteen fifty three formed the
unique and magnificent collection of cuneiform tablets in the British Museum,
which is now commonly known as the Koyunjik collection. The
approximate number of the inscribed baked clay tablets and fragments
(05:55):
that have come from Koyunjik and are now in the
British Museum is U twenty five thousand, seventy three. It
is impossible to overestimate their importance and value from religious,
historical and literary points of view. Besides this, they have
supplied the material for the decipherment of cuneiform inscriptions in
(06:19):
the Assyrian, Babylonian and Sumerian languages, and formed the foundation
of the science of asteriology, which had been built up
with such conspicuous success during the last seventy years. Ashur Banipal,
book collector and patron of learning Ashur Bani Pal, the
(06:41):
Asnapper of Ezra chapter four, verse ten, succeeded his father
azer Haddan b. C. Six hundred sixty eight, and at
a comparatively early period of his reign, he seems to
have devoted himself to the study of the history of
his country and to the making of a g great
private library. The tablets that have come down to us
(07:05):
prove not only that he was as great a benefactor
of the library of the Temple of Nebo as any
of his predecessor, but that he was himself an educated man,
a lover of learning, and a patron of the literary
folk of his day. In the introduction to his annals
has found inscribed on his great ten sided cylinder in
(07:27):
a British museum, he tells us how he took up
his abode in the chambers of the palace from which
Senaheib and Asahaddan had ruled. The Assyrian Empire, and in
describing his own education, he says, quote I Asher Bunnipal
within it, I e. The palace understood the wisdom of Nebo,
(07:52):
all the art of writing, of every craftsman of every kind.
I made myself master of them all i e. The
various kinds of writing. These words suggest that Ashurbanipal could
not only read cuneiform texts, but could write like a
skilled scribe, and that he also understood all the details
(08:15):
connected with the craft of making and baking tablets. Having
determined to form a library in his palace, he set
to work in a systematic manner to collect literary works.
He sent scribes to ancient seats of learning i g Ashur, Babylon, Kutha, Nippur,
(08:36):
akat Erech to make copies of the ancient works that
were preserved there, And when the copies came to Nineveh,
he either made transcripts of them himself or caused his
scribes to do so for the palace library. In any case,
he cullated the text himself and revised them before placing
(08:56):
them in his library. The appearance of the tablets from
his library suggests that he established a factory in which
the clay was cleaned and kneaded and made into homogeneous,
well shaped tablets and a kiln in which they were
baked after they had been inscribed. The uniformity of the
(09:16):
script upon them is very remarkable, and texts with mistakes
in them are rarely found. How the tablets were arranged
in the library is not known, but certainly groups were cataloged,
and some tablets were labeled. Groups of tablets were arranged
in numbered series with quote unquote catch lines, the first
(09:38):
tablet of the series giving the first line of the
second tablet, the second tablet giving the first line of
the third tablet, and so on. Ashurbanipal was greatly interested
in the literature of the Sumerians, i e. The non
Semitic people who occupied Lower Babylonia about BC three thousand,
(09:59):
five hundred. Later, he and his scribes made bilingual lists
of signs and words and objects of all classes and kinds,
all of which are of priceless value to the modern
students of the Sumerian and Assyrian languages. An next is
an extract from a list of science with Sumerian and
(10:20):
Assyrian values. The signs of which the meanings are given
are in the middle column. The Sumerian values are given
in the column to the left, and their meanings in
Assyrian in the column to the right. To many of
his copies of Sumerian hymns, incantations, magical formulas, et cetera,
(10:41):
asher Banipal caused interlinear translations to be added in Assyrian,
and of such bilingual documents. The following extract from a
text relating to the Seven Evil Spirits will serve as
a specimen. The first, third, fifth et cetera alliance are
written in Sumerian, and the second, fourth, six et cetera
(11:04):
lines are in Assyrian. The tablets that belong to asher
Banipal's private library and those of the Temple of Nebo
can be distinguished by the calophans where these exist. Two
forms of colophon for each class of the two great
collections of tablets are known, one short and one long.
(11:27):
The short colophon on the tablets of the King's library
reads quote Palace of asher Banipal, King of Hosts, King
of the Country of Assyria end quote, and that on
the tablets of the Library of Nebo reads quote country
of question mark asher Banipal, King of Hosts, King of
(11:49):
the Country of Assyria end quote. See on the Tablets
of Astrological Omens, page twenty two. The longer colophons are
of considerable interest, and renderings of two typical examples are
here appended. One Kalophan of the Tablets of the Palace
(12:10):
Library K four eight seven zero Palace of Ashurbanipal, King
of Hosts, King of the country of Assyria, who trusteth
in the god Ashur and the goddess Belit, on whom
the god Nibo Nabu and the goddess Tashmitu have bestowed
(12:31):
all hearing ears and his possession of eyes that are
clear sighted, and the finest results of the art of writing,
which among the kings who have gone before, no one
ever acquired that craft. The wisdom of Nebo, as expressed
in writing of every kind on tablets I wrote, collated
(12:53):
and revised, and for examination and reading. In my palace
I placed I, Prince, who knoweth the lights of the
King of the gods Ashur, whosoever shall carry them off,
or his name side by side with mine, shall write,
may usher and bail it wrathfully sweep away, and his
(13:15):
name and his seed destroy in the land. Two colophon
of the Tablets of the Library of Nebo r. M.
One three two to Nibo, beneficent son, director of the
hosts of heaven and of Earth, holder of the tablet
(13:36):
of Knowledge, He who hath grasped the writing reed of destinies,
lengthener of days, vivifire of the dead, establisher of light.
For the man who are perplexed from the Great Lord,
the noble Usher Banipal, the Lord, the approved of the gods,
usher bel and Nebo the Shepherd, the maintainer the holy
(14:00):
places of the great Gods, establisher of their revenues. Son
of Azerhadan King of Hosts, King of Assyria, grandson of Senaghib,
King of Hosts, King of Assyria. But the life of
his souls, length of his days, and well being of
his posterity, to make permanent the foundation of his royal throne,
(14:24):
to hear his supplications, to receive his petitions, to deliver
into his hands the rebellious, the wisdom of Aea, the
precious priesthood, the leadership. What is composed for the contentment
of the heart of the great Gods. I wrote upon
tablets I callated, I revised literally according to all the
(14:48):
tablets of the lands of Asher and Akkad and I
placed in the library of a Zida, the temple of Nebo,
my Lord, which is in Nineveh. O Nebo, Lord of
the hosts of heaven and of Earth, look upon that
library joyfully for years AI forever of Usher Bannipal, the Chief,
(15:12):
the worshiper of Thy divinity. Daily. The reward of the
offering is life decree, so that he may exalt Thy
great Godhead. The tablets from both libraries, when unbroken, vary
in sizes from fifteen inches by eight and five eighth
inches to one inch by seven eighth inch, and they
(15:36):
are usually about one inch thick. In shape. They are rectangular,
the obverse being flat and the reverse slightly convex. Contract tablets,
latter tablets and quote unquote case tablets are very much
smaller and resemble small pillows in shape. The principal subjects
(15:58):
dealt with in the tablets our history, analystic or summaries, letters, dispatches, reports, oracles, prayers, contracts,
deeds of sale of land, produce cattle, slaves, agreements, dowries,
bonds for interest with impressions of seals and fingernails or
(16:19):
nail marks. Chronography, chronology, canons of eponyms, astrology, forecasts, commens divinations, charms, spells, incantations, mythology, legends, grammar, law, geography,
et cetera. End of Section two,
Section two of the Babylonian Story of the Deluge and
the Epic of Gilgamesh, with an account of the Royal
Libraries of Nineveh by E. A. Wallace Budge. This LibriVox
recording is in the public domain discovery of the Palace
Library of Ashur Banipal. In the spring of eighteen fifty two,
(00:22):
Layard was obliged to close his excavations for want of funds,
and he returned to England with Rassam, leaving Olden northern
half of the Great Mound of Koyuncic unexcavated. He resigned
his position as director of Excavations to the Trustees of
the British Museum, and Colonel later Sir H. C Rawlinson,
(00:45):
Consul General of Baghdad, undertook to direct any further excavations
that might be possible to carry out. Later on, during
the summer, the trustees received a further grant from the
Parliament for excavations in a sc Syria, and they despatched
Russam to finish the exploration of Koyunjik, Knowing that the
(01:06):
lease of the Mount of Koyunjik for excavation purposes, which
he had obtained from its owner had several years to run.
When Russam arrived at Mosul in eighteen fifty three and
was collecting his men for work, he discovered that Rawlinson,
who knew nothing about the lease of the mound which
(01:26):
Rossam held, had given the French Council Monsieur Plas' permission
to excavate the northern half of the mound, I e.
That part of it which he was most anxious to
excavate for the British Museum. He protested, but in vain,
and finding that Monsieur Plaz intended to hold Rolenson to
(01:47):
his word, devoted himself to clearing out part of the
Southwest Palace, which Layard had attacked in eighteen fifty two. Meanwhile,
Monsieur Plas was busily occupied with the French excavations at Rzabad,
a mound which contained the ruins of the Great Palace
of Sargon the Second, and had no time to open
(02:09):
up excavations at Koyunjik. In this way, a year passed
and as Monsieur Place made no sign that he was
going to excavate at Koyunjik, and Russam's time for returning
to England was drawing near the owner of the mound,
who was anxious to get the excavations finished so that
(02:30):
he might again graze his flocks on the mound, urged
Russam to get to work. In spite of Rowlinson's agreement
with Monsieur Place, he and Russam made arrangements to excavate
the northern part of the mount clandestinely and by night,
and on twentieth December eighteen fifty three, the work began.
(02:52):
On the first night, nothing of importance was found. On
the second night the man uncovered a portion of a
large bas relief, and on the third night a huge
mass of earth collapsed, revealing a very fine bas relief,
sculptured with a scene representing Ashur Banipal standing in his chariots.
(03:15):
The news of the discovery was quickly carried to all
parts of the neighborhood, and as it was impossible to
keep the diggings secret any longer, the work was continued
openly and by day. The last mentioned bas relief was
one of the serious that lined the chamber, which was
fifty feet long and fifteen feet wide and illustrated a
(03:39):
royal lion hunt footnote. These bas reliefs showed that lions
were kept in cages in Nineveh and led out to
be killed by the king with his own hand. There
seems to be an allusion to the caged lions by
Naeem chapter two, verse eleven, who says, where is the
(04:01):
dwelling of the lions and the feeding place of the
young lions? Where the lion, even the old lion, walked,
and the lion's wealth, and none made them afraid? End quote,
and a footnote this serious, that is to say, all
of it that the fire which destroyed the palace had
spared is now in the British Museum see the gallery
(04:25):
of the Assyrian Saloon. Whilst the workmen were clearing out
the chamber of the Lion Hunt, they came across several
heaps of inscribed baked clay tablets of quote, all shapes
and sizes end quote, which resembled in general appearance the
tablets that Layard had found in the Southwest Palace the
(04:46):
year before. There were no remains with them or near
them that suggested they had been arranged systematically and stored
in the chamber of the Lion Hunt, And it seems
as if they had been brought there from another place,
and thrown down hastily, for nearly all of them were
broken into small pieces, as some of them bore traces
(05:10):
of having been exposed to great heat. They must have
been in that chamber during the burning of the palace.
When the tablets were brought to England and were examined
by Rowlinson, it was found from the information supplied by
the colophants that they formed a part of the great
private library of Ashurbanny pal which that king kept in
(05:32):
his palace. The tablets found by Layard in eighteen fifty
two and by Russum in eighteen fifty three formed the
unique and magnificent collection of cuneiform tablets in the British Museum,
which is now commonly known as the Koyunjik collection. The
approximate number of the inscribed baked clay tablets and fragments
(05:55):
that have come from Koyunjik and are now in the
British Museum is U twenty five thousand, seventy three. It
is impossible to overestimate their importance and value from religious,
historical and literary points of view. Besides this, they have
supplied the material for the decipherment of cuneiform inscriptions in
(06:19):
the Assyrian, Babylonian and Sumerian languages, and formed the foundation
of the science of asteriology, which had been built up
with such conspicuous success during the last seventy years. Ashur Banipal,
book collector and patron of learning Ashur Bani Pal, the
(06:41):
Asnapper of Ezra chapter four, verse ten, succeeded his father
azer Haddan b. C. Six hundred sixty eight, and at
a comparatively early period of his reign, he seems to
have devoted himself to the study of the history of
his country and to the making of a g great
private library. The tablets that have come down to us
(07:05):
prove not only that he was as great a benefactor
of the library of the Temple of Nebo as any
of his predecessor, but that he was himself an educated man,
a lover of learning, and a patron of the literary
folk of his day. In the introduction to his annals
has found inscribed on his great ten sided cylinder in
(07:27):
a British museum, he tells us how he took up
his abode in the chambers of the palace from which
Senaheib and Asahaddan had ruled. The Assyrian Empire, and in
describing his own education, he says, quote I Asher Bunnipal
within it, I e. The palace understood the wisdom of Nebo,
(07:52):
all the art of writing, of every craftsman of every kind.
I made myself master of them all i e. The
various kinds of writing. These words suggest that Ashurbanipal could
not only read cuneiform texts, but could write like a
skilled scribe, and that he also understood all the details
(08:15):
connected with the craft of making and baking tablets. Having
determined to form a library in his palace, he set
to work in a systematic manner to collect literary works.
He sent scribes to ancient seats of learning i g Ashur, Babylon, Kutha, Nippur,
(08:36):
akat Erech to make copies of the ancient works that
were preserved there, And when the copies came to Nineveh,
he either made transcripts of them himself or caused his
scribes to do so for the palace library. In any case,
he cullated the text himself and revised them before placing
(08:56):
them in his library. The appearance of the tablets from
his library suggests that he established a factory in which
the clay was cleaned and kneaded and made into homogeneous,
well shaped tablets and a kiln in which they were
baked after they had been inscribed. The uniformity of the
(09:16):
script upon them is very remarkable, and texts with mistakes
in them are rarely found. How the tablets were arranged
in the library is not known, but certainly groups were cataloged,
and some tablets were labeled. Groups of tablets were arranged
in numbered series with quote unquote catch lines, the first
(09:38):
tablet of the series giving the first line of the
second tablet, the second tablet giving the first line of
the third tablet, and so on. Ashurbanipal was greatly interested
in the literature of the Sumerians, i e. The non
Semitic people who occupied Lower Babylonia about BC three thousand,
(09:59):
five hundred. Later, he and his scribes made bilingual lists
of signs and words and objects of all classes and kinds,
all of which are of priceless value to the modern
students of the Sumerian and Assyrian languages. An next is
an extract from a list of science with Sumerian and
(10:20):
Assyrian values. The signs of which the meanings are given
are in the middle column. The Sumerian values are given
in the column to the left, and their meanings in
Assyrian in the column to the right. To many of
his copies of Sumerian hymns, incantations, magical formulas, et cetera,
(10:41):
asher Banipal caused interlinear translations to be added in Assyrian,
and of such bilingual documents. The following extract from a
text relating to the Seven Evil Spirits will serve as
a specimen. The first, third, fifth et cetera alliance are
written in Sumerian, and the second, fourth, six et cetera
(11:04):
lines are in Assyrian. The tablets that belong to asher
Banipal's private library and those of the Temple of Nebo
can be distinguished by the calophans where these exist. Two
forms of colophon for each class of the two great
collections of tablets are known, one short and one long.
(11:27):
The short colophon on the tablets of the King's library
reads quote Palace of asher Banipal, King of Hosts, King
of the Country of Assyria end quote, and that on
the tablets of the Library of Nebo reads quote country
of question mark asher Banipal, King of Hosts, King of
(11:49):
the Country of Assyria end quote. See on the Tablets
of Astrological Omens, page twenty two. The longer colophons are
of considerable interest, and renderings of two typical examples are
here appended. One Kalophan of the Tablets of the Palace
(12:10):
Library K four eight seven zero Palace of Ashurbanipal, King
of Hosts, King of the country of Assyria, who trusteth
in the god Ashur and the goddess Belit, on whom
the god Nibo Nabu and the goddess Tashmitu have bestowed
(12:31):
all hearing ears and his possession of eyes that are
clear sighted, and the finest results of the art of writing,
which among the kings who have gone before, no one
ever acquired that craft. The wisdom of Nebo, as expressed
in writing of every kind on tablets I wrote, collated
(12:53):
and revised, and for examination and reading. In my palace
I placed I, Prince, who knoweth the lights of the
King of the gods Ashur, whosoever shall carry them off,
or his name side by side with mine, shall write,
may usher and bail it wrathfully sweep away, and his
(13:15):
name and his seed destroy in the land. Two colophon
of the Tablets of the Library of Nebo r. M.
One three two to Nibo, beneficent son, director of the
hosts of heaven and of Earth, holder of the tablet
(13:36):
of Knowledge, He who hath grasped the writing reed of destinies,
lengthener of days, vivifire of the dead, establisher of light.
For the man who are perplexed from the Great Lord,
the noble Usher Banipal, the Lord, the approved of the gods,
usher bel and Nebo the Shepherd, the maintainer the holy
(14:00):
places of the great Gods, establisher of their revenues. Son
of Azerhadan King of Hosts, King of Assyria, grandson of Senaghib,
King of Hosts, King of Assyria. But the life of
his souls, length of his days, and well being of
his posterity, to make permanent the foundation of his royal throne,
(14:24):
to hear his supplications, to receive his petitions, to deliver
into his hands the rebellious, the wisdom of Aea, the
precious priesthood, the leadership. What is composed for the contentment
of the heart of the great Gods. I wrote upon
tablets I callated, I revised literally according to all the
(14:48):
tablets of the lands of Asher and Akkad and I
placed in the library of a Zida, the temple of Nebo,
my Lord, which is in Nineveh. O Nebo, Lord of
the hosts of heaven and of Earth, look upon that
library joyfully for years AI forever of Usher Bannipal, the Chief,
(15:12):
the worshiper of Thy divinity. Daily. The reward of the
offering is life decree, so that he may exalt Thy
great Godhead. The tablets from both libraries, when unbroken, vary
in sizes from fifteen inches by eight and five eighth
inches to one inch by seven eighth inch, and they
(15:36):
are usually about one inch thick. In shape. They are rectangular,
the obverse being flat and the reverse slightly convex. Contract tablets,
latter tablets and quote unquote case tablets are very much
smaller and resemble small pillows in shape. The principal subjects
(15:58):
dealt with in the tablets our history, analystic or summaries, letters, dispatches, reports, oracles, prayers, contracts,
deeds of sale of land, produce cattle, slaves, agreements, dowries,
bonds for interest with impressions of seals and fingernails or
(16:19):
nail marks. Chronography, chronology, canons of eponyms, astrology, forecasts, commens divinations, charms, spells, incantations, mythology, legends, grammar, law, geography,
et cetera. End of Section two,
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