on ancient writing

Clay tablets impressed with cuneiform writing such as the ones found in Assurbanipal’s library had been used by peoples of the Sumerian, Babylonian and Hittite civilisations as well as earlier Assyrians for about 4000 years prior to Assurbanipal’s time. Assurbanipal took pride in the fact that his collection included some archaic examples. These clay tablets were usually dried in the sun and air; some were fired in kilns or by other firing methods, which made them more durable; others were fired unintentionally when they were burned either accidentally or by conquerers in war (for example, Ebla, which was destroyed in the 3rd millenium BCE). They are available to be studied today because of the durable nature of clay tablets.

In contrast, other methods of writing from ancient times were much less likely to endure for modern scholars to study. Papyrus paper, which was used by the ancient Egyptians and types of parchment, vellum, bark, dry leaves and bamboo strips are examples of other writing materials used in various parts of the world throughout history. It is possible that others also existed and that due to their fragile nature we no longer have any evidence of them or of what was written on them. Also, if they were used in places that were prone to heavy rainfall or other conditions not conducive so to preservation as the middle eastern desert, this will contribute to their destruction over time. An interesting illustration of this point is that only a small proportion of the Classical Greek tragedians’ works survive, partly due to the fragility of their writing materials compared to the earlier clay tablets.

The nature of clay tablets and the environment in which they were created and preserved means that they are more likely to endure into the present and the future than these other materials.

However, even with the advantage of a durable writing material, Assurbanipal’s library was vulnerable to factors such as his own censorship of materials, the collapse of the buildings that housed the collection and the poor excavations carried out in the early 20th century. Expert scholarship is necessary for the piecing together of the collection and for the interpretation of the contents in order to reconstruct elements of the people and the culture that created it.

My research into the Library of Assurbanipal has been fascinating in what it has revealed to me about this subject, but even more so by showing that what has survived into the 21st century is just a tiny proportion of what was created and that our interpretation of even that can only be subjective. Egyptologist Flinders Petrie (1953-42) said that the ‘discoverer is the maker of society’, and when we try to use ancient writings such as those accumulated under Assurbanipal, we should remember this because if we don’t, the historical record can become corrupted by own interpretations.

Jean, G 1997, Writing: The story of alphabets and scripts, Thames & Hudson Ltd., London.

Meskell, L 1999, Archaeologies of social life, Blackwell Publishers Ltd., Oxford, UK.