Ancient clay tablets offer vivid portrait of Mesopotamian life

It is one of the oldest and greatest stores of knowledge: a huge library of texts collected by Asirian king Ashurbanipal, who ruled the ancient Mesopotamia about 2700 years ago. But after his death, it was broken and burnt on the ground. Fortunately, the texts were written on earthen pills, and therefore were cooked and preserved by heat.

When the ruins of the library were now found in the Victorian Times in Iraq, the surprising prosperity of this lost world was revealed. A new book, Library of ancient knowledge By Selena Visnome at the University of Leicester, UK, a vivid picture of Mesopotamian life was launched simultaneously with a broken remains of 30,000 or so many bullets in the library of Asarbnipal.

It is written in Cuneif, writing in the oldest form in the world, bullets not only brings kings and queens to life, but also brings priests, traders and professional masts. They also include magic mantra and complaint letters. Our life is still influenced by waves from this ancient world through 60 minutes of 60 minutes, mathematical discoveries and inventions of zodiac.

Painted from the top: A relief from the palace of the asrbanipal shows him in a chariot; A piece of Gilgamesh’s epicTelling the story of a great flood; The royal game of the Ur Board Game, which Ashrbanipal enjoyed as a boy, according to his brother’s letters; Earthen prism with accounts of ashurbanipal military operations; And a letter in which his sister provokes his wife to his poor cuneiform.

Library of ancient knowledge It is now out in the UK and will be published in the US on 12 May.