The famous library of clay books

The library of clay books of Nineveh
Everyone knows that the book is one of the main sources of information. It teaches us to fantasize, think, feel. This is an invaluable treasure, the property of all mankind, concentrated in millions of libraries around the world. One of them was founded during the reign of King Ashurbanipale in 669-633 BC in Nineveh. It was special, as it was owned by 30,000 "clay books". They arose because of the fire that broke out as a result of the Median and Babylonian wars.

The first books and Nineveh

Nineveh was located on the territory of modern Iran. The city had a clear lay-out, which no one dared to break. And in 612 BC. The city was destroyed and burned by the troops of the Babylonians and Medes.

The first books were brought here from countries with which Assyria led the battle and defeated them. Since then, book lovers have appeared in the country. As for the Tsar Ashshubanipale himself, he was an extremely educated person, he learned to read and write while still a child, and during the reign he had a huge library, under which he selected several rooms in his palace. He studied all the sciences of the time.

In 1849 the English traveler Lejjard during excavation has found out the ruins, which have been buried underground for many centuries. For a long time no one even imagined the value of this excavation. And only when modern scholars learned to read the Babylonian writing, their true value became known.

What is on the pages of clay books?

The pages of clay books contained the cultural heritage of Sumer and Akkad. They said that even in those ancient times, mathematicians were able to perform many mathematical actions: calculating percentages, measuring the area, raising the number to the power and extracting the root. They even had their own multiplication table, although it was much more difficult to perceive than the one we are using now. Moreover, the measurement of the week by precisely seven days originates precisely from that time.

"The book is a small window, the whole world is visible through it"

"You will read books - you will know everything"

"Pearls get out of the depths of the sea, knowledge is drawn from the depths of books"

Creation and features of storage

Clay books were kept in quite an interesting way. Specifying the name and page number at the bottom of the book was the main rule. Also in each subsequent book, the line on which the previous one ended was inscribed. It should be noted that they were kept in strict order. Moreover, there was even a catalog in the Ninnesian library, in which the name, the number of lines and the branch to which the book belonged were recorded. There were also legislative books, stories of travelers, knowledge of medicine, various kinds of dictionaries and letters.

Clay for their creation was of the highest quality. It was first mixed for a long time, then they made small tablets and wrote them with a stick while the surface was still wet.