UNLOCKED: The Great Archaeological Discoveries, pt. 4 -- The Library of Ashurbanipal
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The Library of Ashurbanipal
The Assyrian emperors and particularly Ashurbanipal were engaged in a two pronged struggle to maintain their power. One by perfecting techniques of administration, and two by using divination and prognostication. So hence there were three basic kinds of texts or three basic genres of texts that one finds in the library of Ashurbanipal. Many of them are astrological and divinatory. They were asking for meanings to be assigned to frightening events like lightning strikes or earthquakes. And then added on to those, the gathering of texts from subject cities around the empire,. many of which were not simply taken and deposited, but rather were carefully copied, translated into Akkadian and then
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