KASKAL

Rivista di storia, ambienti e culture del Vicino Oriente Antico
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Typological Aspects of Scholarly Tablets in the Library of Ashurbanipal

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Abstract

The Library of Ashurbanipal is an archetype of standardisation in cuneiform. It has been seen as a collection of compositions whose text took the form of fixed, canonical versions on which modern reconstructions can best rely. The script used in the Library is so carefully controlled and standardised that it has been described as ‘typewriter’ script. An aspect that has received less attention is the typology of the tablets on which the standardised texts were written in this careful Library script. As the thousands of fragments into which the Library was shattered in antiquity are gradually pieced back together, the types of tablet in that collection are becoming more apparent. These types help us understand the nature of the tablets in antiquity, as well as the functioning and vision of the Library itself.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Submitted: Sept. 2, 2024 | Accepted: Oct. 31, 2024 | Published Dec. 19, 2024 | Language: en

Keywords Colophons • Typology • Terminology • Materiality • Standardisation

Copyright © 2024 Babette Schnitzlein, Jon Taylor. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/KASKAL/5235-1939/2024/01/015