The First Library in the World : Ashurbanipal Explained by Dr. Irving Finkel [7:07]

YouTube ^ | January 3, 2026 | Assyrian Times

[SunkenCiv]

Filmed inside the British Museum, this episode features renowned Assyriologist Irving Finkel, exploring the Library of Ashurbanipal -- the earliest known library in human history. 

Built in the 7th century BCE in Nineveh, this extraordinary library preserved thousands of clay tablets covering law, science, medicine, astronomy, religion, and literature -- including the Epic of Gilgamesh. Without Ashurbanipal’s vision, much of ancient Mesopotamian knowledge would have been lost forever. 

King Ashurbanipal, one of the few ancient rulers who could read and write, gathered the knowledge of the known world and created humanity’s first true archive -- laying foundations for modern civilisation. 

The First Library in the World: 
Ashurbanipal Explained by Dr. Irving Finkel | 7:07 
Assyrian Times | 3.48K subscribers | 102,802 views | January 3, 2026

---

TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: ashurbanipal; assyrianempire; britishmuseum; cuneiform; epicofgilgamesh; epigraphyandlanguage; godsgravesglyphs; irvingfinkel; nineveh

[SunkenCiv]

YouTube transcript reformatted at textformatter.ai *may* follow.

[SunkenCiv]

[Red Badger]

Penalty for overdue scroll..........beheading.......

[ConservativeMind]

Why is David Letterman in that picture?

[SunkenCiv]

Naw, they just made him work in the library for a month, community service, lugging around one page of a book at a time.

[SunkenCiv]

😁 Letterman... in his dreams. The name ‘Letterman’ (possibly originally Lederman or mann) is that cuneiform uses something like letters. Oh, and the large print edition cue cards he used to read on the air were bigger than these clay tablets.

Dr. Finkel is in three or four more vids on the channel, btw.

[SunkenCiv]

https://www.youtube.com/@AssyrianTimess/search?query=finkel