based on solid statistical evidence. The potential for comparative material to be present in
this collection is illustrated by the historical events that underlie its formation.
“During the first 20 years of Ashurbanipal’s reign, his brother Šamaš-šum-ukin was
appointed king of Babylonia, but later revolted against his brother. In 648 BC, Ashur-
banipal was victorious in the civil war and took over the kingship of Babylonia. The
situation gave him direct access to all the Babylonian temple archives. When Ashur-
banipal created his extensive royal library in the citadel of his Assyrian capital city
Nineveh he incorporated Assyrian and Babylonian tablets into the collection. The tab-
lets written in Babylonian characters may have been imported from Babylonian librar-
ies, whereas others could have been written by Babylonian scribes in the service of the
Assyrian king.”^110Ashurbanipal apparently engaged the services of Babylonian scribes to copy some of the
texts that contributed to his library, most likely a practice established by his father
Esarhaddon.^111 Also, library records recovered from excavations at Nineveh show that a
large number of texts were acquired from Babylonia immediately following the fall of
Babylon and the death of Šamaš-šum-ukin midway through the seventh century B.C.E.^112
These texts came not only from official collections but also from the private collections
(^110) J.C. Fincke, "Babylonian Texts of Nineveh," 112.
(^111) See J.C. Fincke, "Babylonian Texts of Nineveh," 117-18.
(^112) S. Parpola, "Assyrian Library Records," 11 notes that preceding the fall of Babylon in 648 B.C.E. “the
Assyrian government had no right to interfere with the internal affairs of Babylonia, least of all to lay claim
to the private property of her citizens; here, however, we all of a sudden find large quantities of Babylonian
literary tablets being channelled into Assyria a few months after the conquest of the country. It seems likely
that the Assyrian monarch, well known for his literary interests, was utilizing the situation to add to the
collections of his libraries.”