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The Library that once belonged to Ashurbanipal, King of Assyria (668-c. 630 BC), is one of most remarkable and fascinating archaeological discoveries ever made. More than 30,000 clay tablets bearing cuneiform inscriptions were excavated by the British Museum between the 1850's and 1930's at the site of the imperial capital, Nineveh. In its day it had been the biggest and most wide-ranging collection of texts yet assembled. Its discovery threw wide open the doors to our understanding of ancient Mesopotamia.