Skip to main content

Primary sourceDocument7th century BCE

Flood Tablet

Scribes of Ashurbanipal's library · 7th century BCE

A cuneiform tablet from Ashurbanipal's library preserving the Mesopotamian flood story from the Epic of Gilgamesh.

This tablet was part of the library Ashurbanipal assembled, showing his role as a collector of literature.

Ask Ashurbanipal about this sourceView the original(opens in new tab)
A cuneiform clay tablet, tan and brown with a broken edge, resting on a blue display surface. Rows of wedge-shaped script cover its face. The tablet is tilted toward the viewer in a museum case, with a thin metal support visible.
Scribes of Ashurbanipal's library, Flood Tablet (Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet XI), 7th century BCE. British Museum, London.

About this source

What it is

This cuneiform clay tablet was made by scribes working in Ashurbanipal's library in the 7th century BCE. It contains Tablet XI of the Epic of Gilgamesh, telling the story of a great flood. It was excavated by Hormuzd Rassam and is now held by the British Museum.

Why it matters

This tablet shows how Ashurbanipal's collecting of texts preserved ancient Mesopotamian literature that might otherwise have been lost. When it was rediscovered in the library in 1849 and later translated, the flood story amazed scholars because of its similarities to other ancient flood accounts. The scholar George Smith first transliterated and read the text.

Look closer

  • Why would a king want to collect stories and myths alongside records of law and government?
  • What does the survival of this tablet tell you about how fragile ancient writing can be?
  • What questions can't this tablet answer about how the story was first told or who first wrote it down?

This document is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Ashurbanipal on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

More Ashurbanipal sources

Meet the AI Ashurbanipal →
A pale yellowish-beige baked brick fragment lies on a white background, with a scale bar and label reading B 1968/12.1 beside it. The brick's surface shows faint, worn markings.Artifact

Primary source

Baked Brick Naming King Ashurbanipal

7th century BCE

Photo of a carved stone relief panel. At left, a bearded man in a robe thrusts a spear into the head of a lion. An attendant with a quiver stands beside him. At right, a figure walks beside a horse, and a rider sits on the horse's back.Sculpture

Primary source

Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal

Assyrian royal sculptors · c. 645–635 BCE

A tall, multi-sided clay prism covered in rows of cuneiform script, lit from the left against a dark background, standing on a grey display base. Its faces show fine wedge-shaped writing.Document

Primary source

Rassam Prism of Ashurbanipal

643 BCE

Pen and brown ink sketch on a cream sketchbook page, numbered 7 in the top right corner. Two bearded figures with long curled hair stand in profile, one playing a large round-bodied harp or lyre with a curved frame, the other playing a stringed instrument. A third figure in a long fringed robe stands at the far right. Pencil construction lines are visible. Handwritten note at bottom.Painting

Secondary source

Relief with Musicians from the Palace of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh

Pen and grey wash drawing in a sketchbook of a relief scene: a wheel of a chariot or cart dominates the center, two seated figures face each other at right, a standing figure with a headband carries a long pole at far right, a basket sits near them, and a horse-like animal appears at left, with a few wavy lines of a ground or stream at bottom. Page number 6 is at top right.Painting

Secondary source

Relief with a Bivouac Scene on a Campaign of King Ashurbanipal

Ready when you are

Start chatting with Ashurbanipal now.

20 messages free · No credit card · Available in 50+ languages.

Trial Humy for freeGet a quote for institutions