Episode 10
The Library the Fire Saved
The destruction of Nineveh hardened some of Ashurbanipal's clay tablets and shattered the collection that gave them context. Mariana and Tyson investigate the royal library, the famous flood tablet, and the decisions that determined which Mesopotamian voices survived.
Coming Tuesday, December 15, 2026
Episode 10 is finished and scheduled. It runs about 31 min. Show notes, chapters and the full transcript go up with the audio.
Play the latest episode
The evidence
The Flood Tablet
Tablet XI of the Epic of Gilgamesh, from Ashurbanipal's library. Its flood story changed how the modern world read Genesis.
- Date
- 7th century BCE
- Place
- Nineveh, Iraq
- Held
- British Museum, London
- Catalog
- K.3375