Data storage

This is the longest lasting method of storing written data known to man. Cuniform script, written with a fine stylus usually into soft clay tablets. This example is one of a massive collection of tablets and polygonal blocks held by the British Museum excavated from the Assyrian library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh. When the library burnt down in 612BC, much of its contents on parchment scrolls and writing boards were lost. But 30,943 clay tablets and blocks were baked hard and survived the gulf of time between then and now to give us a remarkable picture of life in the Assyrian Empire and Babylonia.

The extra shows Ashurbanipal on one of his favourite hunting trips. Often with captive animals, that were released for his slaughter.