Institute for Cuneiform Studies, Mosul

In 2002 the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education and Research requested British Museum assistance to support their planned new Institute for Cuneiform Studies at the University of Mosul. Teaching and research were to focus on Ashurbanipal's Library, which had been excavated across the river from Mosul. ICS is designed to house departments of Archaeology, Assyriology and Ancient Near Eastern Civilisations, Excavation and Conservation. Archaeologists from Mosul began excavating at Nineveh in 2012. One aim was to find the rest of Ashurbanipal's Library. The fall of Mosul to ISIS in 2014 brought both excavation and construction to a halt. Progress on the ICS was at an advanced state, however. And with the return of Mosul to Iraqi government control, it is hoped that work can resume soon.

The Institute for Cuneiform Studies under construction, 2014. Photo by Ali Yassin Al-Jaboori.

Jonathan Taylor

Jonathan Taylor, 'Institute for Cuneiform Studies, Mosul', Ashurbanipal Library Project, The Ashurbanipal Library Project, Department of the Middle East, The British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG, 2022 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/asbp/abouttheproject/instituteforcuneiformstudies/]