Royal Library of Ashurbanipal, 7th century BCE

King Ashurbanipal built a royal library in Nineveh in the 7th century BCE. British archaeologists, headed by Austen Henry Layard, found about 20,000 clay tablets beginning in 1849. The tablets were shipped to the British Museum, where they lay for close to 50 years before Assyriologists were able to decipher them. Found among these tablets are 12 tablets which make up the Epic of Gilgamesh. Other tablets deal with history, religion, government, geography, science and poetry, etc. The tablets were organized according to topic.

See also-

Gilgamesh Epic- The Flood Story