The University’s archaeologists recently teamed up with The British Museum to inspire sixth formers to consider studying Egyptology and Assyriology, subjects which very few have the opportunity to study at school.
An ancient token-based recording system from before the dawn of history was rendered obsolete by the birth of writing, according to popular wisdom. But now, latest excavations show that, in fact, these clay tokens were integral to administrative functions right across the Assyrian empire – millennia after this system was believed to have vanished.
The first ever conference to focus on the provincial archaeology of the Assyrian empire took place at Cambridge University last month. A key theme was the recent opening up of the Kurdish Autonomous Region – once at the hub of the empire – to archaeological enquiry.
Evidence for a forgotten ancient language which dates back more than 2,500 years, to the time of the Assyrian Empire, has been found by archaeologists working in Turkey.
Examples of the world’s oldest science and literature – 2,500-year-old clay writing tablets – hold clues as to how ancient scholars acquired and used knowledge, as Dr Eleanor Robson explains.
© 2025 University of Cambridge