178 episodes
Oldest Stories James Bleckley
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- History
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4.6 • 86 Ratings
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History and myth of the Cradle of Civilization, bronze age Mesopotamia, beginning with the dawn of writing. The show will cover the full history of Mesopotamia, from Gilgamesh to Nabonidas, a span of some 2500 years, with myths of heroes and gods, and tales of daily life peppered throughout. Sumer, Akkad, Old Babylon, Hittites, and Israel have all been covered in depth, current episodes get deep into the Assyrian Empire. New episodes every other Wednesday. Online at oldeststories.net.
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OS 142 - The Assyrian Empire Takes Shape
King Tukulti-Ninurta II slows down the pace of conquest for a crucial decade. Conquest still happens, and at a breakneck pace, but compared to what we have seen and will see, it is much slower. More importantly, Tukulti-Ninurta spends a lot of his time focused on really establishing what has already been built, constructing more buildings, conducting diplomacy, building out the administration, and that sort of groundwork that will keep the empire stable and strong going forward. Also, Tukulti-Ninurta goes camping, and seems to have a great time doing it. Being an Assyrian king, his version of camping involves razing towns, but cheerfully razing towns rather than being all mean about it. Razing towns and raising spirits, if you like.
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OS 141 - The Unintended Aramization of Assyria
Today we see Adad-Nirari bring huge quantities of Arameans into the Assyrian empire. This will change the linguistic fabric of the entire near east in time, but as we will see, at the time it just seemed like a set of good decisions, or at least imperialistic decisions. We also discuss what it is to be an Assyrian, and why no one was overly concerned about the sort of ethnic conflicts that seem to dominate nowadays. The main feature today is the Temannu war, which spanned perhaps 6 to 8 years and shows Adad-Nirari's strategic flexibility, as well as the full range from brutality to generosity in victory.
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OS 140- The Dawning of a New Assyrian Empire
The king today is Adad-Nirari II, but we have a lot to discuss in the background as well. The Nairi get their spotlight right before they get destroyed, and we look at the dating system for the Neo-Assyrian period and why it is so reliable, compared to the earlier parts of ancient history. And we also ask what an Empire is and whether or not the Neo-Assyrian Empire counts as one, which it does. Adad-Nirari is a conquering king, and though we know little about the army at this point, we know it is doing quite well under his leadership.
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OS 139 - An Iron King for an Iron Age
Today we talk about iron working, economics and climate change. Then we watch Assur-Dan II flay his enemies alive and hang their skins from the city wall. The doldrums of the Bronze Age Collapse are now officially over and a new age is rising - an age of iron and an age of empire. The most exciting and historically important period of Mesopotamian history begins now. Also, check out the spin off channel by searching Christ and Questions, or going here: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/entirelyalive5/episodes/Gods-Theory-of-Government-e2h21t3 or seeing it on youtube here: https://youtube.com/@ChristandQuestions
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OS 138 - Erra and Ishum Threaten Destruction
Most of our modern end of the world literature is set in the future, but the Babylonians, in the midst of a dark age, set their end of the world literature right in their own times, since for them it may have seemed like the world itself was ending. Erra, also called Nergal, wants to destroy a bunch of stuff because that is his nature. He tries protecting the universe, but gets frustrated with that, so he destroys the universe instead. Interestingly, this story may have become extremely popular in Babylonia because it predicted that Babylon would rise again, and in due course of the centuries is sure enough did, in fashion similar to that predicted in the text.
I have books! About Ancient Mesopotamia! And more on the way! Check them out here!
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OS 137 - The Oldest Dreams
Do dreams count as literature, are the dream records we have an accurate depiction of ancient dreams, and does reading a dream account from a man 3000 years dead give us any insight into his state of mind? Today, we read through a bunch of dreams, read about dreams, and just generally ponder some of this stuff.
I have books! About Ancient Mesopotamia! And more on the way! Check them out here!
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Customer Reviews
Amazing podcast
Cheerful and witty podcast that introduces the history of bronze-age Mesopotamia and the Levant. The host balances comprehensibility and comprehensiveness, and has clearly poured hundreds of hours into researching the content matter. Others may complain that the host isn’t a credentialed Assyriologist and occasionally slips up. I invite the critics to convince someone in this tiny field to put in the massive amount of time necessary to generate a comparably well-written podcast. Until then, I’ll keep listening to this one with pleasure.
Old Testament
This is a great Podcast if you love the Old Testament.
Great stories
Well presented, with wit. Not overly academic, but well researched,