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The Mesopotamian Map of Mystery, Or, From Babylon to the Boondocks and Back Again, Hopefully
Episode 103
A wonderful newish video about the famous 6th century Babylonian tablet showing a map of the world has us thinking. Sure, there are a bunch of Mesopotamian field and building plans, more of a zoning …
Published on 9 months, 1 week ago
How to Go from Spindle Whorls to Wagon Wheels in Just 6,000 Years, or Rotational Energy and the Wheel of Destiny
Episode 102
New studies on the origins of the wheel have us wondering, why did it take thousands of years to go from 10th millennium BCE spindle whorls in Israel to 4th millennium BCE wheels in the Carpathian mo…
Published on 9 months, 4 weeks ago
Reading Eclipses for Fun and Profit, or from Divine Intervention to Priestly Protection Racket in the Old Babylonian Period
Episode 101
Some Old Babylonian tablets warn about lunar eclipses and their dire consequences. Drought! Famine! Lions! Surprisingly, the priests had rituals to prevent those consequences. Wait, you don’t seem su…
Published on 10 months, 1 week ago
(How) Long Reign Hezekiah, or A 100th Episode for the Ages!
Episode 100
For our momentous 100th episode we’re talking about the age old question, does chronology matter? A bunch of tiny seal impressions seem to have solved the question of when our old friend Hezekiah rei…
Published on 10 months, 3 weeks ago
The Neolithic Shaman Girl from Çemka Höyük, or Terrapin Station in the Tenth Millennium
Episode 99
A Neolithic shaman burial at Çemka Höyük in southeastern Turkey? Why not! Somebody had to be a guide to the spirit world. But why are they always buried with tortoises? Aurochs, sure, weasels, um, ok…
Published on 11 months, 1 week ago
How to Dye a Fabric in the Middle Bronze Age, Or, See, I Told You Those Gross Little Bugs Were Good For Something
Episode 98
A red dyed textile from a Middle Bronze Age cave in the Judean Desert has us wondering, sure, boiled squished insects are colorful, but how did they go from, eww, gross, to, hey maybe I could dye som…
Published on 11 months, 3 weeks ago
The Tale of the Egyptian Scribes and their Bad Knees, Or, If You Can Build a Pyramid You Can Build a Table
Episode 97
Old Kingdom scribes kneeled or sat on the floor so their knees, backs and hips were as screwed up as ours. But did they have a trusted firm of personal injury lawyers pushing through the red tape to …
Published on 1 year ago
A Deepwater - Like Really Really Deep- Late Bronze Age Shipwreck or, Down to the Sea in Sunken Canaanite Ships
Episode 96
A Late Bronze Age shipwreck 90 kilometers off the coast of Israel has us asking, what were they doing way out there and if your ship sinks, how do you make an insurance claim without texts? Anyway, w…
Published on 1 year ago
Horsing Around the Ancient Near East in the Third Millennium BCE, Or, Let Me Get You Off of That Kunga and onto a Brand New Palomino!
Episode 95
New evidence suggests horses were domesticated over a thousand years later than previously thought, around 2200 BCE, which would mean they caught on pretty fast with wealthy Near Easterners. Still, w…
Published on 1 year, 1 month ago
A Waxy Buildup at Iron Age Horvat Tevet, Or, Does This Beeswax Make me Look Canaanite or Israelite?
Episode 94
Horvat Tevet was a village in the early Iron Age Galilee. Caananite, Israelite, who knows? They liked beeswax though. Make of that what you will. With a shoutout to The Bangles and a completely incon…
Published on 1 year, 1 month ago