Podcast Episodes

OS 165 - The Kings of Urartu

Season 2 Episode 165

Today we witness the transformation of Urartu—called Biainilli in its own time—from a fledgling mountain kingdom into a formidable Iron Age empire that would challenge Assyria itself. Following Sardu…

Published on 5 months, 1 week ago

OS 164 - The Rise of Urartu

Season 2 Episode 164

In this episode, we explore one of the most dramatic and mysterious transformations in ancient Near Eastern history: the sudden rise of the Kingdom of Urartu—known to its own people as Biainilli—unde…

Published on 5 months, 3 weeks ago

OS 163 - The Birth of Urartu

Season 2 Episode 163

Explore the fascinating rise of Urartu, an ancient kingdom forged in the crucible of war and environmental hardship. In just two decades during the mid-9th century BCE, this mountainous backwater tra…

Published on 6 months, 1 week ago

OS 162 - The Rise of Phrygia

Season 2 Episode 162

In the wake of the Bronze Age Collapse, a new power emerged in central Anatolia—the Phrygians. This episode examines their origins, tracing their migration from the Balkans and their settlement in th…

Published on 6 months, 3 weeks ago

OS 161 - A Kingdom of Honey and Blood: The Suhu Rebellion

Suhu is a only modestly important region, and the independant kingdom that lived on the Middle Euphrates from perhaps 775 BCE to 744 BCE is barely more than an historical footnote. And yet, because t…

Published on 7 months, 1 week ago

OS 160 - Graham Hancock and the Philosophy of Archeology

Season 2 Episode 160

Graham Hancock is a complicated man. On one hand, he is exposing a lot of people to some of the most cutting edge archeological investigations and open questions in history, and doing it in a way tha…

Published on 7 months, 3 weeks ago

OS 159 - Slaves and Bronze in Iron Age Assyria

Season 2 Episode 159

Reading 2800 year old slave documents, we learn a great deal about what concerned the people of Assyria on a day to day basis, at least the ones who lived in and around the major cities. From these d…

Published on 8 months ago

OS 158 - The Glorious Magnates of Assyria

Season 2 Episode 158

Today we talk about the governors Nergal-Erish and Mannu-ki-Mat-Assur as they play their part in building the Assyrian empire in a number of often unheralded and underappreciated ways. Then we look a…

Published on 8 months, 2 weeks ago

OS 157 - Women and Horses, the Constraints of Assyria

Season 2 Episode 157

Today we blame the decline of Assyria on horses, and look at Adad-Nirari's desperation to get more of them. Also we see more of the historical Shammu-Ramat, the source of the Semiramis myth. There is…

Published on 9 months ago

OS 156 - The Mythical Semiramis in Ancient History

Season 2 Episode 156

The tale of Semiramis is one of those myths that everyone used to know, and many people used to take quite seriously. It is a tale from the Greek era which purports to tell the whole story of the gre…

Published on 9 months, 2 weeks ago