Shows / Oldest Stories
Oldest Stories
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.
Episodes
- Oldest Stories
OS 58 - Rise of the Hittites
This is a good place for new listeners to start, particularly those interested in the late bronze age, the Hittites, and the Kassites. The legendary, and…
- Oldest Stories
OS 57 - Ancient Anatolia
We begin our series on the Hittites by looking at what came before the Hittites. This episode is a survey of the geography, cultures, and history of Eastern…
- Oldest Stories
OS 56 - Obscure Struggles in Assyria
Assyria is deep in a dark age following the fall of Babylon. Struggling to hold on and fighting over its identity, the Assyrians didn't appear to have a whole…
- Oldest Stories
Bonus 3 - Lament for Ur
An interlude in our story. Today, a poem of passionate despair. With the collapse of Sumerian civilization in 2000 BCE, five great laments were written that…
- Oldest Stories
Bonus 2 - Fanciful Notions of Antiquity
An interlude in our story. We pause today to read a story by HP Lovecraft, the Nameless City, which brings us back to how absolutely incredible it was when…
- Oldest Stories
OS 55 - Days of Quiet Prosperity
In a sense, not much happens in this episode. Covering a bit over a century, the borders of Babylon are going to remain more or less stable for most of this…
- Oldest Stories
OS 54 - Soldier of Babylon, Ubarum
Ubarum was just a man living in a small village in north Babylonia, one among possibly a few million. He was a soldier by trade, but also managed a little bit…
- Oldest Stories
OS 53 - Poem of the Righteous Sufferer
The Poem of the Righteous Sufferer, or Ludlul-Bel-Nimeqi, is one of the oldest works of theodicy in history, and part of a long running philosophical tradition…
- Oldest Stories
OS 52 - Theogony of Dunnu and The Education of Scribes
Incest and Patricide are the highlights of today's tale, sometimes also called the Dynasty of Dunnum or the Harab Myth. The ancient Mesopotamian religious…
- Oldest Stories
OS 51 - The New Order
Finally, we have finished with Hammurabi, and it is time for his successor Samsu-Iluna to take over. At first, things are much the same as they were under his…
- Oldest Stories
OS 50 - Hammurabi's Code of Laws
The entire code of Hammurabi, start to finish. This is the show's fiftieth episode, and will run quite long as something of a special edition. I am going to go…
- Oldest Stories
OS 49 - Hammurabi's Death and Legacy
The final decade of Hammurabi's life would be peaceful and prosperous, and was in many ways the foundation of the rest of the Old Babylonian Empire. We have…
- Oldest Stories
OS 48 - Hammurabi's Women and Slaves
Thus far this show has largely ignored over half of the population, though in my defense, the ancient scribes on whom we rely upon for so much of our…
- Oldest Stories
Bonus 1 - The Slaying of Illuyanka
Bonus episode! Dragon slaying myths are about as old as myth itself, but one of the oldest is the tale of the Hittite Storm God's battle against Illuyanka the…
- Oldest Stories
OS 47 - Hammurabi's Rebels and Oracles
Hammurabi's final conquests are almost perfunctory, but his responses to the subsequent rebellions is anything but. Much of the episode however is concerned…
- Oldest Stories
OS 46 - Hammurabi's Northern Conquests and Agricultural Power
Hammurabi's power rises as the cities of the north begin to grow suspicious of his ambitions, and then have those suspicions proven correct when he goes to war…
- Oldest Stories
OS 45 - Hammurabi's Medicine and Justice
Hammurabi conquers Larsa in another lightning campaign displaying his strategic and diplomatic cunning. But once it is conquered, he needs to bring this…
- Oldest Stories
OS 44 - Hammurabi's Military and Elamite War
Today we follow the course of the Great Elamite War, the turning point in Babylon's history when it will beat the odds and establish itself as the region's…
- Oldest Stories
OS 43 - Hammurabi's Siegecraft and Diplomacy
We have actual letters from Hammurabi that show off the diplomacy and statecraft for which the king was celebrated, and in the chaotic years leading up to the…
- Oldest Stories
OS 42 - Hammurabi's Kingdom and Character
What was Hammurabi like, and what did the kingdom of Babylon look like in the earliest days? Today, we are going to look at the man himself, Hammurabi, and…
- Oldest Stories
OS 41 - Shamshi-Adad and the Upper Mesopotamian Empire
From a refugee in Babylon to the king of the largest empire Mesopotamia has seen since the fall of Ur, and the first Assyrian empire at that, Shamshi-Adad's…
- Oldest Stories
OS 40 - Barbarian Kingdoms and Biblical Patriarchs
The Amorites swept through Syria and held the region in a dark age longer than any other part of Mesopotamia. But when the dust finally does settle, we will…
- Oldest Stories
OS 39 - The Merchants and Families of Assyria
We know very little about the kings of early Assyria, so our introduction to the north will be bottom up by necessity. We know about merchants and farmers and…
- Oldest Stories
OS 38 - Rim-Sin the Pretty Good
Today we see the near collapse of Larsa, and its sudden and unexpected rescue by an Amorite from Elam. After the failure of Nur-Adad's line, Kudur-Mabuk sweeps…
- Oldest Stories
OS 37 - Petty Kings
The multi-polar Isin-Larsa period continues this week, covering the period from the 1860s to the 1830s BCE. This week is a bit easier that the mess of last…
- Oldest Stories
OS 36 - The Founding of Babylon
This week we continue to watch as Isin and Larsa fight each other and the many other rising dynasties over the chaotic period from 1905 to 1865 BCE. Only…
- Oldest Stories
OS 35 - Middle Bronze Age Warfare
The main narrative of the Isin Larsa period is full of battles both stated and implied, but what do those battles actually look like? What sort of equipment…
- Oldest Stories
OS 34 - Age of Chaos
It is time to shake things up as the line of peaceful merchant kings of Isin comes to an end thanks to two strong men, firstly Gungunum of Larsa and then…
- Oldest Stories
OS 33 - A Time of Ritual and Law
This week we look at the somewhat obscure 1900's BCE in Isin, where details will be thin on the ground, but that will just give us more time to focus on the…
- Oldest Stories
OS 32 - Lay of the Land
This is a good place for new listeners to start, particularly those interested in Hammurabi and the middle bronze age. Today we resume our history with the…
- Oldest Stories
OS 31 - First Men
The legends of Adapa, Enmeduranki, and Etana are the tales of three very early kings, though tales that don't seem to come around until the middle bronze age…
- Oldest Stories
OS 30 - The Tablet of Destinies
Ninurta the action hero god returns, this time in an adventure to recover the stolen Tablet of Destinies. In doing this, we will wrestle with Semitic concepts…
- Oldest Stories
OS 29 - The Enuma Elish
The Babylonian creation myth, Enuma Elish, tells the story of the creation of the world and how it was a terrible mistake immediately regretted by its parents…
- Oldest Stories
OS 28 - The Chamorros of Saipan
Special Episode. This week is a break from normal as we discuss the Chamorro people of the Marianas islands, A four thousand year oral culture in the Pacific…
- Oldest Stories
OS 27 - The Study of Sumer and Ancient Aliens
There were some very important and talented people who have dug up the once lost civilization of Sumer and given their stories new life. Then there are the…
- Oldest Stories
OS 26 - The Oldest Debates
Today we return to Sumerian Wisdom literature and see some of the oldest philosophy ever recorded, with the debates on creation and the oldest investigation of…
- Oldest Stories
OS 25 - The Last Sumerian, Ibbi-Sin
Sumer is in a bad state, with enemies on all sides, and just as they are crying out for good fortune they instead receive Ibbi-Sin, a blustering fool. We will…
- Oldest Stories
OS 24 - The Rebirth of Sumer
The Sumerian Renaissance, a fruitful period of literary achievement and military conquest. We are going to see the first Sumerian kings in 250 years as they…
- Oldest Stories
OS 11 - Instructions Manual
Note that this episode has moved in the ordering to better fit its position in the timeline. This week we look at the wisdom literature of Ancient Sumer with a…
- Oldest Stories
OS 10 - King Shulgi's Mailbag
Note that this episode has moved in the ordering to better fit its position in the timeline. Today we will look at the actual words of a man 4000 years gone as…
- Oldest Stories
OS 23 - The Fall of Akkad
Today the Akkadian empire will collapse, brought low by climate change, foreign invasion, and civil war. A dark age of Gutian domination will descend upon…
- Oldest Stories
OS 22 - Slanderous Legends of Naram-Sin
Today the fall of Akkad begins. We start with how the Mesopotamians themselves remembered the fall of their first great empire, with the Curse of Agade and the…
- Oldest Stories
OS 21 - Surpassing Sargon with Naram-Sin
Who was the greatest king of the Akkadian Empire? Today I make the case for Naram-Sin, who brought the empire to the high water mark and really solidified…
- Oldest Stories
OS 20 - Sargon, the Next Generation
Sargon had two sons and both will sit on the throne. Rimush will do all the work, while Manishtushu will enjoy all the rewards. Both are fairly interesting on…
- Oldest Stories
OS 19 - Sargon at war
Here is the meat of the Sargon Legend, his conquests. But he wasn't just conquering for the sake of conquest, his empire was formed from a vision which shows…
- Oldest Stories
OS 18 - Sargon at Peace
What did Akkadian power look like on the ground, and what did daily life look like for the average Sumerian during this period? Today I will use the occasion…
- Oldest Stories
OS 17 - Sargon Rising
Today we look at the rise of the world's first empire, following the story of Sargon of Akkad's rise from the son of a gardener to the king of Sumer and Akkad…
- Oldest Stories
OS 16 - Reform and Corruption in Lagash
Last time was the rise, this time is the fall of the city of Lagash, into corruption and military defeat. Can the hero of the people, great reformer Urukagina…
- Oldest Stories
OS 15 - Kings and Wars in Lagash
This is a good place for new listeners to start, particularly those interested more in history than myth. War; war never changes. Forty five hundred years ago…
- Oldest Stories
OS 14 - Ea, Tales from Creation
The god of wisdom and crafting is the chillest of the gods, that is when he is not turning his family tree into a family telephone poll. The most generous and…
- Oldest Stories
OS 13 - The God of Action Heroes Ninurta
The mountains will crumble and cities will tremble as Ninurta comes to put down a rebellion with maximum casualties and no Geneva Convention. Then he will…
- Oldest Stories
OS 12 - Enlil, Lord of Wind
He is a little bit creepy and king of the gods. He is Enlil, lord of wind, and today's episode is focused on the him as the head of the Sumerian pantheon…
- Oldest Stories
OS 09 - Ishtar and Dumazid
This week, we follow the twists and turns of an odd love story, Ishtar and Dumazid, who despite the sometimes questionable nature of their relationship were…
- Oldest Stories
OS 08 - Ishtar Gains Power
Today we are going to weave a few separate tales of Ishtar together to get a picture of her character and power as the Goddess of Love and War. Apologies for…
- Oldest Stories
OS 07 - Gilgamesh, Utnapishtim, and Immortality
Today we finish the epic of Gilgamesh with the story of the mysterious hermit Utnapishtim, a tale that goes all the way back to when the earth was young. We…
- Oldest Stories
OS 06 - Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven
In the penultimate episode of the Epic of Gilgamesh, we see the height of action and adventure. Gilgamesh is going to scorn a beautiful woman, then pay dearly…
- Oldest Stories
OS 05 - Gilgamesh Has Adventures
In today's episode we cover two side stories of Gilgamesh. First he will fight off an invasion of Uruk in Gilgamesh and Aga, and then he will aid the goddess…
- Oldest Stories
OS 04 - Gilgamesh vs Humbaba
Here we continue the adventures of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, as they travel far from their city to battle the lord of forests, the fearsome force of nature, the…
- Oldest Stories
OS 03 - Gilgamesh Tames Enkidu
Here we finally begin the Epic of Gilgamesh by recounting the opening tablet and a half, the taming of Enkidu. In this episode we have it all, tyranny, power…
- Oldest Stories
OS 2.5 - Before the Beginning
The History part of the Oldest Stories begins here. Where did Enmerkar, Lugalbanda, and Gilgamesh come from, and how did civilization arise between the Tigris…