The Human History Podcast: The Ancients

Episode 2! The Akkadians: Sargon the Great to the Gutian Invasion covers one of the most  impressive empires of the ancient world, and likely the first multinational empire in human history. In this episode I dive in to the origin story of the man who began the empire around 2334BC - Sargon the Great. We'll discover how it's thought he went from a position in the gardens of King Ur-Zababa of the 4th Dynasty of Kish to his most trusted advisor--eventually establishing one of the most prominent empires of the ancient world after Ur-Zababa loses his city to King Lugalzaggesi of Umma. I'll talk about the rise of Sargon's grandson, Naram-Sin, the Akkadian Empire's most effective and prolific ruler, and the eventual fall of the Akkadian empire due to famine and an invading force of Gutians from the north and east.  Join me on this adventure into 3rd millennium BC Mesopotamia and discover a people who, though they only ruled for a short time, left an indelible mark for all of human history.

Welcome to the first installment of The Human History Podcast: An Interlude. This is a place for shorter episodes on interesting topics like the top archaeological finds of the decade and also weekly roundups on archaeology news and discoveries.  This first episode is going to be my list of The Top 5 Archaeological Finds of the Decade (2010-2019). There was a new henge found at stonehenge (https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/latest/2010/07/22july-stonehenge.aspx), a new civilization discovered in the Guatemalan jungle (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/03/150302-honduras-lost-city-monkey-god-maya-ancient-archaeology/), discovery and confirmation of the remains of King Richard III (https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leicestershire-32054214), one of the most complex water engineering project in the ancient world discovered in China (https://www.pnas.org/content/114/52/13637), and a 5,000 year old city discovered in Israel (https://www.livescience.com/ancient-city-discovered-israel.html). Other sources for this episode: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-10718522 https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/7/100723-stonehenge-woodhenge-twin-timber-circle-gaffney-science/ https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leicestershire-21063882

Welcome! In this first episode of The Human History Podcast we're going back to one of the earliest human civilizations. The peoples responsible for bringing us the wheel, who developed one of the earliest forms of writing, invented the sailboat, gave us our first written laws, cities, and more. Their figures are eternal: Gilgamesh, Abram (Abraham), Gudea, Ur-Nammu.  In part one of this two part series we'll introduce you to one of the most fascinating civilizations of all time - on top of being one of the earliest - as well as dive in to the main figures who guide much of ancient Sumerian history.  ***NOTES*** Sources: The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome - Emily Wise Bauer https://www.amazon.com/History-Ancient-World-Earliest-Accounts/dp/039305974X The Sumerian World - Edited by Harriet Crawford  https://www.amazon.com/Sumerian-World-Routledge-Worlds/dp/1138238635/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+sumerian+world+crawford&qid=1573607885&s=books&sr=1-1 https://www.ancient.eu thoughtco.com khanacademy.org wikipedia.org