Fall of Civilizations Podcast

A beautiful illustrated map of Constantinople

A map of Constantinople in the Byzantine era

Music for Episode 11

This episode, we're joined by the choir from the Greek Orthodox Cathedral in London, and a number of musicians playing traditional Byzantine instruments such as the Byzantine lyra, the Qanun and the Greek Santur.

Patreon subscribers can download all original music recorded for this episode as an album below!

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Chanters of The St Sophia Greek O...

🌙✨ EPISODE 11 IS OUT NOW ✨🌙

Episode 11 of Fall of Civilizations is finally here! Thank you to everyone who has stuck with the show through the crisis - I really hope it's been worth the wait.

Available now on SoundCloud - and it should be with your favoured podcast outlet soon.

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On the outskirts of modern Istanbul, a line of ancient walls lies crumbling into the earth...  
In this ...

6. Easter Island - Where Giants Walked

Another episode of Fall of Civilizations TV has just gone live, only for Patreon subscribers. It will be coming to YouTube in the coming weeks - but for now you are the only people to have access to it, and all completely ad-free. Your support has made it possible for me to include some absolutely gorgeous footage, including stunning aerials shot by a BBC team, and some original footage from Th...

5. The Khmer Empire - Fall of the God Kings

Episode 5 of Fall of Civilizations TV is now livem and as supporters of the show, you guys get to see it at least a week ahead of the rest of the world, and always completely ad-free. 

This was one of the most enjoyable episodes so far to turn into video, since the ruins of Angkor in all their mossy brilliance really have to be seen to be believed.

When I started this show a li...

4. The Greenland Vikings - Land of the Midnight Sun

The video accompaniment to Episode 4  is now live, exclusively for Fall of Civilizations patrons! 

This has been the most extensively remastered episode so far, bringing in some new sounds and music, including some traditional Scandinavian folk. All of this investment in the footage and new music is only possible because of the support you've given to the podcast, and I want to ...

3. The Mayans - Ruins Among the Trees

Thanks to everyone for your amazing reaction to the first releases of Fall of Civilizations TV. I'm so glad you're enjoying it, and thanks once again for your ongoing support. You should be seeing episode 4 coming to you sometime next week.

2. The Bronze Age Collapse - Mediterranean Apocalypse

Sometime around the year 1100 BC, right at the end of the Bronze Age, a wave of destruction washed over the Eastern Mediterranean. It wiped whole civilizations off the map, and left only ash and ruin in its wake. This catastrophe, known as “the Late Bronze Age Collapse”, has become one of the enduring puzzles of archaeology. I want to explore how so many societies could collapse all at once...

1. Roman Britain - The Work of Giants Crumbled

Well, it's been a crazy few weeks to say the least. We've spent the last year on this show going over the trials and tribulations of past societies, and now we're facing a true historical crisis of our own. I do hope you're all keeping safe, and looking after yourselves and those around you in this time of troubles.

I'm honestly so grateful to all of you who have continued to support the ...

A map showing the major events of Dong Zhuo's life

A painting showing the industrial processes involved in the production of silk

"The silkworms and mulberry leaves are placed on trays". Cropped from Sericulture, The Process of Making Silk (蚕织图), a Chinese Song dynasty painting attributed to Liang Kai (梁楷).

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In China, silk-worm farming was originally restricted to women, and many women were employed in the silk-making industry. Even though some saw the development of a luxury prod...

Incredible ancient silk patterns from the early Han Dynasty

Flower-patterned silk from the Tomb No. 1 at Mawangdui, Changsha, Hunan province, China, dated to the 2nd century BC during the Western Han Dynasty (202 BC - 9 AD).

The crumbling ruins of a Han-era watchtower along the Hexi Corridor

The ruins of the ancient Chinese Dunhuang watchtower from the Han Dynasty (202 BC—220 AD) — in Dunhuang, Gansu province, China.

Part of the Han-era Great Wall at Dunhuang

First ordered to be built by Emperor Wu (156 B.C. – 87 B.C.) of the Han Dynasty at the Hexi Corridor after he asserted his control of the region routinely harassed by the marauding Huns to the north of China, the Han Great Wall served the purpose of cutting off the link between the Huns and the Qiang people, another hostile tribe, as well as protecting the fledgling Silk Road that d...

A detailed map showing the extent of the Han Empire

This map shows the maximum extent of the Han Empire. 

Notable features relevant to the episode:

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- The Western Regions, in the Tarim Basin (top left), home of the Taklamakan Desert.

- Kashgar (far left), where trade caravans from China would end their journey.

- The Hexi Corridor, connecting the Empire to the Western R...

Bibliography for Episode 10

Bielenstein, Hans. The Restoration of the Han Dynasty. 1953.

Chang, Chun-shu. The Rise of the Chinese Empire. 2007.

Chin, Tamara. “Defamiliarizing the Foreigner: Sima Qian's Ethnography and Han-Xiongnu Marriage

Diplomacy.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 70, No. 2 (December 2010). 2020-02-24 10:49:45 +0000 UTC View Post

⛰️🏯 Episode 10 is now Live! 🏯⛰️

Episode 10 has just gone live! As always, I want to thank all of my supporters first and foremost. Fall of Civilizations is now a year old, and when I started out, I could never have imagined that it would gain such loyal and dedicated fans. Every one of you is helping to bring this project up to its full potential, and I'm so glad you've chosen to join me for the journey.

All the best, a...

References and Suggested Further Reading for Episode 9

If you want one or two great books to read, these are my personal favourites:

- Thomas, Hugh. The Conquest of Mexico. Pimlico, 2004. 

- Inga Clendinnen -  Aztecs: An Interpretation (1991) 

- León-Portilla, Miguel. The broken spears : the Aztec <...

A flyby 3D reconstruction of the central plaza of Tenochtitlan

A reconstruction of Tenochtitlan's Templo Mayor, showing the "Russian Doll" effect of its previous layers

Aztec temples were typically expanded by building over prior ones, using the bulk of the former as a base for the latter, as later rulers sought to expand the temple to reflect the growing greatness of the city of Tenochtitlan. Therefore, digging down through this temple takes us back in time. The first temple was begun by the Aztecs the year after they founded the city, and the temple was rebu...

An Aztec toy with perfectly engineered wheels

The Aztecs used wheels in children’s toys (such as small wheeled dogs made of pottery or occasionally obsidian) yet never considered using wheels for transport technology! A cart would have been next to useless in Mesoamerica; for a start, who or what would have pulled it? The Aztecs had no large pack animals, and human porters were more efficient at carrying individual packs over large dista...

Archaeologists excavating the 3-meter Coyolxauhqui stone that opens the episode

The Coyolxauhqui Stone is a carved, circular Aztec stone, depicting the mythical being Coyolxauhqui dismembered and decapitated. It was rediscovered in 1978 at the site of the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan, now in Mexico City.

A detailed map of the layout of the disappeared Lake Texcoco, and the position of Tenochtitlan

The first European map of the disappeared city of Tenochtitlan, published in 1524

This map, published in Nuremberg in 1524 along with copies of Hernán Cortés’ letters to Emperor Charles V translated into Latin, was the first image seen in Europe of Tenochtitlan, presented under the Habsburg imperial flag. It has been suggested that this, originally, was based on an indigenous map of the city and thus reflects the inhabitants’ own view of it, before being adapted i...

A reconstruction of how Tenochtitlan would have looked from the air in the 14th Century

🔥Episode 9 is now Live!🔥

I'm so pleased to finally announce a new episode of Fall of Civilizations! This one has been a huge undertaking, as its over 4-hour length can attest. The episode script was 30,000 words long, and I began writing it only 6 weeks ago. But this is how long I needed to this incredible story justice. I really hope all of you enjoy it - and as usual, I want to remind you that it's because of subscri...

Reed houses in the southern marshes of Iraq

A mudhif is a traditional reed house made by the Madan people (also known as Marsh Arabs) in the swamps of southern Iraq. In the traditional Madan way of living, houses are constructed from reeds harvested from the marshes where they live. The methods used in constructing these floating houses have probably changed little since the time of the Sumerians.

A reconstruction of how the city of Ur may have looked in its golden age

Credit: Artefacts Berlin ( http://www.artefacts-berlin.de/ )

The ruins of a massive ziggurat in the city of Uruk