The ruins of Ur today, with the Ziggurat of Ur visible in the background
Fall of Civilizations Podcast posts
Gold helmet of King of Ur I Meskalamdug, circa 2600–2500 BCE
Notes on the Sumerian music in Episode 8
Huge thanks are owed to musicians Gayle and Philip Neuman, who agreed to let me use some of their reconstructions of ancient Sumerian music in Episode 8. Read detailed notes on the music in the link above.
2019-10-25 11:48:10 +0000 UTC View Post
Table illustrating the progressive simplification of cuneiform signs
Example of the earliest cuneiform pictographs, with objects like jars and sheaves of wheat recognisably depicted
Sumerian cuneiform tablet, probably from Uruk, Mesopotamia, c. 3100–2900 BCE; in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
2019-10-25 11:37:55 +0000 UTC View PostPost-glacial flooding of the Persian Gulf
At the time of the last glacial maximum, about 18,000 years ago, global sea level was about 130 meters lower than it is at present. Between 18,000 and about 6000 years ago, most of the ice melted off of Canada and Scandinavia, causing sea level to rise, flooding the rims of all the dry lands.
At the glacial maximum, the coastline lay near the edge of the continental shelf of ...
2019-10-25 11:32:01 +0000 UTC View PostA map of the key cities of Sumer, as well as the ancient coastline (modern coast marked in blue)
Bibliography & Further Reading for Episode 8
Black, Jeremy. The Literature of Ancient Sumer. 2004.
Bottéro, Jean. Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamia. Translated by Antonia Nevill. John Hopkins UP, 2001.
Cooper, Jerrold S. Sumerian and Akkadian in Sumer and Akkad. Orientalia NOVA SERIES, Vol. 42 (1973), pp. 239-246. 2019-10-25 11:12:47 +0000 UTC View Post
In the studio today recording for episode 8!
This episode is around 20,000 words, so it's going to be a long session. But I'm really excited about this one, can't wait to share it.
2019-10-08 09:47:18 +0000 UTC View PostAncient petroglyphs showing evidence of animal life in the green Sahara
The Dobous Giraffes are the world's largest animal petroglyphs. These life-size depiction of the world's tallest animal were carved into rocks, in what is now the Saharan Desert, sometime between 7,000 - 11,000 years ago, when the Sahara was a greener place.
2019-08-29 10:42:37 +0000 UTC View PostThe Great Mosque of Djenné
The Great Mosque of Djenné is a large banco or adobe building that is considered by many architects to be one of the greatest achievements of the Sudano-Sahelian architectural style.
The mosque is located in the city of Djenné, Mali, on the flood plain of the Bani River. The first mosque on the site was built around the 13th century, but the current structure dates from 1907.
A beautiful article about the preservation of medieval manuscripts in the Sahara
“The state has been trying to lay its hands on them for years,” Seif Islam, the manager of a local library, told The Guardian. “Would you part with your hand or your foot? It [the library] is a part of us.”
2019-08-29 10:34:25 +0000 UTC View PostThe beautiful manuscript of the Timbuktu Chronicle, Tarikh al-Fattash
The Tarikh al-fattash is one of the main historical sources I use in episode 7, and this is what the document actually looks like.
It's a West African chronicle written in Arabic in the second half of the 17th century. It provides an account of the Songhai Empire from the reign of Sonni Ali (ruled 1464-1492) up to 1599 with a few references to events in the following century. The chronic...
A detail from the 1375 Catalan Atlas, showing the Malian Emperor Mansa Musa holding a gold coin
This is the lower portion of the sheet and shows the Western Sahara. The Atlas Mountains are at the top and the River Niger at the bottom. Mansa Musa is shown sitting on a throne and holding a gold coin.
The Catalan inscription reads:
aquest senyor negre es appellat musse melly, senyor dels negres de Gineva. Aquest rey es lo pus rich el pus noble senyor de tot...
The tomb of Askiya Muhammed in Gao, Mali
Askia Muhammad was ruler of the Songhai Empire between 1493 - 1528. He is remembered as Askia the Great, since he strengthened Songhai and made it the largest empire in West Africa's history.
At its peak under his reign, the Songhai Empire encompassed the Hausa states as far as Kano (in present-day Nigeria) and much of the territory that had belonged to the Songhai empire in the west. Hi...
A wonderful map of the overlapping territories of the Ghana, Mali and Songhai Empires
From the book: Caravans of Gold, Fragments of Time by Kathleen Berzock.
2019-08-29 10:17:53 +0000 UTC View PostView of the Niger River, from on top of the Rose Dune outside the city of Gao
This image shows how wide the Niger can get around Gao.
2019-08-29 10:14:00 +0000 UTC View PostMap of the Niger River Basin
Timbuktu (Tombouctou) is also labelled, close to the Niger Bend.
2019-08-29 10:12:10 +0000 UTC View PostBibliography and Further Reading for Episode 7
These are some of the works cited in Episode 7, in case you want to chase them down yourself for some further reading. I highly recommend Conrad and Gomez, and Wise's translation of the Tarikh al-fataash is unparalleled.
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Conrad, David. Empires of Medieval West Africa: Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. Infobase Publishing, 2009. <...
2019-08-29 09:50:12 +0000 UTC View Post👑 Episode 7 of Fall of Civilizations is now live! 👑
As usual, I like to give my subscribers a little advance warning that the next episode is coming out today. It's currently available on SoundCloud at the link above, and from there will be pushed to all your usual podcast platforms as they update, and YouTube later today.
As usual, I want to say thank you to every one of you for making this possible. This episode is over 2 hours and...
2019-08-29 09:28:10 +0000 UTC View PostInteresting article for those still thinking about the Classic Mayan collapse
Interesting article for those still thinking about Episode 3, on the Classic Mayan collapse.
Evidence that "total war" may have been more common in the Mayan world than has commonly been assumed.
Some fascinating new research for those still thinking about Episode 2, The Bronze Age Collapse
DNA analysis on descendants of at least one group of "Sea Peoples" traces their origins to southern Europe.
'The DNA data suggest a kernel of truth to Greek and Middle Eastern legends that describe survivors who moved south after the catastrophic collapse of great Bronze Age civilizations of the Mediterranean in the late 13th and early 12th centuries B.C.E. "This [DNA] story of migr...
2019-07-09 10:15:03 +0000 UTC View PostGoogle Maps for the Roman World
Stanford University has created a "Google Maps" for the Roman world. This is the cheapest route from Rome to Londinium during winter...
Play with it here: http://orbis.stanford.edu/
2019-07-09 10:12:44 +0000 UTC View Post
The largest ahu (platform) on Easter Island
Ahu Tongariki is the largest ahu on Easter Island. Its moai were toppled following European contact, and in the twentieth century the ahu was swept inland by a tsunami.
It has since been restored and has fifteen moai including an 86 tonne moai that was the heaviest ever erected on the island. All the moai here face sunset during Summer Solstice.
2019-06-30 09:07:02 +0000 UTC View Post