Oldest Stories Podcast

24/11/2023

My first book, History and Myth from Sumer and Akkad, is now available on Amazon for purchase! Available in Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, Paperback, and Hardcover, the book is a fantastic introduction to the earliest history and culture of Mesopotamia. The writing is clear and engaging for the casual reader to simply enjoy as a great set of old stories, but also deep enough and with enough discussions of implications and meaning that even long time students of the region will find some new insights. The text is mostly the content from the show, organized and edited, but I have included a number of nice little features like maps and illustrations to liven things up even more. The audio version is the first 27 episodes of the Oldest Stories podcast, which are always free and available on most podcast apps, but for those who prefer to read, or want a handy reference, or want to give a bespoke gift to a history lover, or just want to support the show, check out the amazon link: https://a.co/d/eijHSk8

Thanks so much!

History and Myth from Sumer and Akkad: The Oldest Stories

31/10/2023

"Go up to the ruins of ancient cities and walk around, look at the skulls of the lowly and great. Which was the doer of evil, and which was the doer of good deeds?" - Dialogue of Pessimism c. 1000 BCE

We forget that people of the ancient world believed themselves to be, not at the beginning of history, but well towards the back end of history. These lines were written three thousand years ago, and already they had the ruins of long-dead cities around them to ponder. And they pondered these ruins with a fascinating mix of nihilism and antiquity. Remember that in 1000 BCE, writing was already 2,000 years old, cities had been built in Mesopotamia for 4,000 years, and settled agriculture had been a fact of life for six to eight thousand years already.

Our own civilizations, our own deeds, are no more than "dust in the wind" (to quote a famous philosopher). The Dialogue of Pessimism will be the first episode of the new year and will return us back to ancient Mesopotamia. It is actually usually read as a comedy, despite its theme of despair. Make sure you are following the Oldest Stories podcast for the conclusion of Israelite history and in anticipation of our return to Assyria.

25/05/2023

With the announcement of Total War: Pharaoh, a war game set during the Bronze Age Collapse, I decided now was the time to branch out into video. I am not the world's best youtuber yet, still a lot to learn about sound quality, video quality, and editing, but I had a lot of fun putting together a historical accuracy review of the announcement trailer. I had intended it as a joke, because I thought the trailer was extremely light on content, but somehow I filled like 14 minutes with nitpicks and observations. Anyway, definitely check it out, give me likes and comments and shares, because I want to grow this youtube channel and hopefully start making lore videos about ancient history.

https://youtu.be/CwHmncZ7Np4

17/02/2023

Spotify gave me a new sharing thing just after posting the last post.

Check this out! Listen now on .

17/02/2023

What is the origins of the Hebrews, and what does it have to do with Habiru/'Apiru? There is a lot of conspiracy nonsense on this topic, but today we cut through it to get a good sense of how the idea of outsider status may have played a role in the formation of the Hebrew people. This is a bit of a break from the chronological narrative, so feel free to jump in here even if you haven't been following along so far. Also, it always helps the show if you can share and repost!

Check this out! Listen now on .

24/01/2023

Breaking Archeological News: The Amorite Language has been decoded! And it is extremely closely related to ancient Hebrew! A phrasebook was discovered to teach people who already know Akkadian how to say a wide variety of things in the Amorite language, and just recently came out of peer-review, so we can be confident that it is legit. This is like the Rosetta stone, but actually way better because it is like discovering an ancient language textbook. Previously, we knew a few scattered words of Amorite, but very little survived because it was written alphabetically, mostly on leather and papyrus which long since decayed away.

Most significantly, this proves clearly what had been long suspected, that Amorite was a mother language of Hebrew, much like how French came from Latin. This will allow us to re-analyze a lot about the ancient Hebrew language, it will allow translation of a number of tiny Amorite fragments, and it lets us know about the language that famous figures like Hammurabi and the biblical Abraham would have spoken in day-to-day life. This is genuinely one of the largest archeological discoveries and the largest biblical archeology find in decades.

Here is an article from Haaretz about it as well: https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/2023-01-20/ty-article/two-3-800-year-old-cuneiform-tablets-found-in-iraq-give-first-glimpse-of-hebrew-precursor/00000185-ca23-d3a8-a3cf-cf3326430000

18/08/2022

If you haven't been listening to the Oldest Stories podcast about the history and culture of ancient Mesopotamia, now is the perfect time to start. Our backlog is over 120 episodes, on topics from the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonian, Hittites and more, as well as their gods, myths, science, literature, industry, military, and daily life. But, for those who don't feel like going through all that, our previous episode was a bird's eye view of the whole of the bronze age, and today's episode begins the exciting trek through iron age Mesopotamia, which will pass by the historical kingdoms of Israel and Judah before culminating in the terrifying Neo-Assyrians and highly cultured Neo-Babylonians.

You can check out the Oldest Stories podcast on nearly any podcast platform or on Youtube, and you can comment on this ad if you have any questions about the show, about ancient history, or if you are having trouble finding it. I hope you enjoy the show!

Welcome to the iron age. Though the international system of the late bronze age has collapsed under the weight of countless invaders, the Babylonians and Assyrians in their much diminished empires still have eyes only for each other. For them, no era has really ended, the great struggle between the....

05/08/2022

Bronze Age Mesopotamia - 2000 years of history in 45 minutes. Now that the podcast is finally past the bronze age, you can listen to 120 episodes covering the whole period in some detail, or check out this one episode to get a bird's eye view. This is a great refresher for long time listeners, and a great place to start for those just getting into it, or those more interested in the iron age empires of Assyria and Babylon.

This is a summary of the bronze age in ancient Mesopotamia, covering the years about 3000 BCE to 1200 BCE. This is a review of about 119 episodes of the oldest stories podcast, covering all of season 1 before we move into season 2, which will cover iron age Mesopotamia and their near eastern neighbo...

26/04/2022

Oldest Stories is now available on Amazon Music and Audible! Just search Oldest Stories if you want to listen on those platforms. I didn't realize audible actually had podcasts until just today, so I hadn't realized that I needed to list it separately. Also, it should be completely free. Anyone with the audible app or amazon music, whether you are paying for it or not, should be able to access the podcast.

21/04/2022

I have been excited for this series for a while. We are going to look at industry for a few episodes. How were things made in ancient Mesopotamia, and how did those makers live, that sort of thing. I had a lot of fun researching it, and I hope you like it too.

First episode looks at reeds and mud, humble materials that were at the heart of mesopotamian civilization.

Perhaps the defining material of ancient Mesopotamia was dirt. Buildings were made by mud brick, and those buildings were filled by clay pottery of all sorts. Today we are going to look at the people who made these things and how they made them. It will necessarily be a bit of a summary, sort of tak...

06/04/2022

Today's episode is all about answering listener questions, but if you still have any questions about ancient Mesopotamia, go ahead and leave a comment right here, or go over to the contact page at oldeststories.net to send a more direct message.

Make sure to check out today's episode, covering lots of topics, from economics to Israel to the long term impact of ancient mesopotamia on today's world: https://anchor.fm/oldeststories/episodes/Listener-Questions-e1go3b1

A long time ago I asked for listener questions, and also posted a call for questions over on tiktok, and here they are finally getting answered. This is theoretically the hundredth episode special, but depending on how you count it, we are either on episode 97 or on episode 110-ish. It is a grab bag...

10/03/2022

The Ba'al cycle is finally complete over on the Oldest Stories podcast. If you have been waiting for the full thing to check it out, now is your chance to learn all about bronze age Canaan and their pre-israelite myths. Next week is going to get me in trouble as I relate Genesis 1-11 to ancient Mesopotamian myths. I am going to get tons of hate mail, it will be lots of fun.

Today we conclude the Baal cycle with the epic final confrontation between Baal Hadad, rightful lord of the Canaanite heavens, and Mot, the deity whose name literally means Death. How can a god fight against death itself? What were the Canaanites smoking when they came up with these stories? What ar...

27/02/2022

Do you have any questions about ancient Mesopotamia? The oldest stories tiktok as doing Q&A, just drop a comment or a message to me, and I will be doing short answers on tiktok. I have wanted to do a q&a podcast episode, but haven't gotten enough questions for that, but if I get good questions here, there will be short answers on tiktok and more complete answers in the special Q&A episode.

16/02/2022

The ancient Canaanites are poorly understood, and much of their history and myth has been forgotten. Over the last few weeks, the Oldest Stories podcast has been taking a look at what we do know about the ancient precursors to the Israelites, first with the bronze age history of the region, and now with the great myths, including legends of Danel, who appears in the bible, and the god Ba'al, who also appears in the bible, a bit less favorably.

If you aren't already subscribed to the Oldest Stories podcast on Spotify or your favorite podcast app, the Canaanite mini-series starts here: https://radiopublic.com/oldest-stories-G4rmNp/s1!d4e9f

Oldest Stories is a podcast about the history and culture of the ancient near east, beginning with the beginning of civilization five thousand years ago, and now slowly moving into the great age of Mesopotamian empires. Come check us out at the link above, or search Oldest Stories on your favorite podcast app.

The Oldest Stories Hiatus continues, but I a still inspired to push out some episodes when I get a chance. This is the beginning of a mini series on another culture group that got largely missed in Season 1, the lands of Canaan, or Phoenicia, or the Levant, or any of the other names that are attache...

16/02/2022

Also, I am on tiktok now. I haven't been super active on Facebook because I was never really sure what I should be posting here, but over on tiktok I am doing 1-2 minute fact of the day videos about ancient Mesopotamia. Some of it is stuff a loyal listener already knows, but also I am doing readings of things that don't really fit into the main show, like ancient medical procedures, hymns, and proverbs. Today I posted about how the oldest fart jokes are also some of the oldest wisdom. If that sounds interesting, come over and follow me or whatever you do on tiktok. If you aren't on tiktok, you probably don't need to join just to see my face, but if you are already on there, a like and a subscribe won't hurt.

https://www.tiktok.com/

I should add, if anyone is more familiar with tiktok than I am, I am super new to the platform and would appreciate any feedback or advice on the new channel. Drop a comment or send a message or whatever. Thanks.

10 Followers, 8 Following, 65 Likes - Watch awesome short videos created by Jeb Bleckley

16/02/2022

I haven't been around Facebook lately, but the podcast is still going strong. If you haven't listened lately, we are looking at Canaanite history and myth, we have finished this history bit and are now into the famous Ba'al cycle. Come check it out!

https://anchor.fm/oldeststories/episodes/Canaan-7---The-Baal-Cycle-e1c6bki

Today we begin perhaps the most significant of the surviving myths from Canaan, the Baal cycle. In the Baal cycle, we look at Ba'al Hadad, the mighty storm god, as he battles various foes in a great contest over the kingship of heaven. It is a subject we have seen before, but of course the Canaanite...

17/02/2021

New Episode! Kumarbi Strikes Back - The cycle continues with two tales of Kumarbi summoning ever stronger champions to defeat Tessub and reclaim the throne of heaven. We aren't sure who Lamma is exactly, but there are a few possiblities, each of which is a pretty obscure minor god. The other champion is Silver, a poor orphan boy who finds great potential within himself. However, it seems that the Hurrians didn't like underdog stories, and both of these heroes from humble origins are defeated by the rightful king in the end. these tales are probably fairly typical of the genre of Kumarbi cycle stories, of which we know from the number of fragments and references there must have been a fair number that have not survived to the modern day.

Your support and word of mouth are crucial to helping get the word out about the show. The more you share these posts and tell friends about Oldest Stories, the bigger the show will grow, and the easier it will be to justify all the time I spend to my wife. As always, check it out by subscribing to Oldest Stories on your favorite podcast app, or looking us up on youtube, or following the link here: https://anchor.fm/oldeststories/episodes/OS-69---Kumarbi-Strikes-Back-eqbavr

The Song of Lamma and the song of Silver, two further adventures in the Kumarbi cycle. Tessub may be the Hurrian king in heaven, but Kumarbi still wants to pull him down, and hatches scheme after scheme to defeat his usurper. Lamma is an obscure god, possibly a Lamassu, possibly the god Karhuhi, but...

10/02/2021

New Episode! The Song of Kumarbi - I haven't been on social media for a while, but the Oldest Stories has continued plunging headlong into the late bronze age. But starting today, our focus is going to turn more intensely on the Hurrians, first with a series on Hurrian literature, then in a few weeks with tales from the lives of real Hurrians. The focus today is the Song of Kumarbi, sometime also called the Song of Going Forth, which begins the famous Kumarbi, or Kingship in Heaven Cycle, the most famous work of Hurrian myth. This is a tale of the high gods, and their struggles to take the throne of heaven for either the line of the celestial gods, or for the line of the underworld gods. Naturally, this struggle involves violence and intrigue in equal measure, and tells us quite a lot about Hurrian and ancient near eastern religion im general. Not only is this a good story that reveals a lot about the Hurrian mindset, it also has traces which endure into the Greek period, possibly forming the mythical substrate on which Hesiod's Theogony was developed.

As usual, you can subscribe to Oldest Stories on any podcast player or on Youtube, or listen at the main link here: https://anchor.fm/oldeststories/episodes/OS-68---The-Song-of-Kumarbi-eq4m1j

Today we begin the great epic of the Hurrians, the Kumarbi cycle, which in multiple fragmentary episodes discusses the multiple conflicts over kingship that the Hurrian gods have with each other. Focusing particularly on the battle between Tessub and Kumarbi, it draws in a number of gods from both n...

30/01/2021

The show website is improving, I hope. I have re-recorded some early episodes, and even added a new episode 2.5 to cover the early history and pre-history of Mesopotamia. If you haven't checked the new episode out yet, scroll all the way to the bottom of your podcast player's subscription, or click the link here: https://anchor.fm/oldeststories/episodes/OS-2-5---Before-the-Beginning-epgti3

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 and Euphrates? Drawing from archeology and the very oldest writings, we look at the origins of Sumer, the pre-Sumerian Ubaids, the landscape....

20/01/2021

New episode! Enter the Arena - I have been a bit busy with work lately, but this week we are Introducing the final two players of the late bronze age. Egypt you have heard of, but this is a good chance to compare the two histories and take a look at Egyptian-mesopotamian exchange in earlier eras. The Mitanni, on the other hand need a bit more explanation, but at the same time are probably the most obscure great power of the bronze age. Lets take a look at both of them and bring the series up to 1450 BCE. Now that my contract is up for my day job, I am going to be doing some back end work to hopefully improve the show. Next week scroll all the way to the bottom of the listing of episodes on your podcast player, since the new episode will be a special discussing the very earliest history of Mesopotamia, so be on the lookout for that.

This week's episode can be found on your favorite podcast player, or youtube, or listened too right here at this link: https://anchor.fm/oldeststories/episodes/Enter-the-Arena-ep08bn

The world of the Late Bronze Age is expanding, and today we introduce the two final players to the near east battleground. Egypt is probably familiar to many, though worth a bit of an introduction to see what exactly the Nile valley is doing to bring it into our story. Mitanni, however, and its peop...

09/12/2020

New Episode! Telepinu, the Vanishing God - Hittite Myths! Turns out they are surprisingly important and influential on the near east as a whole, and today's isn't even the big one. Still, the notion of a vanishing god and the implications for the idea of where evil comes from in the world will have echos all the way into certain early Christian heterodox movements. We will look in this episode heavily at the myth-ritual nexus, the often forgotten context of many ancient stories, and get a good feel for how the ancient Anatolians thought about the hardships that hung over their everyday lives. And, of course, I think it is an interesting story all by itself in its many iterations. So join us today as we listen to the Myth of the Vanshing God, also called the Telepinu myth, here on Oldest Stories.

You can listen to the newest episode of Oldest Stories by subscribing in your favorite podcast app, or on youtube, or at the direct link here: https://anchor.fm/oldeststories/episodes/Telipinu--the-Vanishing-God-ek967g

A god is furious, and in his fury he has abandoned the people and the kingdom to suffer one catastrophe after another. Today we look at the myth, the ritual, and the theological understanding of why bad things happened and what to do about them, according to ancient Anatolian traditions that pre-dat...

04/11/2020

New Episode! Lament for Ur - So, I didn't intend to release a lament for a fallen civilization on election day, but it just worked out that way. This is a wonderful bit of literature, even if it loses something in translation, and the real value is in the evocative, emotional aspect of the Lament more than breaking it down and analyzing it. While it was likely performed with a group alternating verse and chorus, there were probably many variations in the millenia long life of this poem. And so, hopefully, I can do it a little bit of justice.

As always, subscribe to Oldest Stories on your favorite podcast player, or give a listen over here: https://anchor.fm/oldeststories/episodes/Lament-for-Ur-elfall

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 would continue to be performed and recorded until the end of Mesopotamian civilization some fifteen hundred years later, and may well have surv...

27/10/2020

New Episode! During the re-discovery of the ancient Sumerian civilization, adventurer archeologists wrote narratives of their explorations which became hugely popular. This is not one of those narratives. This is a fictional account by HP Lovecraft written in the style of those travelogues. While it is incredibly entertaining and not a little bit spooky for halloween, it is also a valuable window for looking at how people at the turn of the last century experienced the wonder, mystery, and yes, horror, of discovering a civilization older than anything they had previously thought possible.

On the Oldest Stories podcast, I talk about the history and myth of the oldest civilizations of the near east. Today's episode, reading a fairly modern work instead of ancient texts, is something of a break as we transition from the Old Babylonian period into the Late Bronze Age. Check it out on youtube, your favorite podcast player, or here at the link: https://anchor.fm/oldeststories/episodes/Fanciful-Notions-of-Antiquity-elfaft

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 modern archaeologists re-discovered the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia. This is a work of fiction of course, meant to shock, amaze and hor...

14/10/2020

It is not often we get to look too deeply into the life of an average person from 3500 years ago, but today we are looking at the surviving records of a single man, named Ubarum, and follow his life as he manages his affairs. Ubarum was a soldier, rewarded by the famous ilkum system, but this is not a war story. This is a managing life at home story. This is a tale of disagreement between people, of household management, and of entrepreneurship, all undertaken by a man recognizably human, living in a time and place it is hard for many of us to even imagine.

This gets us back into the historical narrative of Late Old Babylon after Hammurabi, and the whole Babylon series is available in the playlist at the link, or on whatever platform you prefer using for podcasts. Just search for Oldest Stories and make sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. https://anchor.fm/oldeststories/episodes/Soldier-of-Babylon--Ubarum-efhf9m

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 of side business and by the end of his life became comfortably middle class. Today we will not be telling the story of gods or kings, but the...

07/10/2020

Poem of the Righteous Sufferer is passionate, philosophical, and over 3,500 years old. Written in praise of Marduk, it still captures the power and unfathomability common to many of the greatest deities of the world. The Poem of the Righteous Sufferer, or Ludlul-Bel-Nimeqi in Akkadian, is one of the oldest works of theodicy in history, and part of a long running philosophical tradition in Mesopotamian society. Marduk, clad in splendor and robed in dread brings first suffering and then relief on a man for seemingly no reason, and in this tale we will see both the events that occurred to him and his attempts to make sense of it all.

We get to see how people lived, how they suffered, and how they thought through a truly timeless piece of literature. Much of the poetry is lost in translation, but there is still a fair bit of excitement and literary merit even in the fragmentary english version. Subscribe to Oldest Stories on youtube or your favorite podcast app, or check out today's episode here: https://anchor.fm/oldeststories/episodes/Poem-of-the-Righteous-Sufferer-efhell

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 in Mesopotamian society. Marduk, clad in splendor and robed in dread brings first suffering and then relief on a man for seemingly no reason...

16/09/2020

New Episode! Hammurabi's Code of Laws - Here it is, a special episode for the 50th episode of Oldest Stories. What is the most famous thing to come out of Babylon, or probably all of ancient mesopotamia? Probably Hammurabi's law code. But what does it say, and what does it mean? Now that we have 8 episodes of context for the Old Babylonian Empire, lets take a long, long look at the great legal project that made Hammurabi a household name even 3700 years later. Note, this episode clocks in at a bit over two hours, and covers the entire legal code, prologue and epilogue, plus commentary. I recognize that it won't be interesting to everyone, so feel free to skip it if two hours of enduring and revealing jurisprudence sounds not so exciting. On the flip side, if you do listen to the whole thing, then you will be well prepared in case a time travelling Babylonian attempts to bring a lawsuit against you for professional negligence. As always, Oldest Stories is available on your favorite podcast app, youtube, or right here at this link: https://anchor.fm/oldeststories/episodes/Hammurabis-Code-of-Laws-edp5vk

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 through the entire law code of Hammurabi, start to finish, with commentary and extensive quotes. Not kidding, this is going to be seriously....

02/09/2020

New Episode! Hammurabi's women and slaves - After multiple episodes about men and power, it is time to remember that the majority of any ancient society was neither powerful nor male. This teeming mass of people on whose backs the great civilizations were built are largely invisible, simply because they were illiterate and we depend heavily on written sources. But there is still a lot we can say about the women and the slaves at the bottom, which is in turn a critical piece of the puzzle of Babylonian society. https://anchor.fm/oldeststories/episodes/Hammurabis-Women-and-Slaves-edp5cl

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 information also tended to neglect them as well. But today we will do what we can to rectify the situation and give you as complete a view of Babyloni...

30/08/2020

Bonus Episode! It is a bit of a jump forward from Babylon, but as a special bonus episode, in collaboration with a bunch of other people, I did an early release of the Anatolian myth about the Slaying of Illuyanka the serpent. It is a bit of an odd story, both being part of a massive dragon slaying tradition, but with some quite odd features for that. So check it out if you want to hear about epic battles, perfidious traps, and the curious people of Anatolia who we will be getting to once the current Babylon series is complete. Check it out in your podcast player, you are subscribed to Oldest Stories by now, yeah? Or take a look over on my youtube channel here: https://youtu.be/9UqmQJ-VkbI

And don't forget to look in the description for the whole serpent series playlist. The myths of serpents are a common thread throughout human cultures, and by looking at many of the different manifestations of this tale, we can learn a lot about different cultures, and the human condition in general. Plus, these are some really fun stories told by some really great folks, so make sure to check it out.

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 th...

26/08/2020

Hammurabi has reached the height of his power over on the Oldest Stories podcast, where the myth and history of ancient mesopotamia is told. With the great campaigns finished, it is time for both the mighty king and the show to turn our attentions to other matters. How does a king of old Babylon handle the rebellions springing up in his newly forged empire? And how does everyone, from king to common man, relate to the ancient gods of the bronze age?

We look at both of these matters this week as the Oldest Stories podcast continues our series on the Old Babylonian Empire. Already we have looked at his war machine, his administration, and the greater part of the massive wars that reshaped human society 4000 years ago, and as we continue there is plenty more about the history of Babylon and the life of people from top to bottom in the society that built so much of the civilization we enjoy today.

Check it out at the link, or search Oldest Stories in your favorite podcast app. https://anchor.fm/oldeststories/episodes/Hammurabis-Rebels-and-Oracles-edp59b

Hammurabi's final conquests are almost perfunctory, but his responses to the subsequent rebellions is anything but. Much of the episode however is concerned with the practice of religion in old Babylon and how it intertwined with everything from the daily lives of commoners to matters of state polic...