Indus Valley Civilization - the missing link

As I already wrote in my post about Ancient History podcasts, I am always on the lookout for new podcast episodes that deal with the Indus Valley Civilization. Little is known about this civ and nothing beats a good mystery, but there is more than just this vague general curiosity.

I was first alerted to the Indus Valley Civ (IVC) by an old history podcast David Kalivas World History podcast, that dates from 2005 and podfaded between 2007 and 2010. David Kalivas not only pointed out what makes the Indus Valley Civ so fascinating in itself: its not yet deciphered script, its amazing stretch (far more vast that other civs), its uncommon social structure (very egalitarian possibly?), and not least of all: its disappearance. Nothing seems to be left from it. What we find nowadays in India and Pakistan are the prolonged product of the Aryans that moved into the IVC's sphere and who apparently replaced it completely. Enough titillating angles to explore in a podcast, but Kalivas taught us more.

Kalivas made a general point about how we deal with Ancient History and its civs - we generally treat them as isolated entries, but he postulated that it is far more likely that the civs interacted intensively and heavily influenced one another. It was this proposition that has inspired me since and whenever I am looking into ancient history, I am looking for those indications of communication, exchange and influence from the other civs. This influence supposedly crosses the boundaries of geography, but also of time; civs are learning and copying from other civs that they come in contact with and from civs that have come before them and from which they inherit in one way or another.

Since the famous seals from the IVC were found as far away as Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Arabian Penninsula, we know there was contact, but since we know so little, we cannot identify what the recipients got from IVC. Similarly, we know that Aryans came after the IVC and we know them a lot better from the writings that are the basis of Hindu culture today, but what remains of the IVC in the Indus world of today? Did the Aryans learn some of their stuff from IVC, or copied it, or if not that, as they were driving the old people out, did they push them into south India and give us the Dravidian languages? A lot of possibilities, but little concrete evidence.

Recently I found two more podcast episodes with an angle on the IVC. The first was an issue of The Maritime History podcast (feed): Harappa and the Erythraean Sea. The perspective of this podcast as the title indicates, is to relate sea-faring in history. This particular episode is to discuss the sea-faring in the Arabian sea in Ancient Times. What we learn is that this early in history (3rd milennium BCE), people managed to exploit the monsoon winds and their regular cycle. We also learn that this can be understood from Egyptian and Babylonian sources. The sources sum up the various products that can be had in the various ports on the opposite ends of the monsoon region, but also detailed pointers from sailors how and when the monsoon wind can be used to sail to the other side and how the coast can be recognized and should be navigated. The podcasts proceeds to describe what we already knew about the IVC, when and where it blossomed and that it traded with Egypt and Mesopotamia, probably through middle men. The archaeology of this civ is relatively new, and for example there are no finds of ships or shipping material, but since the archaeology is so new, we may be getting significant new insights in the near future. And so, the podcast follows the assumption that we already adopted, that there was intensive trade, yet it emphasizes there is still not that much evidence. Consequently, with the likely exchange still not entirely proven, it is still too early to suggest ideas of how the IVC got influenced and how it influenced others. So not many new ideas but a valuable addition on the technicalities of seafaring in those days in that area.

The second was an issue in the German podcast Hoaxilla - Der skeptische Podcast aus Hamburg (feed): Mohenjo Daro. This podcast digs into the question of how the IVC could so suddenly disappear without much trace. And the reason for this podcast, that is for skeptics and not necessarily for history lovers, to take on the subject, is because they try to debunk the claim that Mohenjo Daro was wiped out by a prehistoric atomic bomb. The debunking of such a preposterous theory is obviously very easy and harrdly noteworthy if the podcast had stopped there, but the real interesting part is where they discuss what would be a more convincing theory to explain the rather rapid decline of the IVC (not just in the Mohenjo Daro area but also at Harappa and elsewhere). Here we are presented with some good possible answers to this very central question. The best contribution in my opinion is that not only does the podcast point out that more reasonable theories are better founded in the available data and therefore more convincing, but they also make the truly scientific point that in history circles is less often brought up: what makes a theory a good theory is that it offers more explanation embedded in more of the available data than what competing or previous theories did. Not necessarily because it will more likely turn out to be true, but it is more interesting and has more propelling power for the study in the field.

The podcast backlog - Ancient History Podcasts

The last podcast review I wrote is about two and a half years old. In the mean time lots of new podcasts have been added to the collection and many worth mentioning - where to start?

Let's start with a collection. Some two years ago I embarked on a quest for sources on ancient history, attempting to fill the gaps and dig up the roots of the more familiar eras. And not to forget as a continuation of my everlasting search for sources on my favorite ancient civilization: The Indus Valley Civ. No luck, there, but on the whole, a lot was found.

The History of Europe Podcast (feed)
Unfortunately podfaded, but the chapters can still be found in the feed. This podcast never really got to tell the history of Europe, really, but what it did manage to do is tell really ancient history - Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age. So, as far as ancient history is concerned- this is where to start.

Rob Monaco's The Podcast History of our World (feed) also starts way back in the dawn of man. Yet he moves more quickly through the era's. A huge added value of this podcast is the quality of the narration. We are taking huge steps through history and it could have turned out superficial and sketchy and worst of all, what always seems to hurt exposes of ancient history, disconnected and fragmented. Yet, Rob manages to turn the pieces into a mesmerizing flowing tale of real people.

Another podcast that has this quality is Scott C.'s The Ancient World (feed). The collection has a part A, which is the 'true' history part and this is the one I have listened to on my quest for old old history with great joy. In part B, Scott has gone on a path that is very worthwhile and befitting his talents and a history podcast, but which did not serve my listening goal; he has forged the history bits in lively tales, making the podcast less a history and more a story-telling podcast.

Although I had no luck finding a podcast about the Indus Valley Civilization. Others civs are there to be had: The Chinese in Laszlo Montgomery's excellent The China History Podcast (feed) which you know already if you follow this blog. Add to this the Japanese in Cameron Foster's A Short History of Japan (feed) which I also should have mentioned before.

There are also new ones I found: Dominic Perry's The Egyptian History Podcast (feed). Excellent and detailed.

Another fantastic find: Khodadad Rezakhani's The History of Iran Podcast (feed) Very professional. Waiting eagerly for new episodes

Lastly, a podcast that can not be found in iTunes: History of Armenia Podcast Series (feed)

The history of English and the history of the alphabet

Recently I have been dedicating all my listening time to one podcaster, Kevin Stroud, who offers two series on the web. The first is The History of English Podcast which has by now reached its 30th episode, 20 of which I have managed to cover since I made the discovery. The other is The History of the Alphabet which I learned about through the aforementioned and which I listened through from beginning to end in one fell swoop.

Kevin Stroud is an American lawyer with a love for language, who has taken up the unique challenge among history podcasts to relate the history of a language, any language. His history of the English language goes back to the earliest of beginnings, the Indo-European language and slowly takes it from there. He delivers a lot of linguistic samples but by following a historic narrative which is in many ways a retelling of the main stream history from the dawn of civilization up to modern times. This means he delivers material that is touched upon by many other podcasters. I am not sure whether he is familiar with them all, but I find his history to be closely in synch with what is known through other sources. What makes the podcast unique, original and highly interesting is the linguistic perspective. In addition, Stroud has a good voice and delivers his text in a way that is highly effective in audio, that is, his sentences are straightforward and he does not shy away from repetition so that you cannot get lost and his point passes really well. (feed)

During this podcast, Stroud naturally gives a lot of attention to the development of script in general and the alphabet in particular. For example he dedicated a whole episode to the letter C. However, for a more extensive and systematic discussion of the alphabet and this different letters, he decided to make another series: The history of the alphabet. This is more of an audio-book and it can be purchased from several vendors at a price around $9, but I bought it for $6 directly at the podcast's website. It is the first time I have actually paid money for audio and I have not regretted it for a single moment. This series has shown me how the Hebrew alphabet that I had to learn at a later age is much more closely related and traceable in the Latin alphabet with which I grew up than I thought. It clarifies some of the strange spellings you encounter, especially in English and French, but not much less in Dutch. I also never knew that the letters J and V are actually so new in our language that the first dictionaries that were made, like for example Samuel Johnson's (1755), did not even treat them separately from I and U.

I'll continue to catch up with Stroud's podcast and in the mean time I should be updating you on many other new podcasts I have been picking up on of late. Many of these also dive into ancient history, so it seems I am really going through a 'back to the roots' phase as it were. My playlist contains The Ancient World, Myths and History of Ancient Greece and the Podcast History of our World to name a few along this line.

Ötzi in Podcast

I used to feel that prehistory were not that interesting. Too little data to go on, too few narratives that can be reconstructed. But with a find such as Ötzi the Iceman, human history of 5000 years ago suddenly bursts to life. In the twenty years that have passed since the find, Ötzi has not stopped telling us new stuff about his life in the Copper Age.

I was reminded to Ötzi by an original amateur podcast The History of Europe Podcast (feed) Christopher Linehan tells the history of Europe, as so many other podcasters do, but his starting point is the earliest of histories. Since the first episodes he has worked his way from the Paleolithic to the Chalcolithic period in the 7th issue. And it is there that Ötzi pops up. With his copper age axe and his whole body and garments preserved in the Alpine ice, he allows Linehan to tell a much more specific story in his podcast.

But if you are new to Ötzi, before listening to Linehan's History of Europe, listen first to Stuff You missed in History Class ( feed) where the basics are told of how Ötzi was found in the Alps between Austria and Italy, however they first thought it was the body of a recently disappeared hiker. Only when the forensic experts had extracted the body fully from the ice it began to dawn this might be a much older individual.

Modern technology has allowed so many ways of analyzing the remains, so that each part of it can be the subject of an entire podcast. Ötzi's shoes for example. The shoes are discussed by Linehan's History of Europe as well as the charming, but short episode of Engines of our ingenuity (feed). The shoes are made of multiple materials and considered extremely fit for the iceman's trek through the mountains. The podcast even goes as far as to claim Ötzi's shoes are even better than many shoes modern people wear. Think about that when you barge around on your crocs.

A huge subject is also Ötzi's medical record: his genetic makeup, his diseases, fractures and wounds as well as the contents of his intestines. Learn more at Medical Discovery News (feed) and Life Technologies (BTR) (feed) Ötzi, for example, was found to have Lime's disease, how that is not what has taken him in.

What actually caused his death, has proven to be one of the conundrums about Ötzi. Did he die of the arrow wound that was inflicted upon him shortly be fore his death (with the arrow head still stuck in his back), or did he die of the frost in the ice that preserved him for 53 centuries? What is certain is that he had been in a fight. It also has become clear he had two good meals with meat and vegetables on the day of his death. He was 46 years old, had brown hair and brown eyes - just like your bloghost...

Getting the Silk Road

I am fascinated by the Silk Road and if you, like me, would like to learn more about it, here are some good tips. First of all, Laszlo Montgomery's great China History Podcast (feed) has begun a series about the Silk Road just now. There was also an In Our Time issue about the Silk Road in 2009 which can now be had from the In Our Time History Archive (feed). Other podcast tips I have come up with in the past are:
Zhang Qian,
The Parthians,
Turfan,
Jade artifact 
The Kushan.

The basics of the Silk Road are not difficult to understand: it was -already by 200 BC and still is today- a network of land routs that connected China with the rest of Asia and Europe and which allowed for trade between distant cultures such as the Roman Empire, the Han Chinese, India and more. Notably Silk and Jade were traded along the routes and if you stop here, you are just fine. I try to imagine how this actually worked and then the idea of a Silk Road becomes very complicated to understand. If you begin considering the sheer distances, the difficulty of the terrain, the problems of logistics and so on, I fail to see how it could actually work. How could a trader from China transport something extremely valuable like silk over such a distance alone? He'd be away for at least a year, he'd take enormous risks along the road and assuming he'd manage to sell his goods in Rome, he'd have to get home safely. On the other hand, if the trader wasn't to sell the silk in Rome himself, but rather rely on a chain of middle men, I would expect that the silk, by the time it reached Rome, had become so expensive, nobody would be willing to pay the price.

I am still to get an answer to this basic question, but from Laszlo Montgomery's opening episode, I learned of a solution that addressed one of the logistic problems that would have made the journey impossible: the problem of fresh water. If traders had had to carry the water they needed for the journey, along with the goods they wanted to trade with, the amount of luggage would have become simply too large. Yet, most of the roads pass arid terrain, if not outright desert. The way this was addressed was by local populace that had dug canals from the snowy mountain tops, until numerous wells along the route. This allowed the traders to journey with just their goods. I also understand that this brought the routes down to a very limited amount of possibilities: only those places where the mountains were sufficiently close by and wells had been established.

I still have to get an answer to the practical questions of how the trade was actually pulled off, because it continues to escape me how anyone would have taken the risk of the whole journey or how it could deliver affordable goods within an endless chain of middle men. Exposes about the Silk Road, whether podcast or not, rapidly leave the subject of trade and move on to emphasize what else began to travel along the Silk Road: ideas and technologies. The Silk Road allowed Buddhism to spread from India to the rest of Asia. Along the road also spread Manicheanism and early forms of Christianity. Eventually Islam took the road. Chinese inventions such as paper made it to the west over the road and of course Marco Polo traveled the Silk Road back and forth.

Another point that is not always made, but needs to be held in mind is an inequality that also played a part in the age of exploration when the sea routes also connected China with the rest: China had all the splendid stuff, but what did the rest of the world, especially the Europeans have to offer China? In the later years it was silver from South America, but what traveled on the Silk Road from west to east? How did the Romans pay for their much craved silk? Montgomery mention that spices, ivory and horses were wanted by the Chinese, but this is stuff from other parts of Asia and possibly Africa. What came from Europe? One thing that could not possibly be all, comes as a surprise: chairs. I hope the China History podcast will have more answers in the coming chapters.

More China History Podcast:
Deng Xiaoping,
Chronology of Dynasties,
China History Podcast.

The temptation of Karna - A twist in Dharma

As you all know, I faithfully follow the Mahabharata Podcast. I desperately want to get a grip on this (for me) exotic and ancient string of tales and I must admit: that is not easy at all. The Mahabharata is long, filled with countless characters with difficult names and the stories are following unfamiliar patterns. There does seem to be some kind of inherent logic to the tales, but strangeness also here plays its part. (feed)

Karna

Another idea I tried to project onto the multitude was that this great epic may have one underlying theme. A good candidate for that theme would be the question of Dharma, or in other words, what is the right thing to do? It shows that in the Mahabharata's take on ethics, this is personal or at least class-related dharma. The right thing to do for a priest would be different than what is the right thing for a warrior, or a beggar - obviously. And the Mahabharata seems to help you get a hold on this changeface normativity by means of the many different examples.

If you want to get an unexpected example within this theme, I recommend you listen to the installment The Temptation of Karna and proceed to listen and pay special attention to the unexpected interpretations of the right thing for this character. Where Karna could have joined the good guys in the story as he finds out he is their half-brother, he chooses to stick to his original and mistaken class in life and stay with the baddies. How is that for a twist in Dharma? It makes Karna one of the most fascinating persons in the epic.

More Mahabharata Podcast:
Flood tales; Noah, Gilgamesh and Manu,
Indian roots of the Unicorn,
Endless cloth,
The Mahabharata Podcast.

Historical Jesus methodologies

Here is a nice review to open a Sunday; let's talk the historical Jesus. The first podcast to go to for input in the historical Jesus is Stanford's Historical Jesus by Thomas Sheehan* (feed). There is some brief discussion at Yale, in Dale B. Martin's course Introduction to New Testament History and Literature (feed), but Martin keeps it short as he reveals that he teaches an independent course on the subject - when will that one come out in podcast?

Right now a series is running as part of the Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean by Philip Harland (feed). Whereas Sheehan pushes towards a very specific conclusion and uses mostly literary interpretation, Harland is more tentative and uses a wider spectrum of methods. Sheehan comes off as more of a Theology professor and Harland as a historian in comparison. By all means both of them are very interesting, yet for the historical effort, I am very much charmed by Harland's course and would like to draw your attention to the issue of methodology.

First of all Harland explains the various methodologies at the beginning of the section. In addition to the literary approach, he adds the few pieces of data that arise from there and puts them in a wider historical context, using other sources historical and archeological. For example, in the last issue, he takes the indications that Jesus was a healer and exorcist and digs into sources about other healers and exorcists around the same place and time. He tells about Hanina Ben Dosa and Honi haM'agel in order to extrapolate what might have been the facts with the historical Jesus.

* Be aware that Sheehan's course has some very low audio and the lectures are coming out of the feed in correct order. A syllabus comes along that will guide you to the correct sequence.

More Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean:
6 more podcasts I listened to when I was away from the blog,
Jesus - Egalitarian or Apocalyptic,
Historical Jesus (2) - Philip Harland,
Historical Jesus (1) - Philip Harland,
Early Christianity podcasts.

Flood tales; Noah, Gilgamesh and Manu

One thing leads to another - this we know. Forgotten Classics was reading Genesis, got to the story of Noah and then inserted an issue about Gilgamesh. In this way we could hear and compare the more known flood tale to its probable Mesopotamian predecessor. Host Julie Davis sat down with her daughter who has had Gilgamesh in her literature class. In her own adolescent lingo she recounts the tale and then mother and daughter discuss its meaning. (feed)

I vaguely knew there were more flood tales in ancient narratives, but frankly, I would not have been able to name one but Noah and Gilgamesh. Fortunately, and completely by chance, in the same week Forgotten Classics came with Gilgamesh, the Mahabharata Podcast came with Episode 37 - The Markandeya Sessions Pt. 1 which recounts how the Pandavas sit with the sage Markandeya and push him to tell tales of Brahmins. He tells two, the second of which is the tale of Manu, a formidable sadhu who is being foretold of a flood to come and instructed to build an ark. (feed)

So there we have it, a flood story in the Mahabharata. Manu builds the ark, takes on it a bank of seeds and other material which eventually will enable him to bring life back to the world and then, obviously, the world gets inundated. The ark drifts around for a long time until the waters slowly recede and the first mountain peaks pop up again - in this tale not the Ararat, but rather the peaks of the Himalaya of course. Go and listen for more.

With me, as said, one thing leads to another and I went on to look for more podcasts on flood tales and among others ran into an iTunes collection of Harrisburg Area Community College with a World Literature course that addresses Genesis, Gilgamesh and many other important tales.

More Forgotten Classics:
5 podcasts I listened to (Genesis),
The Riddle of the Sands,
The message of Uncle Tom's Cabin,
Cooking with Forgotten Classics,
Forgotten Classics - podcast review.

More Mahabharata Podcast:
Indian roots of the Unicorn,
Endless cloth,
The Mahabharata Podcast.

Jonathan Mark Kenoyer on Indus Valley Civilization

Professor Kenoyer has been doing research and archeological excavations on the Indus Valley Civilization since 1986 and before I point you to the audio and video where you can enjoy the lecture about his finds, first a few words on how I find interesting podcasting material.

One of my methods is to follow history blogs. One such history blog is Varnam which updates me frequently about Indian History. A couple of days ago, Varnam reported on a lecture about Indus Valley Civilization by Professor Kenoyer. Not only did I follow this, I also decided to look for Kenoyer on iTunes and thus I found yet another lecture. And that, of course, is another method of finding good podcasts: iTunes searches on good keywords.

In podcast you can hear Kenoyer at UCLA in a lecture that was published in the feed of The International Institute (feed) as well as the Center for Near Eastern Studies (feed). You can also see him in a video lecture which Varnam also pointed to and which can be found at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. The two lectures are only slightly different so the podcast lectures have the advantage of being in mp3 and available in feed, while the video lecture allows you to look at the slides and enjoy the maps and the pictures that Kenoyer talks about. Although the Indus Valley script was not deciphered and finds are still rather few, there is much to learn from his lecture. How the valley cultures traded, how they varied, what can be deduced about their hierarchies and more.

More about Indus Valley Civ:

Indus seal,

The earliest history - A story of India,

History of India - UCLA,

Indus Valley Civ - Engines of our Ingenuity,

David Kalivas' World History Podcast.

David Kalivas' World History Podcast is back

Historian David Kalivas has been infrequently updating his world history podcast over a period of many years. I started listening to it way back in 2006 and it had issues dating back from 2005. Yet, new lectures were added only in 2007 and then the hiatus lasted until now. This month a new lecture came out, only to show that a good, informative history podcast never goes out of existence. (feed)

A lot of what can be had in the feed concerns ancient history. Kalivas actually kicked off with the ancient civilization that I personally am most interested in: the Indus Valley civilization. In addition he did the regulars Egypt and Mesopotamia, as well as China. Expanding a bit on that he does Greece and Rome and even has lectures about later subjects.

A theme that you can find with Kalivas is that of cultural exchange. He seems to be implicitly, and here and there explicitly, telling history with the idea that none of the cultural unities were isolated, not even in antiquity. As a consequence, each culture is a product of exchange, foreign influence and mingling.

More David Kalivas:
World History according to David Kalivas,
David Kalivas is back,
Off on a tangent,
David Kalivas' History Podcast.

More Indus Valley Civ:
Indus seal,
The earliest history - A story of India,
History of India - UCLA,
Indus Valley Civ - Engines of our Ingenuity.

Also: another post on Indus Valley tomorrow!!

Chronology of dynasties - China History Podcast

Upon following the first episodes of The China History Podcast one learns that the maker Laszlo Montgomery was taking his example from Bob Packett's History according to Bob and in addition to doing a regular questions and answers session, also jumps back and forth in time between podcasts. However, I was happy to find out that not just me, but also other listeners are in need of a chronology and they have persuaded Montgomory to turn back to the beginning and take us through the dynasties, step by step. (feed)

We had, of course, already had the Qin Dynastay, which is credited for being the first to unify China and with which many Chinese histories begin. The first in this dynasty Qin Shi Huang, was the first Chinese emperor. Laszlo did one of his first episodes about this third century BC figure. Yet there is Chinese history way before that. Montgomery went back as far as the traditional Chinese histories go and told about the Xia dynasty. Much of this history is unconfirmed and hence facts are rare and far apart. Even the timing is problematic, but somewhere around 2000 BC this dynasty must have ruled.

The next was the Shang Dynasty. Here is a fascinating podcast to take with you. Not only are there more stories about the dynasty itself to tell, but there is also the riveting point that much of this was until very recently only known from traditional sources. Only in the twentieth century, until as late as 1976, archeological evidence came up that the legendary Shang actually had existed.

More:
China History Podcast - Laszlo Montgomery.

History of the Parthians - Edward Dabrowa

As I wrote before I am tremendously enjoying Professor Richard Bulliet's 2008 course on the history of Iran at Columbia university. While at it, I was motivated though, to make a side step and search the realms of podcast in search for some of the names and places he brings up that I would love to find out more about.

For example about the Parthians. Around lecture #8, he introduces them and makes clear what important role thy played, not only for Iran, but also for the conenction between China and the west. It is the Parthians, among others, who do the trading and transport along the Silk Route. Next to nothing is said about the Parthians in podcast. The one thing I found was a lecture by Professor Edward Dąbrowa, delivered in English at the Leopold Franzens University in Innsbruck at the Institut für Alte Geschichte und Altorientalistik. The feed for this and other lectures at the institute is completely in German, save for this one lecture by Dąbrowa.

Dąbrowa is not the most eloquent speaker and he struggles with English, but his lecture gives much insight into the history of the Parthians and the sources we have for that history. Since the Parthians did not write themselves, we have to rely on the Roman, Greek and some Chinese sources, which are invariably contemptuous. However, he points out how these can be combined with tiny other sources, with archeology and intelligent interpretation and from this he embarks on an expose of the history which neatly precedes the 9th lecture in Bulliet's series.

Copper to Bronze to Iron Age - History of Iran

Today we will have two similar posts. They will both point to a podcast about ancient history and both these podcasts will teach something fascinating about ancient technologies (writing, metal working and more) even if both podcasts intend to actually talk about some other subject and bring these early technologies only up as an aside. Here is the second post.

I think I read somewhere that Professor Richard Bulliet is not just a specialist in the history of Iran. Take the early lecture of his history of Iran taught at Columbia University (iTunesU url, iTunesU feed) and you will experience he is also a historian of technology. When he speaks of the early history of Iran, he extensively and very vividly delves into the early technologies.

Right to the fine technical details he explains metal technologies and their development, from copper to the varieties of bronze to iron. Next he brings the development of the wheel to life. This is not just about round, rolling things, this is about axles, about the connection between the wheel and the axle. About number of wheels, about beasts of burden, about roads and only much much later wheelbarrows. This is not just enlightening for the background of Iran's history, this is fantastic world history.

When Akkadian was Lingua Franca - NBIH

Today we will have two similar posts. They will both point to a podcast about ancient history and both these podcasts will teach something fascinating about ancient technologies (writing, metal working and more) even if both podcasts intend to actually talk about some other subject and bring these early technologies only up as an aside. Here is the first.

New Books In History had Amanda Podany on the show to talk about her book Brotherhood of Kings. This is an amazing study about the diplomatic system in the near-East in pre-Hellenic ancient times. It turns out that Mesopotamia and Egypt had full fledged diplomatic traffic that looks more like the 19th century international system than what you'd associate with the second millennium BCE. To give one amazing fact: the diplomatic language was Akkadian and the system was assuming equality between the players. Even the mighty deified pharaohs of Egypt submitted to this.

I was struck by the technology item in this conversation. Host Marshall Poe and Ms Podany discuss at length the intricacies of the cuneiform writing system and this I found truly mind-boggling. You really get a lifelike grip on how the scribes learned the art of writing. How they must have struggled with the stylos and the clay, with the texts, with the dictation and obviously with the languages and the translations. You have to hear for yourself.

More NBIH:
The 1910 Paris flood,
Stasi agents and informants,
War in Human Civilization,
Always recommended: New Books in History,
The best varied history podcast,

Irish History Podcast

Here is a new podcast that is off to a promising start. The Irish History Podcast started a couple of months ago and has produced two fascinating episodes so far (feed). It has paid some attention to the earliest known inhabitants of Ireland - those barbarians the Greeks and Romans referred to. And it has begun a series about the Vikings.

When I was listening to this podcast I was reminded of the beginning of the Celtic Myth Podshow. This series kicked off two years earlier. It vividly retells Celtic myths and at the time started with the Irish myths. These Irish tales contained a lot of coming into existence and historized narrative. At the time I would have loved the CMP to compare the myths to history. And in exactly the same way, I was hoping, and am still hoping, the Irish History Podcast will take on Irish tales and address them as some kind of source for the earliest history of Ireland, or at least as a viable source to compare with what regular history makes of Irish history.

Maybe this is to come when the podcast reaches the middle ages, when most of those old tales were written down or to the later ages when Celtic culture was rediscovered as the roots of many from the British Isles. In any case, no history can go without historiography and the construction of histories, the imagined history if not as the actual history than as the cultural history. Yet, even without that, the Irish History podcast is a welcome addition to the world of history podcasts especially since it addresses a realm that nobody else pays that kind of attention to.

History of Jerusalem - UCLA

UCLA offers a course Jerusalem: The Holy City: A History of Jerusalem from Ancient Canaan to Modern Israel which initially had an audio feed, but that was discarded which left us with just the video feed.

There is a lot wrong with this way the course is offered. The sound of the video is poor, the camera is static so there is not much of a gain in seeing the lecturer (Professor Robert Cargill) and also the view on the screen with his slides is rather poor. What one might gain in seeing a bit of the slides is traded for the general drawbacks of vodcast: the files are big, the download takes a lot of time (and often fails), the material takes a lot of space and many players do not support the format.

Still, all you needed to know about the Middle-East in a 3000 year span nut shell is offered in this course. It shows how Jerusalem takes on huge meaning for everyone involved in spite of its poor military and economic weight. More than anything this course shows how politics and the course of history can be dominated by our constructions of holiness alone.

Time travel is easy, history is hard - Ancient Rome Refocused

Ancient Rome Refocused is a new history podcast that deserves the highest acclaim. This podcast seems to be about Roman history, but in fact is about much more. This is because it is a podcast both of history narrative, which obviously is concentrated on Rome, and of history musings. On account of the last quality, already, the podcast has been widely compared with Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. I would also like to compare the show with Nate DiMeo's Memory Palace.

Host and maker of the podcast Rob Cain is off on a magnificent start with his series and even now, three episodes into the feed, we must grant him his own ground and assure that he is making something unique, something very good and in addition to that, I am absolutely sure, the history podcast audience is going to adore. The comparisons with Dan Carlin and Nate DiMeo serve here only as a characterization and not as some example of what Cain is trying to emulate. Cain combines the history musings, like Dan Carlin, with the astonishing narrative qualities of Nate DiMeo. Cain is telling Roman history with a quality of narrative immediacy that equals the impressive standard of DiMeo's Memory Palace and continues to engage in thoughts about that history in the compelling way of Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. Thus he establishes an impressive combination of styles that both work extremely well in podcast and he does so with his own voice, his own style that bears only comparison, but not similarity with the mentioned predecessors.

First of all, I'd simply urge you to go and listen without letting me spoil the surprises in particular and the fun in general (feed). Allow me to highlight just these three identifiers for the first three issues. The first makes excellent use of Monty Python's scene in Life of Brian 'What have the Romans ever done for us'. The second lays out the basics of the Roman reality by projecting time travel. The third delivers a subtle expose on slavery in Rome (that dwarfs Dan Carlin's adventure into slavery) which is both history, audio drama, a poignant contemporary critique of low wage labor and prostitution as well as the most balanced analysis of Spartacus' slave revolt I have encountered ever. With even more lines to current times.

Even if Rob Cain stops now, he has produced a podcast classic. The idea he is about to deliver a fourth, and likely more episodes has me both reel in anticipation and yet also a bit worried: can he keep up with the towering standard he has set off with?

Returned from hiatus: A History of the World in 100 Objects

The series A History of the World in 100 Objects (BBC) returned, as announced. I sort of forgot when it was supposed to continue, but here is where RSS subscriptions help you out: the new chapter simply appeared. As you may recall, this history podcast is made by Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, and it attempts to tell the history of the world by means of objects in the museum's collection. The podcast comes out every workday and each week takes on a theme.

This week the theme is Empire Builders and the first issue is about Alexander the Great. Alexander, as we learned from Entitled Opinions just now was good at conquering the empire, but not exactly at keeping it. Yet, as we learn here at the BBC, his name was made and for all those who wanted empire, identifying with Alexander was the way to go. This explains why the coin that is examined on the podcast bears Alexander's head, when it was minted by another.

It is really exciting this podcast is back and you are well advised to pick it up and follow.

More A World History in 100 Objects (in short: AHOW):
Indus Seal,
First AHOW Review.

Archaeology, Politics and the Media - Duke University

The Center for Jewish Studies at Duke University has its own podcast on iTunesU that I started listening to. The audio that sits in the feed reflects the sessions of a conference that was held at the center on the subject of Archaeology, Politics and the Media. (feed)

The relationship between archaeology and politics and the media should not be so strong, neither so problematic I thought. However, we have just had a media hype around an alleged find of Noah's Ark and this shows both. A hype that is widely mentioned on the conference is the James Ossuary and here the same problem arises: an archaeological find is captured by the media, before serious science has had a chance to draw conclusions. The idea is just too sexy to ignore, this find is alleged to be Jesus's tomb (or alternately the actual Ark built by Noah). And as the conference shows, here are not just the media guilty, also the archaeologists involved are giving in to the temptation to make a sensational appearance and get their name connected to a fantastic find.

Alternately, careful archaeologists, who evade the temptation, who are invited to comment in the media, no always succeed in defusing the hypes. Hence, the conference explores how serious science should deal with the media and once the media is talked, it is clear that there is also politics on the scene. Both the Ark and the Ossuary show this: the meaning of these finds get the importance of a verification of a religious claim. It has people passionately involved in making these finds true and their meaning engraved in stone.

Discussing Alexander the Great

Entitled Opinions as opposed to other podcasts put him in a less favorable light. Where others are blinded by the military successes and get carried away with the size of the empire he allegedly conquered, Entitled Opinions on Alexander the Great emphasizes the folly of his campaign. It emphasized the fact the conquered land could not be held. And most of all it showed how the hero got carried away by his own issues, not least of all poetry.

The point the show begins with is this: a hero needs a poet. There is no hero if his story is not sung. Alexander understood that and as an aspiring hero he, in turn, was inspired by poetry, by Homer's Iliad. His example was that of Achilles, and so it is also poetry, that teaches the hero, what is heroism. Alexander in his uninhibited campaign was driven by the wish to emulate Achilles - for good and for bad.

Added to that is the celebration of alcohol and drunkenness. Added to that is Alexander's diminutive posture and deformation in the neck and we see an entirely different picture emerging. This is not the story of the hero of heroes, but rather of the lunatic with too much power and with generals too good to fail on the battle field. Generals who, as is told, feared the battle field less than their crazed emperor in the drinking party.

More Entitled Opinions:
Athanasius Kircher (Giordano Bruno),
King Lear,
Albert Camus,
Unabomber world views,
Byzantine Culture.

More Alexander,
The Biography Show,
Hardcore History,
History according to Bob.