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Oldest Stories

Oldest Stories

By James Bleckley

This show is focused on the history and myth of the Cradle of Civilization, bronze age Mesopotamia, beginning with the dawn of writing. The show will cover the full history of Mesopotamia, from Gilgamesh to Nabonidas, a span of some 2500 years, with myths of heroes and gods, and tales of daily life peppered throughout. New episodes every Wednesday. Online at oldeststories.net.
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Currently playing episode

OS 139 - An Iron King for an Iron Age

Oldest StoriesMar 13, 2024

00:00
48:49
OS 139 - An Iron King for an Iron Age
Mar 13, 202448:49
OS 138 - Erra and Ishum Threaten Destruction
Feb 28, 202450:58
OS 137 - The Oldest Dreams
Feb 14, 202437:37
OS 136 - The Fifty Shades of Marduk
Jan 31, 202450:00
OS 135 - Middle Class Demons of Mesopotamia
Jan 17, 202450:50
OS 134 - Poverty, Pessimism, and Comedy in Ancient Mesopotamia

OS 134 - Poverty, Pessimism, and Comedy in Ancient Mesopotamia

Today we read through the Dialogue of Pessimism and the Poor Man of Nippur. Both are comedies with a bit of edge to them, though in very different formats, showing the richness of ancient literature. Dialogue of Pessimism is basically a two-man standup routine, with a fair amount of philosophical ideas thrown in as part of the comedy. Poor Man of Nippur is a farce mixed with a revenge tale, grounded with a perspective we rarely see in ancient literature, the common man viewing the wealthy and powerful. It is also the subject of the world's first movie made in the Babylonian language which can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/pxYoFlnJLoE?si=jr4O7CGWpls6ulzU

Also, The first Oldest Stories book, covering Sumer and Akkad, is available for purchase: https://a.co/d/64mxp6w


Jan 03, 202441:06
The Theology Within History

The Theology Within History

Today we overview the historical portions of the bible and look at the fallibility of heroes, resolving moral conflicts with God, and the historical problems with strict literalism. I have gotten specific questions on these three topics over the course of the series, but rather than answering the specific questions, I thought it would be more useful and interesting to consider the underlying issues, which I think are extremely common in the Christian community. Because my purpose in the Israel series has not been to weaken anyone's faith, but to examine God's truth in a way that can "turn the hearts of the children to their fathers." Nothing in today's episode is a criticism of anyone of faith who disagrees with me, but I do consider it a needed perspective.


Also, for anyone who needs scripture in their life, I recommend three resources:

For a web based reading, try: https://www.biblegateway.com/

For a quality bible app, try: https://www.youversion.com/the-bible-app/

And if you would like a free paper copy, you can in most parts of the world get a free delivery here: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/requests/free-holy-bible


Dec 27, 202345:56
Isaiah 55

Isaiah 55

Christmas Special! We are reading Isaiah chapter 55, a pretty short one, partly because it is nice, and partly because it illustrates the theological maturity present very early in Jewish history. Also, if you got any money for Christmas, you should spend it on the Oldest Stories book: https://a.co/d/3CzuRQQ

Dec 25, 202327:41
The Witness of Lamentations

The Witness of Lamentations

Today we read through the five poems of Jeremiah's Lamentations over the destruction of Jerusalem. We look in particular at the historical context and the humanness of this 2600 year old performance, but also at some of the theological innovations that, already at the start of the Babylonian exile, are marking the exilic Jews out as a faith distinct from their neighbors and unique in the world. The main Mesopotamian context here is the genre of Laments which was already at least 1500 years old when Jeremiah wrote this one. I read one of these on the main show, a bonus episode between eps 55 and 56 called Lament for Ur, but if you want to get deeper into the now little known genre of this text, definitely take a look at the City Laments section on ETCSL: https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=c.2.2*#

The first Oldest Stories book, covering Sumer and Akkad, is available for purchase: https://a.co/d/64mxp6w

Dec 23, 202342:39
The Book of Job in a Near Eastern Context

The Book of Job in a Near Eastern Context

Today we go on a wide ranging survey of the Near Eastern predecessors to the Book of Job, including the biblical books that also speak to the same themes, before looking through the Book of Job to see a fairly unique answer to the question of why do good things happen to bad people.

The first Oldest Stories book, covering Sumer and Akkad, is available for purchase: https://a.co/d/64mxp6w

Dec 22, 202343:53
OS 133 - Jerusalem Falls

OS 133 - Jerusalem Falls

Today we ask the question - Who put the "Deuteronomic" in the Deuteronomistic Histories? Plus thousands of people die, so all in all a pretty jam packed episode. Our focus is King Josiah, about whom much ink has been spilled, and after him we will briefly look around at the emerging Babylonian Empire, then quickly destroy Jerusalem to finally round out our extended look at biblical history.

The first Oldest Stories book, covering Sumer and Akkad, is available for purchase: https://a.co/d/64mxp6w

Dec 20, 202301:10:01
OS 132 - Judah Ascends

OS 132 - Judah Ascends

Israel has been destroyed by the Assyrians, and Judah very nearly follows. But Jerusalem never does fall to the Assyrians, and the re-emergence of the southern kingdom is almost as shocking as the internal discord that accompanies it. We look today a lot of prophets and religious policies alongside military issues, because these do seem to be driving politics and polarized factionalism in a big way.

The first Oldest Stories book, covering Sumer and Akkad is available for purchase: https://a.co/d/64mxp6w

Dec 06, 202350:39
OS 131 - Israel's Brutal Judgement

OS 131 - Israel's Brutal Judgement

The first Oldest Stories Book is available for purchase: https://a.co/d/64mxp6w

Today, we go in depth with what it might have been like as the Assyrians invaded, first Israel and then Judah, looking deeply at the battle of Lachish. Today's is a tale of hard times and despair, though today is more the despair at what is coming, and next time will be more the despair at what has passed. Of course, there is still a lot to deal with with the ups and downs of the biblical Yahwist faction in Israel and Judah alike, and we look at a man who so loved his world that he gave his only begotten son. Quite a lot going on today, really, but it is all good stuff, I think.

Nov 22, 202352:54
Oldest Stories is now a Book!

Oldest Stories is now a Book!

Celebrating 1 million downloads and my birthday, the first Oldest Stories book releases on November 24th, 2023. Pre-order is available only for the digital editions, you will need to wait until the release date for a physical copy, but definitely at least think about it. I am very excited.

Amazon link: https://a.co/d/hKmiIrY

Nov 15, 202302:54
OS 130 - Israel Runs Out of Names

OS 130 - Israel Runs Out of Names

Today we are in a mad gallop through decades and kings, each of them having pretty short, one or two episode lives, and also mostly having the same or extremely similar names to get everything super confused. This part of Israelite history moves pretty quickly, but there are a lot of interesting things that can be pulled from relatively short mentions, plus we get the first and only artistic depiction of what an Israelite actually looked like in the Monarchy period, and it turns out they just looked like people, because they were people. Also, we look at the story of Jehu among all these kings, and he is absolutely fantastic, would make a great movie.

Nov 08, 202336:37
OS 129 - Israelite and Phoenician Prosperity

OS 129 - Israelite and Phoenician Prosperity

Today we talk about Phoenicia, overviewing where it has been since we left our bronze age Canaan series, discussing the nature of the economic prosperity it brought to the region, and talking a bit about the causes and nature of their famous trade colonies. We also actually look at Jehoshaphat, after mostly ignoring him for a few episodes. Also, even though it builds over a few centuries, the development of what gets called the iron age economies is perhaps the quickest societal advancement in human history up to this point, and people's ideas about the world are struggling to keep up, so we talk about that a bit, too.

Oct 25, 202345:58
OS 128 - Israel's Moabite Neighbors

OS 128 - Israel's Moabite Neighbors

One of the most important extra-biblical confirmations of biblical history is the Mesha Stele, written by king Mesha of Moab. But it is not only interesting for what it tells us about Israel, but also for being the only window into the otherwise enigmatic Moabites, their god, and their self-perception, at least from the highest levels. And so today we discuss the context of Kings Ahaziah and Jehoshaphat, but then switch over to read through the Mesha Stele and learn what we can of the region as a whole.

Oct 11, 202336:47
OS 127 - Israel's First Historical King

OS 127 - Israel's First Historical King

Today we look at King Ahab and the Battle of Qarqar, or Karkar, a hugely important event in which we see the emergence of a large number of new peoples and things who will come to play a role in the near east for a long time to come. The Arabs, cavalry, and of course the Assyrians themselves burst onto the scene in a big way, and we finally get a chance to compare biblical numbers to the sorts of things being claimed by the historical powers of the region.

Sep 27, 202345:46
OS 126 - Israel's Great Confusion

OS 126 - Israel's Great Confusion

Today we examine no fewer than three types of confusion in ancient Israel. First is the very standard political confusion of unsettled times, as king after king gets assassinated and wars of all sort rage. Next is the standard for biblical scholars confusion of what events can and can not be taken as history, ranging all the way from the extremely plausible wars and assassinations all the way to "One Million Ethiopians". Finally, we look at the most interesting confusion of all, the uncertainty as to what god the Israelites and Judahites were worshipping, and whether or not monotheism was actually a thing at this point in history. We look at kings Abijah/Abijam and Asa down in the south, and Nadab, Baasha, Elah, Zimri, and Omri up in the north.

Sep 13, 202346:01
OS 125 - Israel's Divided Kingdoms

OS 125 - Israel's Divided Kingdoms

Today we talk about God's opinion of ecumenicism, the historical issues around prophecy, and also the careers of Jeroboam, Rehoboam, as kings of Israel and Judah, the now divided kingdoms. Much of our history at this point is exclusively religious, but there are still things that we can pull out that give indications of how these small kingdoms are doing in the wider context. We finish out with an exciting military invasion, except mostly exciting for the enemies of God, because Shishak, or Shoshenq, of Egypt, may or may not have invaded one or more countries at this time in history.

Aug 30, 202347:56
OS 124 - Israel's Wisdom and Wealth

OS 124 - Israel's Wisdom and Wealth

Today, King Solomon may or may not write a good chunk of scripture, and is definitely the inspiration of a massive collection of fun legends. He is wealthy, though probably not as wealthy as we usually think, and he may have had a ton of wives, though also not as many as claimed. Though isn't that typical, a guy claiming to have bedded far more women then he actually has. He also has more Gods than most tellings like to emphasize, though even scripture can't avoid the scandal of the great Temple Builder falling to polytheism in his older years. So today we have a lot of tales, and a lot of "well, maybe not so much" to temper them all.
Aug 16, 202345:37
OS 123 - Israel's Great High Priest

OS 123 - Israel's Great High Priest

Today we ask the question, how many temples did God authorize, and why did he authorize some but not others. Then we ask, was David a priest of God, and why he could be priest and king when Saul could not. Those two questions take us on a long detour, but it ultimately ends up with David dead and Solomon on the throne, fighting for his life in a fratricidal power struggle. In between these, we have a digression where we look a bit at the history, religion, and religious history of the Samaritans, or at least the claims that the modern Samaritans make and what impact it might have on our dating of Deuteronomy and our understanding of the Jerusalem temple.
Aug 02, 202344:41
OS 122 - Israel's King David

OS 122 - Israel's King David

Today is King David and War. Lots of war. Some diplomacy, which turns into war, some rebellion, which becomes war, some more rebellion, which becomes a double war, and a bunch of war-related logistics scattered all throughout. Also, David commits adultery and murder, but you already knew that story. Perhaps the big surprise today is the General Joab subplot, he is a surprisingly ruthless gut-stabber. Also we get some miracles today, namely a massive plague and a bunch of rampaging murderous giants descended from fallen angels. We get a ton of plot in relatively few chapters today, and it bears interestingly on the wider context of both the Israelite religion, which we look at next time, and the upcoming kings, who we will look at after that.
Jul 19, 202338:15
OS 121 - Israel's Favorite King

OS 121 - Israel's Favorite King

Today the shepherd David becomes King David. This involves violence. Indeed, most of his career is violence, and we take a nice look at some of that violence here today. We also look at his construction efforts and some of his diplomacy, but as usual most of it turns into a bunch of tangents about the meaning of Baal worship in ancient Israel, me wondering why Christians don't practice divination any more, and whether or not David was a good man.
Jul 05, 202343:35
OS 120 - Israel's Habiru King

OS 120 - Israel's Habiru King

David comes in for a bit of criticism today, for probably being a murdering bandit, but these issues are an important part of this story. We look again at the bias in our sources, and we see a pretty big disconnect between what we are told about David and what we are shown him doing. But, of course, the tale of a bandit is usually an exciting one if nothing else, and so we have a pretty action packed episode in between all the musings about the value of human life in the ancient world, the reliability of biased sources, and the balance of piety and violence within king David.
Jun 21, 202332:17
OS 119 - Israel's Young Shepherd

OS 119 - Israel's Young Shepherd

We begin the tale of young David's rise to power, looking at the three origin stories of the young shepherd, warrior, and poet, and then noting that as he began to rise in fame and power, Saul was absolutely not insane to be jealous and worried of him rebelling and usurping the throne. After all, that is exactly what he ends up doing. But in addition to just the narrative of King David's rise, we take a nice long look at some of the historical and archeological issues surrounding this entire period. We contrast the traditional and historical perspectives of this period, and consider what archeological evidence we would need to validate either of them.

Jun 07, 202341:04
OS 118 - Israel's First Failed King

OS 118 - Israel's First Failed King

Today we get some serious military history as we look at the main chunk of King Saul's reign. We deliberately avoid David as much as possible today, because it is far too easy for King Saul to get upstaged in his own chapters by history's favorite king, and so we end up with a surprising amount of often quite detailed military history, and a bunch of interesting details about the time period itself. Finally, we get to see how Saul is super desperate to be a good Yahweh worshipper, and then we read his final eulogy and hear that the bible writers blame his death on failing to pursue God, which seems a bit unfair, but sometimes life is just that way.

May 24, 202338:07
OS 117 - Israel's First King

OS 117 - Israel's First King

Today we properly start the career of King Saul, or at least Saul as he makes his bid for kingship. This story is important as a piece of ancient literature, it is important through the question of whether or not the bible is valid as history, but most of all it is important because this is one of the only windows we get in the entire near east for military history details during the crucial transition from late bronze age chariot warfare to the massed imperial warfare of the iron age. Thanks to both the text itself and its extensive commentary traditions, we can pull out some really interesting details about how armies equipped themselves and the grander picture of how warfare and tactics contributed to ancient kingship that will play into our wider story even past the Israel section.

May 10, 202338:51
OS 116 - Israel's United Monarchy

OS 116 - Israel's United Monarchy

Today we look at the lead up to King Saul, and how Israel made the transition from a collections of tribes to a unified kingship. Why is the Old Testament so ambivalent on the matter of kingship? Most interestingly, there is a universally applicable political lesson here, in what may be history's earliest commentary on the nature and source of effective governance. Also, why do the Israelites cut up animals as messages so often in this period? We look at Gideon, Abimelech, Micah and the Danites, and the Benjaminite war.

Apr 26, 202354:09
OS 115 - The Place of Faith in Biblical History

OS 115 - The Place of Faith in Biblical History

Just to give an overview of this episode to see if you want to listen all the way through, the topics I am going to discuss are: Why do I believe that Israel entered Canaan as outsiders violently invading, when so much of academia believes that these invasions never happened, and that the Isarelite emergence was largely peaceful? Why do I believe that the bible, as we have it today, is a worthwhile historical record, at least worthwhile enough to go over it so extensively on a history podcast? Why has my perspective on the historical tale of the bible not changed even though I began studying as an atheist and am now studying it as a fairly conservative Christian? How can I, personally, continue to have faith in the religion revealed in the Bible when I have vehemently argued that certain fairly important parts of the Old Testament are meant as history, and yet false? Why does God's story so often occur inside gaps of our knowledge, and why does the revealing light of science never reveal God's hand? And finally, what is the meaning of analyzing the various books of the bible through the lense of genre, why does that matter for understanding some biblical problems, and why does that make other problems even worse? Why does history matter at all, particularly Israelite/biblical history?

Apr 26, 202301:02:42
OS 114 - Israel's Judges and Defeats

OS 114 - Israel's Judges and Defeats

The institution of Judges, as described in the book of Judges, is an English translation of the word Shofet, a political position which doesn't really exist in modern times, and as such is often poorly understood even in the study bibles and commentaries that I have read. And yet, there are reasons to think that whether or not the stories themselves within this book are true or not, there really was a class of Shoftim prior to the monarchy. That, plus issues of chronology among the judges, get hashed out a bit. And also we talk about the fact that the bible really doesn't like to talk about Israel getting defeated in times when it is theologically inconvenient, yet was probably getting kicked around like a rented mule around this time.

Apr 12, 202342:22
OS 113 - Israel's Settlements and Philistine Neighbors

OS 113 - Israel's Settlements and Philistine Neighbors

Today we go full archeology on everyone, looking at what makes a settlement more or less likely to be Israelite as opposed to Canaanite or whatever based purely on the archeological record. Also, a brief overview of the entire history of the Philistines, because I introduced them as a brief tangent and ended up telling their entire story all at once. Archeology by itself is just a bunch of broken clay pots, and serious archeology really has a tendency to put me to sleep, especially once they start listing of subvariants of pottery, but understanding the evidentiary foundations is crucial especially in a hotly debated area of history. Even more important is getting a sense of how these evidences map onto various interpretive frameworks to build the idea that we actually do start to see a distinctive and probably Israelite people emerging in the Levant during the bronze age collapse.

Mar 29, 202339:59
OS 112 - Israel's Conquest and Integration in Canaan

OS 112 - Israel's Conquest and Integration in Canaan

When did Joshua conquer Canaan for Israel? Did Joshua even exist, as described in the Book of Joshua? We continue our march through the Old Testament as the people of Israel march through Canaan. We spend some good time discussing the Canaanite genocide in the context of ancient warfare, and the things that are and are not remarkable about it. We look a bit at settlement patterns in archeology and destruction layers and what they mean for the entry or emergence of Israel in the holy land. Also, we talk a bit about the meaning of Herem and the idea of Devoting to Destruction.

Mar 15, 202347:25
OS 111 - Israel's Wandering and Settlement

OS 111 - Israel's Wandering and Settlement

What does it mean that the people of Israel are the biggest whiners in recorded history? It may mean that a lot of the people were not actually on board with the theological mission of the Yahwist religious leaders. It may also mean that we are knee deep in the book of Numbers. My favorite Old Testament story, Balaam son of Beor, gets a mention here, as does some points where the people of Israel may well have left some actual historical evidence. And finally we get to the first actual mention in non-biblical history of the people of Israel, recorded in the Merneptah Stele around 1207 BCE.

Mar 01, 202338:54
OS 110 - Israel and the Hebrews

OS 110 - Israel and the Hebrews

Today we obsess over the word Hebrew and go deep into what it means, who was and was not a Hebrew, whether it was a social or ethnic designation, what that implies about the religious and cultural mission of Israel, and what that might mean for the historicity of the Bible. In a sense, this is kind of a tangent from our wider story, but I think this is one of the really core issues that most people either wonder about, or are ignorant of and should be wondering about. If you really want to skip this, the short version is that there is a theory that the word Hebrew comes from 'Apiru, or Habiru, and while there is quite a lot of back and forth on the topic, I happen to think this is surprisingly likely, for reasons that go way beyond linguistic matters. But we also look at the other possibilities and what I think about them as well.

Feb 15, 202336:15
OS 109 - Israel's Numbers Problem

OS 109 - Israel's Numbers Problem

Today we look at possibly the oldest section of the entire Bible, Exodus chapter 15, the Song of Moses, as well as the issues with the census listed in Numbers and what that might mean for biblical historicity. These are some pivotal chapters today, not so much for the narrative itself but for keying in how we are going to interpret the bible and a whole in historical context. I think one of the most important questions for our own personal understanding of the bible is "How would this look in a movie", because how it plays out in our imagination, in terms of things like how many people there are in the scene, really affects who we can and can not consider plausible later on.

Feb 01, 202335:60
OS 108 - Israel's Formation and the Historical Exodus

OS 108 - Israel's Formation and the Historical Exodus

We begin our big series on the historicity of the bible with Genesis. Unfortunately, nearly the entire book is beyond the purview of history, for reasons we will discuss. But with the tale of the Exodus, we have a narrative which could, in theory, have left some historical evidence to confirm its existence. Unfortunately, we don't actually have any evidence of the exodus narrative. But absence of evidence is not evidence of absense, and the far more interesting question is what we can look at to not refute or affirm, but merely to support or weaken the narrative as presented in the bible.

Jan 18, 202343:01
OS 107 - The Bible as History and Skeptical Views

OS 107 - The Bible as History and Skeptical Views

Here it is, the part of ancient Near Eastern history that excites the most passion and interest. There is no doubt that there were kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and there is no doubt that after they were conquered by the Babylonians there was a class of Judahite priests who assembled the collection of texts we now call the Old Testament, but before that pretty much all bets are off. Today begins what will be a bit of a series on Israel, and we will go over briefly the four main points of view on Israelite history, which I call the Biblical Literalists, the Accomodationists, the Pure Archeologists, and the Radical Skeptics. Then we will look in a very bare bones way at what is the bare minimum we can say about pre-kingdom Israelite history to set the stage for future episodes.

Jan 04, 202335:00
OS 106 - The Fate of Anatolia

OS 106 - The Fate of Anatolia

After the Hittite Empire fell during the bronze age collapse, Anatolia became a Mad Max style wasteland with tribes crossing the hills and fighting for survival. Amidst all this, we have the fateful arrival of the mysterious Sea Peoples, and out of this mess emerged not a whole lot for a long time, but eventually we get the Phrygians in the northwest and the Neo-Hittites in the southeast, as well as a whole host of more peripheral people who will merit more mentions as our story progresses. The Phrygians we will look at briefly, but the Neo-Hittites, who are the same as the Biblical Hittites, are fascinating and poorly understood, and we will emerge from our time with them still fascinated and still not understanding much, but maybe a bit more than we started with.

Dec 21, 202233:13
OS 105 - Four Legs Good, Two Legs Bad

OS 105 - Four Legs Good, Two Legs Bad

Animals in ancient Mesopotamia. From sheep, goats, horses, and other domesticated animals to wild beasts like lions, elephants, insects, birds and fish, the ancient world was surrounded by animals. But in our history we are usually so focused with humans that we don't get a chance to focus on the four legged companions of the ancient world. So today we rectify that with an overview of all the animals that the Old Babylonians cared about and a look at how they interacted with each.

Dec 07, 202243:50
OS 104 - Arameans Everywhere

OS 104 - Arameans Everywhere

Today we look at pretty much everything we know about the Mesopotamian dark age following the bronze age collapse, and manage to cover about 120 years of history in about half an hour. After that is a discussion about chronologies and why we know when all these things happened, with a reference to lost time and other alternate chronologies, both legitimate and silly.

Nov 23, 202246:54
OS 103 - The Babylonian Aristotle, Esagil-Kin-Apli

OS 103 - The Babylonian Aristotle, Esagil-Kin-Apli

Today we are going to look at the reign of Adad-Apla-Iddina, the fact that he was hit by some brutal Aramean invasions and that he built a ton of stuff despite the times being pretty awful. But the star of our show today is the first great scientist in human history whose name reached great levels of fame. Esail-Kin-Apli may be forgotten now, but for a thousand years after his own time his name carried the same cachet as Einstein does to a modern lay person. It isn't wholly clear that he existed, or that he wrote the whole corpus with which he is credited, but there is a chance that he really did write the great catalogs of wisdom which constitute the first great body of scientific knowledge under a single known author. The significance of him as an historical figure and what his scientific catalogs looked like are discussed here. This episode is long, because I got a little too excited about the theoretical foundations of Babylonian thought.

Nov 09, 202201:03:43
OS 102 - A Bit More Tiglath-Pileser

OS 102 - A Bit More Tiglath-Pileser

This week, Tiglath-Pileser is going to kill more people, just like last week. But now he is going to branch out into killing animals, too! But when he pauses to catch his breath between killing, he is also going to build up Assyria domestically and fund a bit of an intellectual renaissance. Then he will die and things will get grim again for a while. But that is the rollercoaster of ancient Mesopotamia, it is great.

Oct 26, 202241:47
OS 101 - A Short Assyrian Burst of Activity

OS 101 - A Short Assyrian Burst of Activity

Today we see Assur rise mightily with Tiglath-Pileser I, and we see the seeds of another century of decline sown in the climate change that drives the Aramean invasions. Meanwhile, Babylon has to deal with the same set of problems, but without the same sort of vigorous leadership.

Oct 12, 202239:29
OS 100 - The Babylonian Theodicy

OS 100 - The Babylonian Theodicy

For a Babylonian polytheist, the gods are worshipped with the explicit expectation that divine veneration will avert bad fortune and attract good fortune. Yet as long as there have been people, we have seen that sometimes bad things happen to good people, and sometimes good fortune finds bad people. Religious explorations of this are called Theodicy, and we have already see a number of Mesopotamian attempts to wrestle with this, back in Episodes 26 and 53. The genre appears to culminate in one of the most impressive technical and philosophical works of ancient Mesopotamia, in the Babylonian Theodicy. Also, after looking at the Theodicy, we compare it to another Babylonian writing from an old man who is simply miserable with life.


For more on this, check out episode 26, where we discussed the Sumerian "A Man and His God" and episode 53 where we discussed the Old Babylonian "Poem of the Righteous Sufferer", both of which are thematic precursors to this and almost certainly were at least indirect references for the author of the Babylonian Theodicy.

Sep 28, 202240:34
OS 99 - The Legend of Nebuchadnezzar

OS 99 - The Legend of Nebuchadnezzar

Nabu-Kudurri-Usur, the first Nebuchadnezzar, rescued the statue of Marduk from Elam after a grueling adventure beset by intense heat, low supplies, and enemies on all sides. And yet, even though this event would be celebrated in later generations, it is unclear if it was highly celebrated in his own lifetime. Today we look at the cult of Marduk, how it may have developed within the city of Babylon, and some more of Nebuchadnezzar's life.

Sep 14, 202239:50
OS 98 - Nabu-Kudurri-Usur

OS 98 - Nabu-Kudurri-Usur

In Babylon rules Nebuchadnezzar the first. He isn't the Nebuchadnezzar that we remember today, but he was certainly the more famous king of that name for most of Babylonian history. His great accomplishment, the retrieval of the stolen statue of Marduk from the Elamites, would inspire poets and leaders until the end of Babylonian history, and even a bit beyond. That one campaign has some exciting detail, but he is more than just that, and today we will look at this first Nebuchadnezzar in extensive detail. 

Aug 31, 202238:01
OS 97 - Ashur-Dan and the Isin Dynasty

OS 97 - Ashur-Dan and the Isin Dynasty

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 two Mesopotamian power centers has been ongoing for over a century now, and will continue for centuries more. Though the founding of the Isin dynasty in Babylon is shrouded in the mists of poor documentation, and the long lived Ashur-Dan has few surviving records, there are still things to look at as we kick off Season 2 of the podcast.

Aug 17, 202240:38
An Overview of Bronze Age Mesopotamia

An Overview of Bronze Age Mesopotamia

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 neighbors. Notes for this episode online at oldeststories.net

Aug 03, 202246:49
Industry 5 - The Bronze of the Age

Industry 5 - The Bronze of the Age

Today we have a history of metals, mining and metalworking in the bronze age near east. The story telling style of the last few industrial episodes didn't really work out here, so it is more of a bird's eye overview. We cover mostly copper and bronze, but also look at the history and production of gold, silver, and iron. 

Jul 20, 202254:45