Show Notes
So, first the bad news: Episode C12 wraps the second “season” of “The Ancient World – Carchemish.” The show’ll be on hiatus for the next few months as I turn my attention to a few other projects. Then I’ll be back with another new season this summer. The good news is that next season will not only cover the emergence of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, but – as a consequence – will also have the benefit of the detailed records the Assyrians made of all their “interactions” with the kingdoms and peoples of early Iron Age Syria. So stay tuned for that, stay subscribed, and I’ll see you all in a few months! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More from The Ancient World
Synopsis: The long-lived rulers of Egypt’s Twelfth Dynasty undertook the kingdom’s revitalization – restoring the depleted Faiyum Oasis and raising a massive chain of forts to subjugate Nubian lands. While the south Levant faced Egyptian raids, north Syria saw increased trade under newly-ascendant Amorite dynasties. The city of Assur on the upper Tigris took its first steps toward the economic domination of Anatolia.
Synopsis: The Sintashta way of life and death seeds aspects of Vedic Aryan Hinduism and Iranian Zoroastrianism, while their quest for a lucrative market for metals brings them into contact with the Oxus Civilization and – through them – the larger Near Eastern world. In post-Ur III Sumer, Amorite chiefs and military leaders begin to flex a newfound power and prestige.
Synopsis: Yamnaya migrations east and west carried their language and culture to the mountains of Siberia and plains of Hungary. Over the following centuries, their Corded Ware/Bell Beaker successors spread their daughter languages to the frontiers of Europe. As the Aridification Event began to take hold, increasing violence and declining herds drove some steppe tribes to migrate east of the Urals. The move gave rise to the metal-working, chariot-driving, Indo-Iranian-speaking Sintashta culture.
Synopsis: The fall of Old Europe and dissolution of the Cucuteni-Tripolye Culture left horse-riding steppe-herders the unchallenged paradigm on the Pontic-Caspian steppe. The introduction of the wagon around 3500 BC enabled their adoption of a fully-nomadic lifestyle, culminating with the complete dominance of the Proto-Indo-European-speaking Yamnaya horizon.