Oldest Stories
James Bleckley
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Top 10 Oldest Stories Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Oldest Stories episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Oldest Stories for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Oldest Stories episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
OS 12 - Enlil, Lord of Wind
Oldest Stories
12/25/19 • 31 min
He is a little bit creepy and king of the gods. He is Enlil, lord of wind, and today's episode is focused on the him as the head of the Sumerian pantheon. Online at oldeststories.net
OS 73 - Corruption in Nuzi
Oldest Stories
03/24/21 • 42 min
True crime! Corruption in city hall! A gang of thugs terrorizing a town! One of the most interesting finds in the town of Nuzi is a series of court documents which contain testimony about a large number of criminal activities by a gang of thugs, including men who have positions in city hall. Today we get an on the ground look at what sort of crime went on in Nuzi, and what was done about it. Plus, we will start to get a sense of how many sheep the Hurrians actually had.
OS 45 - Hammurabi's Medicine and Justice
Oldest Stories
08/12/20 • 32 min
Hammurabi conquers Larsa in another lightning campaign displaying his strategic and diplomatic cunning. But once it is conquered, he needs to bring this massive new territory into his growing empire. This will give us an occasion to look at what exactly justice looked like in an Amorite city. We will also have an opportunity to discuss Middle Bronze Age medicine and what kind of surgical practices were known in Babylon. Online at oldeststories.net
OS 40 - Barbarian Kingdoms and Biblical Patriarchs
Oldest Stories
07/08/20 • 35 min
The Amorites swept through Syria and held the region in a dark age longer than any other part of Mesopotamia. But when the dust finally does settle, we will see a number of nations ruled by barbarians, but behaving in quite civilized fashions. Today we will look at the establishment of Yamhad, Qatna, and Mari as well as the early kings of Assyria, getting a feel for the new players that will be with us for the next few hundred years. In the second half of the show, we enter briefly into the Age of Biblical Patriarchs and events of the Book of Genesis, though this is more of an interesting tangent than a major part of the historical narrative at this point. Online at oldeststories.net
OS 149 - Shalmaneser Upends the Levant
Oldest Stories
08/14/24 • 41 min
Today we examine the situation in the Levant from the Bronze age Collapse to the entry of the Assyrians, and then follow Shalmaneser's levantine campaigns as they reshape the region through violence and indigenous reactions. We reach the end of Ahumu the Aramean's anti-Assyrian activities, and ponder some of the big questions of the series, like what motivates Shalmaneser and what happens to civillians in a conquered Assyrian territory.
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OS 27 - The Study of Sumer and Ancient Aliens
Oldest Stories
04/08/20 • 37 min
There were some very important and talented people who have dug up the once lost civilization of Sumer and given their stories new life. Then there are the ancient aliens people. We will pay our respects to the giants of Sumerology, and examine exactly where the ancient aliens theorists go off the rails while enjoying the silliness of their earnestly held beliefs. Online at oldeststories.net
OS 53 - Poem of the Righteous Sufferer
Oldest Stories
10/07/20 • 38 min
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, and in this tale we will see both the events that occurred to him and his attempts to make sense of it all. Online at oldeststories.net
Industry 3 - Liquid Bread
Oldest Stories
05/18/22 • 40 min
Our tale of daily life continues. The harvest is over, but the work continues, as there are many steps required to transform boring, nutritious grain into delicious, nutritious beer. Online at oldeststories.net
OS 104 - Arameans Everywhere
Oldest Stories
11/23/22 • 46 min
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.
OS 50 - Hammurabi's Code of Laws
Oldest Stories
09/16/20 • 128 min
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 long, fair warning here. I did say I wasn't going to do this because it would be long and boring, but here I am doing it anyway. It is definitely long, but hopefully I have kept the boredom to a minimum. Feel free to skip over this episode if you are not interested in this sort of thing or if it gets dull halfway through. Online at oldeststories.net
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FAQ
How many episodes does Oldest Stories have?
Oldest Stories currently has 189 episodes available.
What topics does Oldest Stories cover?
The podcast is about History and Podcasts.
What is the most popular episode on Oldest Stories?
The episode title 'Listener Questions' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Oldest Stories?
The average episode length on Oldest Stories is 38 minutes.
How often are episodes of Oldest Stories released?
Episodes of Oldest Stories are typically released every 7 days.
When was the first episode of Oldest Stories?
The first episode of Oldest Stories was released on Oct 28, 2019.
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