15 - The Ancient Hebrews

"On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites"
Genesis - 15:18-15:21

Family fun time circa 2000 BC

New episode! Huzzah! Are you ready to learn the history of the Ancient Israelites? Although this episode should really be filed more under sorta-history...but I'll explain all that in the show!

Also of course, a big thank you goes out to Michael Levy for allowing his music to be featured! You can find a link to his website, www.ancientlyre.com, on the upper left-hand corner of the page, and the link to today's song below!


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Music Credits
Michael Levy - Noch Havdallah

Resources:

To be added soon!

*I'm aware that I make frequent references to the male characters giving birth to their sons in this episode. Physical limitations aside, I don't think it distracts too much from the story, but it irked me enough to write a sort of apology here for my poor word choice, revealing what I'm going to call my testostebias. Obviously Isaac didn't give birth to Jacob, his wife did...but, you know what I mean. I pledge that in all future episodes I will make sure to keep my biological functions gender correct.

8 - The Third Dynasty of Ur OR The Richest Man in Babylon

"When the exalted Anu, king of the Anunnaki, and Enlil, lord of heaven and earth, he who determines the destiny of the land, committed the rule of all mankind to Marduk, the chief son of Ea; when they made him great among the gods; when they pronounced the lofty name of Babylon; when they made it famous among the quarters of the world and in its midst established an everlasting kingdom whose foundations were firm as heaven and earth - at that time, Anu and Enlil called me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, the worshiper of the gods, to cause justice to prevail in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil, to prevent the strong from oppressing the weak, to go forth like the Sun over the black head race, to enlighten the land and to further the welfare of the people."

-Prologue to the Code of Hammurabi

(Aside from his famous laws, Hammurabi was a disco dancing machine.)

Episode 8 is looking great as we explore the early days of Babylon. Look at Hammurabi and Einstein go! Hah! I could watch them all day. Maybe I will...can't look away...

Also, stuff!
- Transcripts have been updated, and I've added a new page for a bibliography.
- Check out the new logo! Because my brother, Matt, thought he could do a better job than my slapdash photoshop work and you know what?? He's right. Damn fine work I say!

And to everyone who has rated the show and/or downloaded it...you have bumped me up into the top 10 history podcasts on iTunes. and that is AWESOME. Please continue to support the show and in return I'll make more episodes and dancing gifs. It's a deal!

MP3 Direct Link

Music Credits
ensemble de Organographia - "Hurrian Hymns 7 & 10"

Supplemental learning!
Map of the 3rd Dynasty of Ur. It's en francais but you still get the picture.
Another neat map showing the territorial influence of Ur III, but you might need to tilt your head for this one!
Map of the empires of Mesopotamia around 1400 BC...a bit later than what's covered in this episode, but it's a good visual aid to what's going on.
Foundation Figure of Ur-Nammu
Fragments of the law code of Ur-Nammu
Map of Babylonian Empire (Hammurabi)
Hammurabi, standing, receiving a gift from Shamash
Hammurabi, sans schnoz
Hammurabi, as he appears on the U.S. House of Representatives
Code of Hammurabi: side view
Code of Hammurabi: full stele
The full code of Hammurabi in Akkadian and English by Robert Francis Harper

5 - The Cradle of Civilization

"The Flood wiped out all things: and after the Flood had wiped out all things, when kingship descended from heaven, kingship belonged to Kish"

- Sumerian King List

Iraq and roll fellow historians! We've finally entered the realm of written history, something we owe to the ancient Sumerians - those industrious and brilliant people who turned the marshlands of southern Iraq into one of the greatest civilizations ever on Earth.

While we study the Sumerians, the Podcast History of Our World is grateful to Gayle and Phil Neumann of the group, ensemble De Organographia, for graciously allowing me to use part of their recordings for the intro and outro music. The song "Hurrian Hymns 7 & 10" is played on lyre and drum, and represents some of the earliest known music to come out of Mesopotamia. This is as real as it gets folks, and if you like the song, why not check out their other albums too? The group has covered numerous other historical music including Ancient Greece, Egypt and 16th century Italian music.

You can purchase their fantastic albums from North Pacific Music or just do a search on Amazon.
And if you're fortunate enough to live in Oregon check out their live events! Shoot me a line and tell me how the concert was!

(and I'll be posting a list of all sorts of episode goodies later today so check back in!)

MP3 Direct Link