Hi, this is Scott. If you're a fan of the ancient world, please help us get the

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We started last episode with the death of Rammacy's III. No contemporary figure looms as large

in those final decades of the late Bronze Age. But there was another powerful king who ruled

at almost the exact same time, from 1184 to 1155 BC, and whose actions also reshape the

Near Eastern landscape. In fact, even as Syria and Anatolia were falling into chaos, ancient

dynasties were falling like cards and neighboring Mesopotamia. So before I get to the Neohittites,

I want to go back and fill in a few gaps about Assyria, Babylonia, and Elam. And just a warning,

the king names are going to start flying in pretty hard and fast, so please wear your protective gear.

As many of you know, the Elamites are one of the world's oldest urban civilizations.

Their traditional domains range from the Iranian Highlands to the Zagros mountains to the

Mesopotamian plain. Their lowland capital, Tsusa, is one of the world's oldest cities and was

situated only a few dozen miles from the Sumerian city of Lagash. One of the virtual constants of

Near Eastern history was violent conflict between the Elamites meant the various civilizations

of Mesopotamia, from the Sumerians to the Acadians to the Babylonians. After a particularly

devastating defeat by King Hammurabi in the 18th century BC, Elam vanished from the scene for centuries.

And when Babylon fell to the Hittites in 1595 BC, you might have expected the Elamites to swoop

back in and take some revenge. But in fact, they were beaten to the punch by a neighboring tribe called

the Cassites. The Cassites hailed from the central Zagros region of Louristan, and hadn't played much

of a role in Near Eastern history up to this point. But they'd recently come under the influence

of the chariot riding Indo-European warrior elite from Central Asia, just like the nearby

...