Fall of the Sumerians

The Ancients

History Hit

History

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 11 September 2025

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tristan Hughes continues our special series on Great Disasters, journeying back to ancient Mesopotamia with Dr Paul Collins to explore the fall of the Sumerians.

4,000 years ago, the great cities of Sumer — Ur, Uruk, Lagash, Girsu — stood as glittering centres of power, crowned with mighty ziggurats and ruled by ambitious dynasties. Yet within a few generations, this world of splendour and tradition unravelled. From the collapse of the Akkadian Empire to shifting power struggles and environmental pressures, uncover why these prestigious city-states declined — and ask whether we can truly talk of a 'fall of Sumer.' Join us as we step into the chaos of Mesopotamia’s first great age of empires and witness how disaster reshaped the cradle of civilisation.

The Sumerians

Sargon of Akkad

Presented by Tristan Hughes. Audio editor is Aidan Lonergan and the producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm always up before the birds and the kids.
0:02.9	Good thing Costa Express is always up too.
0:07.0	Early starts are easier with great coffee.
0:09.7	And if I grab one for Bob, I might even get some decent company.
0:14.5	Large cappuccino for the bloc who's half asleep.
0:17.2	Oh, you legend.
0:19.6	Now that's a proper coffee.
0:21.3	Should kick in Justin Samfut, remember which end of the screwdriver to use.
0:25.1	Hmm.
0:26.3	Costa Express.
0:27.8	Quality coffee every time.
0:32.0	Hello everyone.
0:32.8	A quick note from me before we start the episode, just a thank you.
0:35.9	Thank you to everyone who came to our
0:37.6	ancient live show last Friday, where we explored the story of Carthage with Dr. Eve MacDonald.
0:43.4	We absolutely loved it. It was wonderful to meet so many of you in person. And I'm here to say
0:48.4	that we will be releasing the audio of that live show for you are subscribers next week. So if you want to listen to that live show,
0:57.4	if you couldn't make it but really want to listen to it, well you can. You just need to subscribe
1:01.0	to the ancients. We'll put a link in the show notes where you can do just that. And it's going to
1:05.7	be released next Friday.
1:24.9	The dozen different sources from the period say something very strange.
1:26.7	They say basically that the sun disappeared.
	...

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