Howdy folks, Dominic here, with a feed swap.

Fellow podcaster Scott Chesworth from the Ancient World has a new season.

I'm excited to introduce the Ancient World Ages, a series covering the early Bronze Age collapse

around 2,200 BCE, and the remaking of

southwest Eurasia that occurred in that time.

In this feed swap, you'll hear episode A3, the Kings of Kish.

It covers the period around 2,900 BCE to 2,350, a time of kings emerging from legends,

figures like Gilgamesh, burial sites like the Royal Cemetery of Ur, and the legendary

conflict between Lagash and Umah, recorded on the Stealer of the Valtiers. Along the way, Scott will introduce

you to history's earliest known diplomacy, bilateral treaty, and legal codes. Finally, Scott will set

the stage for the most famous conqueror of the day, Sargon of Akad. The ancient world, ages, promises to be an exciting big-picture history of this ancient time.

While the Egyptians were focused on pyramids, rulers in Mesopotamia were kicking kish and taking names.

Please consider joining Scott on this epic journey. The mace head tells us quite a bit.

First, there's the fact that it's a mace head, a symbol of domination, which, unlike an axe, really only has one purpose, cracking the skulls of one's enemies.

So we've entered a period marked by violent conflict.

Second is the imagery, the lion-headed eagle of Ningirsu.

The deity whose name means lord of Girsu was a god of agriculture and

healing, but in line with the times, he was now also a god of war. Third was the Macehead setting,

a shrine dedicated to Ningirsu in his city of Girsu, which, together with the cities of Lagash and

Nina, made up the Sumerian city state of Lagash. Lastly, there's the text, which records that

Messilim, King of Kish, builder of the temple of Nengiru, brought this macehead for Nengirsu,

Lugol Shah Engur being ruler of Lagosch. The fact that a macehead of a king of Kish was placed

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