Hammurabi: Rise of the Babylonians
The Ancients
History Hit
4.7 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 15 December 2022
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
2000 BC saw the famed city of Babylon begin to flourish under the rule of a King called Hammurabi. Renowned for his famous law code, the stele of which still survives today, is there anything else to be learnt about this mysterious figure?
In this episode Tristan is joined by Professor, and author, Amanda Podany from California State Polytechnic University. Together they discuss the life of this famed Babylonian King, from his origins as a ruthless warlord, to his contributions in helping Babylon ascend to the momentous civilisation we know it as today.
Amanda's new book, Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East, is out now!
For more Ancients content, subscribe to our Ancients newsletter here. If you'd like to learn even more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | It's the ancient's on history hit. I'm Tristan Hughes your host and in today's |
| 0:19.2 | podcast we're going back to the ancient Near East to Mesopotamia and the |
| 0:23.6 | incredible ancient city, one of the most famous cities in the whole of ancient |
| 0:28.2 | history, the city of Babylon. We're talking about a particular period in Babylon's |
| 0:33.8 | history at the start of the second millennium BC when you really begin to see |
| 0:38.4 | this city rise under one key figure. The figure of Hammer Rabbi or Hammer |
| 0:45.9 | Rabbi, you'll notice during this podcast episode how I vary in the name that I |
| 0:50.5 | give this figure so I hope you can forgive me for that. We're talking about the |
| 0:55.0 | life of Hammer Rabbi, what do we know about him, this ruler of ancient Babylon? |
| 0:59.5 | What is the archaeology revealed not just about himself but also about his |
| 1:04.8 | reign? As a warlord but also as a lawgiver because yes first and foremost we |
| 1:11.0 | think of Hammer Rabbi today because of his law code that has survived, this |
| 1:15.8 | steely that has survived. We talk about all of this and so much more in our |
| 1:20.6 | episode today because I was delighted to interview a few weeks back Professor |
| 1:25.4 | Amanda Poddany. Amanda, she's Professor Emeritus of History at California State |
| 1:30.9 | Polytechnic. She is a wonderful speaker, it was great together on the podcast |
| 1:35.2 | because Amanda has also recently written this Titanic new book ancient history |
| 1:42.1 | of the Near East. It is incredible, it's had a brilliant reception and for this |
| 1:48.1 | podcast rather than talking about it all we decided that we'd focus in on one |
| 1:52.4 | particular area of it and the area that we decided upon was the story of |
| 1:57.0 | Hammer Rabbi and how he contributes to this rise of the Babylonians. So without |
| 2:02.6 | further ado talk all about this and more here's Amanda. Amanda, it is great to |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of History Hit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.