Hammurabi’s World - The Near East in the Age of Fragmentation

Tides of History

Wondery / Patrick Wyman

Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 6.3K Ratings

🗓️ 9 December 2021

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

If we know the name of an ancient Near Eastern ruler, it’s probably that of Hammurabi, thanks to his famous Code. But Hammurabi was just one ruler in a time of conflict throughout the region, and the state he built in his lifetime didn’t last beyond his death. This was an age of fragmentation that lasted for centuries, where ambitious would-be conquerors fought one another in endless rounds of warfare and bloodshed.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The Clay Tablet Shattered, breaking into a dozen jagged pieces as it hit the floor.
0:15.0	Cursing the bearded soldier reached down, trying to fit the pieces back together, but to
0:19.2	no avail.
0:20.7	Frustrated and growling, he stomped his heel down onto one of the shards, further breaking
0:24.5	in.
0:25.5	He glanced out the door of the archive, imagining the kinds of treasures his fellow soldiers
0:29.6	were finding here in the incredibly wealthy palace at the heart of the city of Mari.
0:34.6	They had marched for days through the Syrian desert and along the Euphrates River to
0:38.0	get here, they had fought the armies of Mari, they had won the city for their ruler,
0:42.2	Hamarabi, king of Babylon and king of the four corners of the world.
0:47.1	But now the soldier was stuck here in this dark room, stuffed to the ceiling with packed
0:51.4	wooden shelves lit only by brazers and torches, shoving clay tablets into boxes, while
0:56.7	his compatriots were offered the opportunity to loot the treasures of an old and powerful
1:00.9	kingdom.
1:02.3	The soldier reached up onto the shelf and wrapped his big scarred hands around a stack of tablets.
1:07.6	He looked at the one on top, tracing a finger over the sequence of horizontal, diagonal
1:11.8	and vertical lines incised in the clay.
1:14.5	They were just lines to him.
1:16.4	He couldn't read Qunaea form script and it had never occurred to him to learn.
1:20.6	War was his business.
1:21.9	The sharp bronze spearhead and shield, the thought of arrows and a waiting flesh, the
1:26.6	shell of flames and fear in the aftermath of a siege.
	...

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