The Scholars of Assyria
The Ancients
History Hit
4.7 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 27 January 2022
⏱️ 46 minutes
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Summary
Tens of thousands of clay tablets containing texts written in the ancient Cuneiform script of the Assyrian Empire have been discovered, giving us invaluable insights into the inner workings of the Mesopotamian kingdom on the eve of its collapse in the 1st millennium BC.
In this fascinating episode, Tristan chats with Professor Eleanor Robson of UCL to help shed light on the incredible history of scholarship in the ancient Near East.
Order Tristan’s book today: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Perdiccas-Years-323-Alexanders-Successors/dp/1526775115/ref=zg_bsnr_271237_68/260-7675295-7826601?pd_rd_i=1526775115&psc=1
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Music:
Over the Dunes - Jon Sumner
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's the Entrance on History Hit. |
| 0:11.3 | I'm Tristan Hughes your host. |
| 0:13.6 | And in today's podcast, we'll forget Alexander the Great, forget all things Roman, because |
| 0:18.7 | we're going further back in ancient history. |
| 0:21.1 | We're going to the Near East and we're talking all about the Assyrian Empire. |
| 0:26.5 | All about the Assyrians, we're talking about Kuneiform, the particular focus on Assyrian |
| 0:32.6 | scholarship that has been preserved through surviving Kuneiform tablets. |
| 0:37.6 | We're going to be looking at the association between court scholars and particular Assyrian |
| 0:43.4 | kings, the rise of court scholarship, shall we say, in the early first millennium BC. |
| 0:48.5 | We're going to be talking about various kings, various figures such as Sargon II and |
| 0:53.9 | the famous or infamous Asha Banapal, as well as the God Naboo and how he became so closely |
| 1:00.1 | associated with scholarship in ancient Assyria. |
| 1:04.5 | Now join me to talk through all of this and so much more. |
| 1:07.8 | It's about time we focused on ancient Assyria, so trust me, this isn't going to be the last |
| 1:12.2 | of our ancient Assyrian episodes. |
| 1:15.2 | Join me to talk all about this. |
| 1:16.6 | We've got an esteemed Assyriologist on the show and that is Professor Eleanor Robson. |
| 1:23.0 | Eleanor is the head of the Department of History and Professor of Ancient Middle Eastern |
| 1:27.4 | History at UCL. |
| 1:28.4 | It was wonderful to meet Eleanor in person for this great chat. |
| 1:33.6 | So without further ado to talk all about Kuneiform and Assyrian scholarship, here's Eleanor. |
| 1:40.3 | Eleanor, thank you so much for taking the time to come on the podcast today. |
... |
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