The Sumerians

The Ancients

History Hit

History

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 31 August 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

More than 5,000 years ago, in what is today southern Iraq, one of the world’s first civilisations emerged. A civilisation often credited with the invention of writing, the wheel and cities. The Sumerians.

The Sumerians are a people that you have probably heard of, but might not know too much about. And in today’s episode of The Ancients, we are re-releasing our episode from a few years back where we finally delved into their story. We’re going to explore their cities, their language, their artefacts and so much more.

This is the story of the Sumerians, with our guest. The Assyriologist and great friend of the podcast, Dr Paul Collins.

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

The Ancients is a History Hit podcast.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey guys, Tristan here, and I have an exciting announcement. The Ancients will be returning to the
0:06.0	London Podcast Festival. Now, last year tickets, they sold out at record speed. So this time,
0:12.6	we've been upgraded. We've got a bigger room. And you, you can be there too on Friday the 5th of
0:18.8	September at 7pm at King's Place.
0:21.6	Now I've invited Friend of the podcast, the fabulous Dr. Eve MacDonald, to join me on stage
0:27.6	where we will be exploring the gripping story of ancient Carthage.
0:32.6	Carthage, the Phoenician city that became a superpower, an empire that rivaled Rome for control in the
0:38.9	Western Mediterranean, and ultimately had a terrible traumatic demise.
0:44.8	Of course, the ancients is nothing without you, so we want you to be there in the audience
0:49.5	taking part and asking us your burning questions. Tickets for the festival always sell fast.
0:56.1	So book yourself a seat now at www. kingsplace.co.uk forward slash what's on.
1:02.6	We'll click the link in the show notes of this episode. The team and I cannot wait to see you there.
1:07.6	The team and I cannot wait to see you there.
1:31.5	More than 5,000 years ago, in what is today southern Iraq, one of the world's first civilizations emerged. A civilization often credited with the invention of writing, the WeiW and cities,
1:39.5	the Sumerians. The Sumerians are a people that you have probably heard of, but might not know too much
1:45.9	about. And in today's episode of the ancients, we are re-releasing our episode from a few years back
1:51.8	where we finally delved into their story. We're going to explore their cities, their language,
1:57.6	their artefacts, and so much more. This is the story of the Sumerians, with our guest, the Assyriologist and great friend of the podcast, Dr Paul Collins.
2:11.7	Cool, it is wonderful to have you on the podcast today.
2:14.4	Thank you very much.
2:15.2	Delighted to be here.
2:16.2	And it's great to be doing it in person at the Ashmolean Museum. And this is an incredible place when talking about the Sumerians, isn't it? Straight off the bat. We're extraordinary, lucky here. I mean, we've got such a rich collection which means we can explore 10,000 years of ancient Middle Eastern history, and of course, within that, a great deal of material which
	...

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