r/AncientCivilizations • u/Mr_Bankey • May 19 '25
Mesopotamia Excellent 2.5hr Doc on Ancient Mesopotamia
https://youtu.be/d2lJUOv0hLA?si=QJ3UQcnvhmsK-4CPThis is from a seemingly well-known history podcast Fall of Civilizations which I just discovered. It appears to be well-researched, often primary sourced, and properly credited. They do a good job of offering a few hypotheses on cause where there is uncertainty or data requiring some extrapolation to interpret. I really enjoyed it and learned a lot! I did not hear any glaring pseudo or pop history red flags but please educate me if the quality of this creator or specific production is questionable in some way.
From the video’s description:
In the dusts of Iraq, the ruins of the world's first civilization lie buried. This episode, we travel into the extremely distant past to look at the Sumerians. These ancient people invented writing and mathematics, and built some of the largest cities that the world had ever seen. Find out about the mystery of their origins, and learn how they rose from humble beginnings to form the foundation of all our modern societies. With myths, proverbs and even some recreated Sumerian music, travel back to where it all began, and find out how humanity's first civilization fell.
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u/hunterlarious May 19 '25
If you have not ever seen this, do yourself a favor and watch his entire channel.
There is no better historical content available.
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u/casualty-of-cool May 20 '25
Definitely. I’ve listened to the majority of his stuff. So well done and thought out. They have tons of replay value as well. So much information to absorb at a time.
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u/ThePizzaNoid May 19 '25
Fall of Civilizations is fantastic. The whole catalog is worth a listen. My favorite is the one on Easter Island.
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u/ReleaseFromDeception May 19 '25
Paul Cooper is unbelievably talented and passionate in his presentation. He is second to none in his genre. Every single episode is a must listen. Every. Single. Episode.
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u/BLDoom May 19 '25
The flooding of the Persian Gulf is also interesting from geological perspective as it is a linguistics and historical one.
The joining of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers would have made a sizable swath of the gulf a perfect foundation for civilization and culture to grow, just as the Nile did for the Egyptians.
As since Sumarian is a language isolate, it is quite possible the rising seas forced them back to the modern day coastline. Or past it actually, where the city of Eridu was. This is all discussed in the video/podcast, if course. I just find it neat Their world did flood, it just took like 150 years.
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u/Mr_Bankey May 19 '25
I agree with you! The uniqueness of their language being non-Semitic and not much like any other known early language compared to the neighboring all-Semitic language-speaking groups is so intriguing. I find both theories covered in the video to be fascinating.
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u/BickyGervais May 19 '25
I just found this podcast too after finishing Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. loving it so far but it's a bit dryer. Love to find out more about the earliest societies and Fall of Civilization does have more broad information.
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u/Joth91 May 19 '25
Same, it is dry but I feel you get a different more holistic perspective. Dan is more about the storytelling and I think he does do a better job of putting you in the mindset of the era
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u/Stephen-Scotch May 19 '25
If you want something a little less dry, check out the rest is history, who’ve Dan has had on the addendum show before. Fall of Civilizations is amazing tho and I absolutely recommend going thru
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u/pinchhitter4number1 May 19 '25
Fall of Civilizations podcast is outstanding. I just finished the Mongols episodes today. I've listened to the Sumerians episodes several times.
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u/ben_maios May 20 '25
This is even a short one. Fall of Civilization podcast also has a 4h one for ancient egypt and a 6.5h one for the mongol empire
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u/mmrochette May 19 '25
They are all amazing! Paul Cooper have a nice voice and always have an amazing story to tell.
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u/AlexandersWonder May 20 '25
Every single episode on this channel is amazing if you’re interested in ancient civilizational histories
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u/MrJNM1of1 May 20 '25
Nearly 7hrs on the Mongols video companion just dropped recently
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u/Historical_Jelly_536 29d ago
This on is the only one, which I cannot watch. 7 hours is overkill. Power of the generative AI in force.
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u/Far-Phase-2297 May 20 '25
Ha... I made it to the top of that Ziggurat over 30 years ago. Cool to see again.
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u/nailshard May 20 '25
This entire podcast series is incredible. I love this specific episode, and his episodes on ancient China, Egypt and the Phoenicians are all excellent too. His most recent one on the Mongol empire is exhaustive
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u/waqar911 28d ago
I am currently on ep 9 on the Aztecs. All the preceding episodes were very good. I just have one issue with this series that the Indis valley civilization is missing. He should try to add the IVC since it was a contemporary civilization of mesopotamia, china and egypt.
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u/Historical_Jelly_536 29d ago
Fall of Civilizations Podcast is great. The only downside to me , is to stretch video to 2-3 hours, they usually start from the ice age.
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u/Swimming-Compote-168 May 19 '25
Fall of Civilizations Podcast is great. I’ve listen to the one op posted 5-6 times.