Videos On Ancient Mesopotamia

Admiral · 3 October 2021 17:55

This thread is an attempt to list all videos and audiobooks on ancient Mesopotamia out there. Please add to it and don’t be afraid to propose additions. No ancient aliens need apply, those are firmly the domain of Lizardmen Old Ones.

The Epic of Gilgamesh (animated): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pGhEu9elnA&ab_channel=Neanderthal78

Fall of Civilizations
The Sumerians - Fall of the First Cities: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2lJUOv0hLA&ab_channel=FallofCivilizations
The Assyrians - Empire of Iron: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpAphcaVJIs&ab_channel=FallofCivilizations

Kings and Generals
Rise of Sumer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHpmLrWBjnM
Rise and Fall of the Akkadian Empire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evhDGp1KvPM
Amorite Kingdoms and the Sumerian Renaissance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX9SVkixxtk
How Bronze Age Trade Was Conducted: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p6EL-a0v60
Rise of Babylon and Hammurabi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJF_lYSREgc
Rise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDP6A1LA_5I

History with Cy
Over 30 videos on ancient Mesopotamia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szFjxmY7jQA&list=PLUx8354UG5yxKUIn3t0rppmEu_Rg18lAK&ab_channel=HistorywithCy
The Life and Times of Ea-Nasir, Bronze Age Babylonia’s Most Notorious Businessman (ca. 1750 BC): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eR9Q69r8wVE

History Time
The Entire History of the Akkadians: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-mAWItV2q0&ab_channel=HistoryTime
Shamshi-Adad & the Old Assyrian Empire (2000-1750 BC): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpm-kzn01y4
History of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911-609 BC): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tizdco2i85w&t=2s

Voices from the Past
The Epic of Gilgamesh (Pt. 1): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPckeBH8FLE
Letter To Ea-Nassir // World’s Oldest Complaint Letter (1750 BC) // Ancient Babylonian Tablet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkoaHFMjYJg
Assyrian God-King Speaks of his Conquests // Ancient Primary Source // 640 BC Sennacherib: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKGrUe685Pk
Trial Notes of a Slave from Judah // 549 BC // Ancient Babylonian Tablet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qsuh5ysJEgw

Overly Sarcastic Productions
Legends Summarized: The Epic of Gilgamesh: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-yJDbC_a2c
History Summarized: The Fall of Babylon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJPYQaBiaB8

Stefan Milo
Human Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East: The Royal Tombs of Ur: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hhl9dbOjZs&ab_channel=StefanMilo
Who was Esarhaddon? The Life of an Ancient Assyrian King: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61EgRr7Aw5M&ab_channel=StefanMilo

Dan Davis Author
Ancient Mesopotamian Warfare in Sumer and Akkad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10Kc7NmPpME

Biographics
Sargon of Akkad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9HZm5QmQe4
Ashurbannipal: The Lion of Assyria: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n_h-4X9v-w

Histocrat
The Royal Death Pits of Ur: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFEjcfYOC3I

Let’s Talk Religion
Religion In Ancient Mesopotamia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm0EkFaRxTE

The British Museum
Cracking Ancient Codes: Cuneiform Writing with Irving Finkel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfYYraMgiBA
Ancient Demons with Irving Finkel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOT75GB64Hw
The Ark Before Noah with Irving Finkel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_fkpZSnz2I
The Great Library of Nineveh with Irving Finkel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls9JkxFEB9g
The First Ghost Stories with Irving Finkel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNNaZ110ee4
Voices Out of the Darknes with Irving Finkel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDA6oIiQS4E
Uncovering Secrets of Mesopotamian Medicine with Irving Finkel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgbR_UJMwYo
Unlocking the Secrets of Mesopotamian Magic with Irving Finkel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THA1Ez_kw0g

Oriental Institute
Assyrian Imperial Power and How to Oppose it, by Karen Radner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnRNWyf1Rtw
The Collapse of the Assyrian Empire and the Evidence of Dur Katlimmu, by Hartmut Kühne: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Hkcz1bg5DY
Economy of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, by Michael Jursa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WffD215adHg

Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East
The Epic of Gilgamesh, by Andrew George: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd7MrGy_tEg

Gresham College
Ancient Goddesses of Sex and War, by Ronald Hutton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeqTn6bxnyU

Penn Museum
Rise of the City: How the Great God Marduk Built the City of Babylon, by Steve Tinney: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep936ropKlc

The Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures
What Did You Learn in School Today? by Paul Delnero: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zw8BAf_1lE
Everything You’ve Always Wanted to Know about Sex in Ancient Babylonia, by Jerry Cooper: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2iHAgPV-EQ

Will Durant
Sumeria: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLsiQjYrkYk&ab_channel=RockyC
Babylonia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5OUS8wKKyU&ab_channel=RockyC
Assyria: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYt59zJsdg8&ab_channel=RockyC

The French Whisperer ASMR
Sumerian Mythology Sleep Stories: Epic of Gilgamesh: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl1vgycZGQs&ab_channel=TheFrenchWhispererASMR

Abed Azrié - Epic of Gilgamesh full concert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ARRP5i2nw8

MichaelX · 3 October 2021 18:37

holy mesopotamian empire… this is a lot…

Habitual_Lurker · 3 October 2021 21:07

Wow. Thank you, this is so useful!

Oxymandias · 3 October 2021 21:15

Can never have enough Irving Finkel in my life . Thanks for compiling this @Admiral

Fuggit_Khan · 4 October 2021 04:57

I’ve watched quite a few of these gems…looking forward to watching more while sitting on the beach and enjoying an ice cold Coca Cola.
Seems only proper for a CD to enjoy historical epics alongside a refreshing beverage

Reaver · 19 October 2021 22:44

Glad my tottering clay pot with feet stumbled onto this today. Gotta get cracking on everything I haven’t seen

Admiral · 20 October 2021 15:10

Cheers folks! @Fuggit_Khan : Aye, though the beverage is best enjoyed filtered through a straw, Sumerian style.

Summary

Adult version can be found here.

Fall of Civilizations’ Assyria video link has been updated with their newest version, which has both audio and imagery. The audio-only version can be found here.

Oxymandias · 20 October 2021 16:55

Dude I don’t know what you put in that punch but…am I the only one seeing flying goats?

Admiral · 2 May 2023 11:16

Flying goats are guaranteed!

A new video lecture from the British Museum may be fun to check out. Not least for the roasting of Herodotus’ writings on the absence of Mesopotamian medicine practiced by doctors toward the end. Added to the above link list.

Uncovering Secrets of Mesopotamian Medicine with Irving Finkel: Uncovering Secrets of Mesopotamian Medicine | Dr. Irving Finkel - YouTube

Funnily enough, Irving Finkel speculates that several unpleasant and difficult-to-acquire ingredients for medicine, may in reality have been funky plant names. Akin to the plant old man’s beard in English. For instance, wolf sweat? Maybe a plant name. Slave girl’s buttock on the other hand is known for sure to be a plant name, since it shows up in a botanical list of herbs used by doctors:

Summary

If this line of thought is correct, then the inherited and scholarly transferred medicinal traditions of acquiring bonkers ingredients during Mediaeval times and later on, could to some extent be the case of the original meaning being lost in translation or lost to the mists of time.

Also note the long-standing observation that belief in invisible demons and evil spirits that enter the body and cause mischief to make people sick, corresponds somewhat to modern people’s grasp of bacteria and other scientifically known microbes doing the same. These kinds of folkore beliefs, myths and so on are meant to explain the world to people, preferably with some memorable story to make it stick since humans love stories.

Oxymandias · 2 May 2023 17:27

Father of history/father of lies!

Oxymandias · 2 May 2023 17:28

Also - yes

Instawatch. I think Finkel needs to be made into a chaos dwarf, the amount he’s taught me about Mesopotamia

Oxymandias · 2 May 2023 17:38

@Admiral

Admiral · 2 May 2023 18:06

Somebody native to the rainy isles please send this glorious picture to the British Museum.

Admiral · 3 May 2023 20:19

Many more juice bits of fuel for Chaos Dwarf inspiration may be found in Dr. Finkel’s take on Mesopotamian magic:

Unlocking the Secrets of Mesopotamian Magic with Irving Finkel: Unlocking the Secrets of Mesopotamian Magic with Dr. Irving Finkel - YouTube

Admiral · 29 September 2023 08:29

Professor Ronald Hutton’s following lecture is good fun and informative. It is also lurid and details the evolution of love-war goddesses from Inanna to Venus. A peculiar combination.

Ancient Goddesses of Sex and War, by Ronald Hutton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeqTn6bxnyU

The Sacred Marriage of Inanna and Dumuzi (Dumuzi’s Wedding, from Nippur), with choice parts read by Professor Ronald Hutton:

“In it, Inanna describes her body’s barge of heaven, crescent-shaped like the new moon. Her untilled plot of land, long left fallow in the desert. Her duck field, thick with birds. Her hillock-land, so verdant. Her lovely farmland, banked round. She calls on Dumuzi to put his plow to her well-watered lowlands.”

Of particular note is the serial misconduct of the goddess Ishtar, none of which is relevant because of her divine rank:

"What’s not to like? Note that she is offering [Gilgamesh] status, power and wealth, starting with the chariot, the Sumerian equivalent of a Porsche Turbo. The great sex is taken more or less for granted. Evidently to her amazement, and perhaps to ours, he refuses.

He itemizes in insulting detail the way in which she has disposed of all her previous husbands, including Dumuzi, as soon as they bored or displeased her. The reaction of glorious Ishtar to this, is to fly into a bitter rage, and run straight to her parents, to ask for vengeance on Gilgamesh. Daddy unhelpfully points out, that everything the hero has said about her, was in fact perfectly correct.

Ishtar cheerfully admits that her conduct has consisted of abominable behaviour and tainted acts. Her point is that that’s irrelevant, because mortals shouldn’t insult a goddess, no matter how obnoxious she happens to be at times. Her next move is effectively to throw a tantrum, in which she demands that her father gives her free use of a cosmic monster, the Bull of Heaven, to destroy Gilgamesh. If he refuses, she threatens to smash the doors of the underworld, and let the dead loose upon the living, so wrecking the entire terrestrial world. Boy is this a hissy-fit!

Her weary father objects that to let loose the Bull of Heaven will itself destroy all the crops and cause famine. Ishtar brightly replies that she has thought of this, and has laid up stocks of food to cover the time till the devastation passes. She is clearly a lass who plans vengeance well ahead. Everybody loses by the result."

Cy presents to us the oldest and perhaps most famous customer complaint letter of all time:

The Life and Times of Ea-Nasir, Bronze Age Babylonia’s Most Notorious Businessman (ca. 1750 BC): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eR9Q69r8wVE

Of which more can be found out here, with a Warhammer 40’000 connection spin:

Summary

This drawing by Hydraulisk will be of interest to people around here:

It depicts the first Daemon Prince of Tzeentch in his interpretation. Wearing an oxhide copper ingot on his chest, carrying a cuneiform clay tablet and sporting a luscious Mesopotamian beard, we infer that the first Daemon Prince of Tzeentch in Warhammer 40’000 would be Ea-Nasir, a dodgy Sumerian copper trader of Alik-Dilmun, or the copper guild of Dilmun, in the coastal city of Ur. The world’s oldest customer complain tablet was found in the ruins of his home, and the scathing words sometimes shine through the dry, formal lingo:

Tell Ea-nasir: Nanni sends the following message:

When you came, you said to me as follows: ‘I will give Gimil-Sin (when he comes) fine quality copper ingots.’ You left then but you did not do what you promised me. You put ingots which were not good before my messenger (Sit-Sin) and said: ‘If you want to take them, take them; if you do not want to take them, go away!’

What do you take me for, that you treat somebody like me with such contempt? I have sent as messengers gentlemen like ourselves to collect the bag with my money (deposited with you) but you have treated me with contempt by sending them back to me empty-handed several times, and that through enemy territory. Is there anyone among the merchants who trade with Telmun who has treated me in this way? You alone treat my messenger with contempt! On account of that one (trifling) mina of silver which I owe you, you feel free to speak in such a way, while I have given to the palace on your behalf 1,080 pounds of copper, and umi-abum has likewise given 1,080 pounds of copper, apart from what we both have had written on a sealed tablet to be kept in the temple of Samas.

How have you treated me for that copper? You have withheld my money bag from me in enemy territory; it is now up to you to restore (my money) to me in full.

Take cognizance that (from now on) I will not accept here any copper from you that is not of fine quality. I shall (from now on) select and take the ingots individually in my own yard, and I shall exercise against you my right of rejection because you have treated me with contempt.

Ea-Nasir the dodgy copper salesman has recently achieved wider fame thanks to Internet tomfoolery, and a fair number of the jokes are delicious. A certain infamous copper ingot scam from 2020 only serves to enhance the impression.

While not a Hashutim Daemon Prince, the ancient Mesopotamian connection in Hydraulisk’s nice drawing may still interest a good number of people around here.

Cheers

@Antenor @ashur @Fuggit_Khan @Oxymandias etc.

Admiral · 17 November 2023 19:18

Teachers such as @Oxymandias might find some interest in this lecture about learning to read and write in Mesopotamian schools: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zw8BAf_1lE

Admiral · 22 November 2023 19:19

This lecture on the blooming economy of the Neo-Babylonian empire contain some inspiration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WffD215adHg

Note the dates and barley cultivation, the massive canal digs and building projects, work paid by money, an influx of precious metal and deported peoples from looting and pillage at the periphery of empire, as well as the misery of slaves and serfs. The below example of a sweatshop serf in despair wishing to die and turning to violence upon a hound give ample inspiration for slaves under Chaos Dwarfs:

Admiral · 22 April 2024 20:43

I can’t believe I missed to include this classic. Added to the list.

Everything You’ve Always Wanted to Know about Sex in Ancient Babylonia, by Jerry Cooper: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2iHAgPV-EQ