You're Dead to Me20 Kesä 2025

Cuneiform (Radio Edit)

Greg Jenner is joined in ancient Mesopotamia by Dr Moudhy Al-Rashid and comedian Phil Wang to learn about the history of cuneiform, the oldest writing system in the world.

In the 19th Century, European scholars began to translate inscriptions found on ruins and clay tablets from ancient Mesopotamia - an area of the world between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that encompasses modern Iraq, as well as parts of Syria, Iran, Turkey and Kuwait. The script they deciphered became known as cuneiform, and this distinctive wedge-shaped writing system is perhaps the oldest in the world. The earliest cuneiform tablet is in fact over 5,000 years old.

These clay tablets reveal much about the daily life of people in this part of the ancient world, recording everything from the amounts of beer sold by brewers and the best way to ask the gods for advice, to squabbles between husbands and wives and even the lullabies used to get babies to sleep. The first recorded epic poem, The Epic of Gilgamesh, is also preserved thanks to cuneiform. This episode traces the history of cuneiform, exploring how this script worked, who used it and what they used it for, what it tells us about the inhabitants of ancient Mesopotamia, and how it was finally deciphered.

This is a radio edit of the original podcast episode. For the full-length version, please look further back in the feed.

Hosted by: Greg Jenner Research by: Hannah Cusworth and Matt Ryan Written by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow, Emma Nagouse, and Greg Jenner Produced by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow and Greg Jenner Audio Producer: Steve Hankey Production Coordinator: Ben Hollands Senior Producer: Emma Nagouse Executive Editor: James Cook

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(281)

Empress Dowager Cixi (Radio Edit)

Greg Jenner is joined in 19th-century China by historian Professor Yangwen Zheng and comedian Sophie Duker to learn about the Qing dynasty ruler Empress Dowager Cixi.A contemporary of Queen Victoria, ...

3 Heinä 28min

History of the Telephone (Radio Edit)

For our 150th episode, Greg Jenner is joined by historian Professor Iwan Morus and comedian Catherine Bohart to learn about the history of the telephone on its 150th anniversary.The inventor of the te...

26 Kesä 28min

Announcing Series 12

Greg Jenner looks ahead to the new series of You're Dead to Me.If you’re in the UK, listen first on BBC Sounds, or watch on iPlayer from Friday 26 June. If you’re outside the UK, you can find us on BB...

24 Kesä 1min

Why do British people love tea? (from Here For The History)

Where exactly does the British love affair with tea begin? It all starts with a Portuguese princess…In this first episode of Here For The History, Alice Loxton and Ben Henderson explore the origin sto...

19 Kesä 32min

History of Spices (Radio Edit)

Greg Jenner is joined by historian Dr David Veevers and comedian and quizzer Paul Sinha to learn all about the global history of spices and the spice trade.Nowadays, we take spices for granted, and ou...

19 Kesä 28min

Epic of Gilgamesh (Radio Edit)

Greg Jenner is joined in the ancient world by Dr Moudhy Al-Rashid and comedian Marjolein Robertson to learn all about the famous Mesopotamian poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh.Sumerian poems about a legenda...

12 Kesä 28min

Hypatia of Alexandria (Radio Edit)

Greg Jenner is joined in late antique Egypt by Professor Edith Hall and comedian Olga Koch to learn about the life of mathematician Hypatia of Alexandria.An important mathematical and astronomical thi...

5 Kesä 28min

Geoffrey Chaucer (Radio Edit)

Greg Jenner is joined in medieval England by Professor Marion Turner and comedian Mike Wozniak to learn all about Geoffrey Chaucer, author of the Canterbury Tales.Since the 15th century, Chaucer has b...

29 Touko 28min