The Ancients11 Syys 2025

Fall of the Sumerians

Tristan Hughes continues our special series on Great Disasters, journeying back to ancient Mesopotamia with Dr Paul Collins to explore the fall of the Sumerians.

4,000 years ago, the great cities of Sumer — Ur, Uruk, Lagash, Girsu — stood as glittering centres of power, crowned with mighty ziggurats and ruled by ambitious dynasties. Yet within a few generations, this world of splendour and tradition unravelled. From the collapse of the Akkadian Empire to shifting power struggles and environmental pressures, uncover why these prestigious city-states declined — and ask whether we can truly talk of a 'fall of Sumer.' Join us as we step into the chaos of Mesopotamia’s first great age of empires and witness how disaster reshaped the cradle of civilisation.

The Sumerians

Sargon of Akkad

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.

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

You can take part in our listener survey here:

https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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

Jaksot(620)

The Invasion of Persia | Alexander the Great

In spring 334 BC, a young Macedonian king sets out to conquer the Persian Empire.Tristan Hughes and Dr Adrian Goldsworthy explore Alexander the Great’s early campaigns, from the daring crossing into A...

12 Helmi 1h 4min

How to Write Cuneiform with Dr. Irving Finkel

More than 5,000 years ago, a revolutionary script emerged in the fertile lands of Mesopotamia that would transform how people counted, governed, worshipped and told stories. This was cuneiform, the wo...

8 Helmi 1h

Alexander the Great | Rise to Power

NEW SERIES! Journey through the early life of Alexander the Great, from his education under Aristotle to his first military experiences and rise to Macedonian kingship.In this first episode, charting ...

5 Helmi 1h 24min

Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve: parents of humanity, or characters in a Near Eastern myth about wisdom, mortality, and the limits of being human?Tristan Hughes and Dr Dylan Johnson strip away the Sunday school varnish ...

1 Helmi 59min

The First Popes

What do we know about the earliest Popes, and how did they shape the early Christian Church amidst persecution?Tristan Hughes is joined by Professor Rosamond McKitterick to journey back to Imperial Ro...

29 Tammi 56min

Xerxes the Great

He is one of the most famous rulers of the ancient world, remembered for leading a vast Persian invasion of Greece. Yet Xerxes the Great was far more than just a battlefield king.In this episode of Th...

25 Tammi 55min

The Origins of Rome's Empire

396 BC. The city of Veii lies in ruins, destroyed by Rome in a brutal act of early imperial expansion. Yet just six years later, Rome itself would face devastation at the hands of invading Gauls, a sh...

22 Tammi 58min

The First Arabians

What can ancient DNA tell us about the first homo sapiens to arrive in Arabia over 50,000 years ago? Tristan Hughes is joined by Prof. Pierre Zalloua to delve into the groundbreaking advances in ancie...

18 Tammi 50min