| --> YouTube-Generated Transcript <-- |
| · | Intro |
| 0:07 | · | the current chronology that we use to |
| 0:09 | · | break up the past tends to broadly |
| 0:12 | · | speaking be broken up into several |
| 0:14 | · | discret chunks book ended by what we |
| 0:17 | · | understand in the modern day to be |
| 0:18 | · | significant historical events so broadly |
| 0:22 | · | this is what we understand to be ancient |
| 0:24 | · | classical Medieval Renaissance or early |
| 0:26 | · | modern history and then eventually the |
| 0:29 | · | modern era and all of these can be |
| · | The Three Age System |
| 0:31 | · | broken down even more and you can add in |
| 0:34 | · | things like prehistory which then leads |
| 0:36 | · | us to what's known as the three age |
| 0:38 | · | system or Stone Age Bronze Age and Iron |
| 0:42 | · | Age and you can tweak this even further |
| 0:44 | · | by throwing in the copper age and you |
| 0:46 | · | can subdivide the Stone Age into |
| 0:47 | · | different segments this is where |
| 0:49 | · | Paleolithic misthic and Neolithic come |
| 0:52 | · | into play and these various divisions |
| 0:54 | · | lead me to the topic of this video in |
| 0:56 | · | the modern day we have a period that we |
| 0:58 | · | call ancient history |
| 1:00 | · | and it's populated by what we understand |
| 1:02 | · | to be ancient civilizations if however |
| 1:05 | · | you were to go back to the ancient era |
| 1:07 | · | or even the classical era how would they |
| 1:10 | · | understand the past did ancient |
| 1:11 | · | civilizations have ancient civilizations |
| 1:14 | · | of their |
| 1:15 | · | own this is sort of a difficult question |
| 1:18 | · | to answer but it's a fun one and the |
| 1:20 | · | answer is both yes and no at the same |
| 1:23 | · | time depending on how you look at it in |
| 1:26 | · | a way we're not really asking whether or |
| 1:27 | · | not these older cultures had a notion of |
| 1:29 | · | History that is the recorded past so |
| · | What this video is not |
| 1:32 | · | much as we're asking about the status of |
| 1:34 | · | ancient and classical knowledge about |
| 1:36 | · | that past how they knew what they knew |
| 1:38 | · | or thought they knew and about their |
| 1:40 | · | historiography so what I want to do in |
| 1:42 | · | this video then is take a look at a few |
| 1:44 | · | different examples starting with the |
| 1:45 | · | most recent ones and then moving |
| 1:47 | · | backward Through Time into earlier |
| 1:49 | · | cultures and civilizations but before I |
| 1:52 | · | get to that I want to take a couple of |
| 1:54 | · | seconds and just briefly address what |
| 1:55 | · | this video is and what it is not there |
| 1:59 | · | are a ton of different examples you can |
| 2:01 | · | look at when you try to answer this |
| 2:03 | · | question and at some point I know |
| 2:05 | · | somebody in the comments is going to |
| 2:06 | · | write something along the lines of well |
| 2:09 | · | what about Stonehenge or new grain or |
| 2:12 | · | the various standing stones and |
| 2:13 | · | megaliths throughout Europe and your |
| 2:15 | · | Asia more broadly and North and South |
| 2:18 | · | America as well I am not dealing with |
| 2:20 | · | that sort of thing in this video not |
| 2:22 | · | because ancient and classical peoples |
| 2:24 | · | didn't have thoughts about it or because |
| 2:26 | · | it does not deserve an answer but |
| 2:28 | · | because it's a slight different question |
| 2:31 | · | which involves a slightly different |
| 2:33 | · | answer and dealing with things like |
| 2:34 | · | megaliths and Barrow tombs and thunder |
| 2:37 | · | Stones things of that nature various |
| 2:40 | · | artifacts that aren't clearly associated |
| 2:43 | · | with what ancient peoples were |
| 2:45 | · | considered to be a civilization very |
| 2:47 | · | quickly leaves the realm of what they |
| 2:49 | · | thought history was in the past and it |
| 2:52 | · | starts getting into things like folklore |
| 2:55 | · | so you start dealing with things like |
| 2:56 | · | the Fay and whites and other things of |
| 2:59 | · | that nature so it's going to be a |
| 3:01 | · | separate video in this one we're going |
| 3:03 | · | to be talking about some texts and some |
| 3:05 | · | archaeology anyway the first example is |
| 3:07 | · | going to be centered around the |
| 3:09 | · | classical Greeks but before we get to |
| · | Greek History |
| 3:11 | · | that we have to understand how the |
| 3:12 | · | Greeks conceptualize the past |
| 3:15 | · | essentially there were two sort of |
| 3:17 | · | separate but sort of interwoven ideas on |
| 3:21 | · | the one hand you have the history of the |
| 3:23 | · | pelian war by thides and you have the |
| 3:26 | · | histories written by Herodotus thides |
| 3:29 | · | attempted to based his history on as |
| 3:31 | · | many facts and reliable information that |
| 3:33 | · | he could possibly gather and he claimed |
| 3:35 | · | to write with impartial Detachment his |
| 3:38 | · | account is generally what we understand |
| 3:39 | · | to be the beginning of scientific |
| 3:42 | · | history Herodotus on the other hand did |
| 3:45 | · | not necessarily attempt to verify every |
| 3:47 | · | single thing he wrote about although he |
| 3:49 | · | tried when and where he was able to do |
| 3:51 | · | so the histories is largely in account |
| 3:54 | · | of the Greco Persian War although other |
| 3:56 | · | places people and events are included in |
| 3:58 | · | it including tall tales and legends for |
| 4:01 | · | which Herodotus was ridiculed both in |
| 4:03 | · | his own day and in the present hence his |
| 4:06 | · | moniker the father of Lies the overall |
| 4:08 | · | point however is that both of these |
| 4:10 | · | Greek historians were writing about |
| 4:12 | · | events broadly speaking in their own day |
| 4:16 | · | and to a degree in the past as regards |
| 4:19 | · | Herodotus so their conception of history |
| 4:22 | · | is something as largely being here and |
| 4:25 | · | now quote unquote the other conception |
| 4:28 | · | of the past in the Greek mind was one of |
| 4:30 | · | succeeding ages in which each age was a |
| 4:32 | · | deterioration of the previous one and |
| 4:34 | · | this also shows up in the writings of |
| 4:36 | · | Herodotus just as one example these are |
| 4:39 | · | generally known as the ages of man and |
| 4:41 | · | they come from hot's worked and days and |
| 4:43 | · | his theogony broadly contemporaneous |
| 4:46 | · | with Homer if Homer did indeed exist so |
| 4:48 | · | roughly the 8th Century BC he believed |
| 4:51 | · | that mankind was living in the Iron Age |
| 4:54 | · | and in the Iron Age life was violent and |
| 4:56 | · | it was generally unpleasant before that |
| 4:59 | · | came the age of Heroes when Jason and |
| 5:01 | · | the Argonauts and Heracles and the other |
| 5:03 | · | Heroes of Greek myth roamed the Earth in |
| 5:06 | · | each age men became smaller which is why |
| 5:08 | · | you read in surviving sources from the |
| 5:10 | · | Greek world of finds of things like |
| 5:12 | · | giant bones and things of that nature |
| · | The Iron Age |
| 5:14 | · | now these could be fossils that's |
| 5:16 | · | entirely possible but in the context of |
| 5:19 | · | the Greek outlook on the world that is |
| 5:21 | · | the Iron Age it fits the schema better |
| 5:24 | · | to interpret these supposed finds as |
| 5:26 | · | related to the deterioration of those |
| 5:28 | · | previous ages |
| 5:30 | · | so when it comes to Greek conceptions of |
| 5:32 | · | what we would understand to be ancient |
| 5:34 | · | history at some point you leave the |
| 5:36 | · | mental framework of somebody like thides |
| 5:39 | · | and eventually you enter into the realm |
| 5:42 | · | of Mythology folklore and the five ages |
| 5:45 | · | of man now the Greeks were very aware |
| 5:48 | · | that there were cultures older than |
| 5:50 | · | theirs and they were very honest about |
| 5:52 | · | which cultures those were such as |
| 5:55 | · | Egypt but ruins and things of that |
| 5:58 | · | nature passed a certain point were |
| 6:01 | · | explained by reference to the five ages |
| 6:03 | · | of man they were aware of some sort of a |
| 6:05 | · | deep past but they did not properly |
| 6:08 | · | understand what those things were or how |
| 6:10 | · | deep that past actually was and past a |
| 6:14 | · | certain point they tried to take what |
| 6:17 | · | they saw around them and fit it into |
| 6:19 | · | this mythological chronology that moved |
| 6:22 | · | from a tangible verifiable history into |
| 6:25 | · | essentially the realm of myth so in 401 |
| 6:28 | · | BC cus the younger attempted to claim |
| 6:31 | · | the Throne of Persia and thus take it |
| 6:32 | · | from his brother araz xeres II but in |
| 6:36 | · | order to do that Cyrus required an army |
| 6:39 | · | and being the satrap of Lydia and Ionia |
| 6:42 | · | he did have some resources but perhaps |
| 6:44 | · | not enough of what he was planning to do |
| 6:46 | · | so he very famously hired an army |
| 6:49 | · | primarily of Greeks known to us as the |
| 6:52 | · | 10,000 this Army marched into the Sands |
| 6:55 | · | of the near East and about 70 km north |
| 6:58 | · | of Babylon they fought fought at the |
| 7:00 | · | Battle of kunoa in 401 BC and although |
| 7:03 | · | they won Cyrus was killed in the |
| 7:07 | · | fighting and hence the 10,000 have a |
| 7:10 | · | problem they're now stuck way Behind |
| 7:12 | · | Enemy Lines and they have to figure out |
| 7:13 | · | a way to get back home so kunaka was |
| 7:15 | · | fought near the city of Babylon and |
| 7:17 | · | hence the 10,000 were standing in a very |
| 7:20 | · | ancient land where at that point |
| 7:23 | · | recorded history as we understand it |
| 7:25 | · | today having found ancient clay tablets |
| 7:28 | · | and other records goes back about 3 or |
| 7:31 | · | 4,000 years from the time the 10,000 |
| 7:34 | · | were standing there and it's an area |
| 7:36 | · | where soldiers and Kings had fought and |
| 7:38 | · | died for Millennia by this point it's a |
| 7:41 | · | pattern that's really never stopped the |
| 7:43 | · | near East is sometimes called the |
| 7:45 | · | crossroads of the world and for good |
| 7:47 | · | reason it's were some of the first |
| · | The Near East |
| 7:49 | · | civilizations arose and the Ghost of |
| 7:52 | · | those civilizations still dotted the |
| 7:53 | · | landscape in the form of ruins during |
| 7:56 | · | the time of the classical Greeks now |
| 7:58 | · | xenophon one one of the leaders of the |
| 8:00 | · | 10,000 and their principal historian |
| 8:03 | · | recorded in the fourth chapter of the |
| 8:04 | · | third book of his account that the Army |
| 8:06 | · | had to cross some sort of a Gorge but |
| 8:09 | · | when they tried to do this they were |
| 8:11 | · | attacked the Greeks did beat off their |
| 8:12 | · | opponents and they marched the rest of |
| 8:14 | · | the day and eventually they reached the |
| 8:17 | · | banks of the Tigris River and when they |
| 8:20 | · | got there xenophon recorded that there |
| 8:22 | · | were the ruins of Two Cities nearby he |
| 8:25 | · | calls them Lissa and MPA and he also |
| 8:28 | · | tells us that both of the cities were |
| 8:30 | · | once occupied by the mes the problem |
| 8:33 | · | though is that these are actually the |
| 8:34 | · | wrong names and he sort of kind of |
| 8:38 | · | identified the wrong people although the |
| 8:40 | · | mes did occupy these two cities they |
| 8:43 | · | were built actually by the Assyrians |
| 8:45 | · | Lissa is the city known to the Assyrians |
| 8:47 | · | as Nimrod and MPA is the city known as |
| 8:50 | · | Nineveh the capital of the great Neo |
| 8:53 | · | Assyrian Empire the Neo Syrian empire |
| 8:55 | · | fell around 609 BC with Nimrod falling |
| 8:58 | · | to a combined Babylonian median assault |
| 9:01 | · | in 614 BC and Nineveh falling and |
| 9:04 | · | essentially being burned looted and |
| 9:06 | · | horribly sacked in |
| 9:09 | · | 612 another way of putting this is that |
| 9:11 | · | about only 200 years separate the |
| 9:13 | · | collapse of the Neo Syrian Empire from |
| 9:15 | · | the march of the 10,000 now I wrote the |
| 9:18 | · | script for this video towards the end of |
| 9:21 | · | 2024 209 years ago was the Battle of |
| 9:25 | · | waterl and with it the end of Napoleon |
| 9:27 | · | bonapart Napoleon's era and the end of |
| 9:30 | · | the French Revolution and French |
| 9:31 | · | Revolutionary Wars more broadly this is |
| 9:34 | · | one of the most well-known and one of |
| 9:36 | · | the most intensively studied periods |
| 9:38 | · | given its immense importance for the |
| 9:40 | · | modern world apparently more biographies |
| 9:43 | · | and works on Napoleon have been written |
| 9:45 | · | since there are days since he died we |
| 9:48 | · | know about him and yet during the time |
| 9:51 | · | of xenophon looking at a comparable time |
| 9:54 | · | span about 200 |
| 9:56 | · | years he seems to know nothing about the |
| 9:59 | · | Neo Syrian |
| 10:00 | · | Empire and this essentially seems to |
| 10:03 | · | have vanished from memory Nineveh the |
| 10:05 | · | fres capital was abandoned so what are |
| 10:09 | · | we to make of this well Nineveh and |
| 10:11 | · | Nimrod were not cities designed to |
| 10:13 | · | support themselves that is to say that |
| 10:15 | · | these were administrative centers first |
| 10:17 | · | and foremost that depended on tribute |
| 10:21 | · | and taxes and resources gained from |
| 10:24 | · | outside so while Nineveh was eventually |
| 10:27 | · | resettled and eventually rebuilt during |
| 10:29 | · | the saluca Empire after the collapse of |
| 10:32 | · | Assyria the ideology and the |
| 10:34 | · | bureaucratic structures that enabled |
| 10:36 | · | something like Nineveh to even exist |
| 10:38 | · | were no longer needed the state |
| 10:40 | · | essentially |
| 10:41 | · | disintegrated the Neo Syrian Empire was |
| 10:44 | · | a state that was heavily based around |
| 10:46 | · | Conquest tribute and population |
| 10:48 | · | transfers when a region was conquered it |
| 10:50 | · | was not unusual for the Assyrians to |
| 10:52 | · | force large percentages of the |
| 10:54 | · | population to move to somewhere else in |
| 10:56 | · | the Empire think of the mass movement of |
| 10:58 | · | the ethnic German |
| 10:59 | · | and ethnic minorities in the Soviet |
| 11:01 | · | Union in the 20th century to get some |
| 11:04 | · | sort of a visual picture on what this |
| 11:06 | · | may have looked like we're talking |
| 11:08 | · | hundreds of thousands if not eventually |
| 11:11 | · | millions of people seems to be one of |
| 11:13 | · | the main reasons for the collapse of |
| 11:14 | · | this state It produced structural |
| 11:16 | · | weaknesses and after the sack of Nineveh |
| 11:19 | · | other more local Powers took over and |
| 11:21 | · | because they did not base themselves |
| 11:23 | · | around the same sort of ideology of |
| 11:25 | · | world Conquest that the Assyrians did |
| 11:27 | · | the impact of that state began to fade |
| 11:30 | · | now the Greeks did know about Assyria |
| 11:32 | · | they were very clear about this they |
| 11:33 | · | knew a state called Assyria existed in |
| 11:36 | · | the near East at some point the problem |
| 11:39 | · | is they don't seem to have been very |
| 11:41 | · | clear on when at some point actually was |
| 11:44 | · | it shows up in the writing it shows up |
| 11:46 | · | in the writing of the Persians and it |
| 11:48 | · | shows up in the Old Testament but very |
| 11:50 | · | quickly it seems that the memory of the |
| 11:52 | · | Assyrian Empire became pretty garbled |
| 11:54 | · | and pretty murky the Greeks knew of |
| 11:56 | · | Assyria but very quickly their |
| 11:58 | · | understanding starts deal dealing with |
| 11:59 | · | things like mythical Kings and the like |
| 12:01 | · | so that 2 centuries or so later by the |
| 12:04 | · | time of xenophon the 10,000 apparently |
| 12:06 | · | don't even realize where they're |
| 12:09 | · | standing these cities while they were |
| 12:12 | · | recognized as cities were misattributed |
| 12:15 | · | to the medians and other ruins such as |
| 12:17 | · | those of urartu an early Iron Age |
| 12:20 | · | Kingdom in Eastern Turkey and Armenia |
| 12:23 | · | were misidentified as being a Syrian so |
| 12:25 | · | essentially the entire historical memory |
| 12:28 | · | becomes very murky |
| 12:29 | · | very fast thus far we've largely been |
| 12:31 | · | talking about Greek conceptions of the |
| 12:33 | · | past but there are even older |
| · | Ancient Mesopotamia |
| 12:35 | · | civilizations and in this case some of |
| 12:38 | · | our best evidence for answering this |
| 12:40 | · | type of question comes from the |
| 12:42 | · | Babylonians specifically the neo- |
| 12:44 | · | Babylonians who overthrew the Neo |
| 12:46 | · | syrians with some help from the mes and |
| 12:49 | · | their king nabonidus who ruled the Neo |
| 12:51 | · | Babylonian Empire between about 556 and |
| 12:54 | · | about 539 BC has sometimes been called |
| 12:57 | · | the world's first archaeologist and his |
| 12:59 | · | daughter analdi kept a museum apparently |
| 13:02 | · | filled with several dozen ancient |
| 13:04 | · | artifacts the ancient Mesopotamians had |
| 13:07 | · | a very clear conception of some sort of |
| 13:09 | · | a longstanding historical tradition |
| 13:12 | · | although not necessarily in the way that |
| 13:13 | · | we would understand it their conception |
| 13:15 | · | revolved heavily around religion and |
| 13:17 | · | legitimizing claims to rulership hence |
| 13:20 | · | the past was considered deeply important |
| 13:22 | · | because it Formed something like |
| 13:24 | · | cultural capital to help reinforce those |
| 13:26 | · | claims to leadership today the city of |
| 13:29 | · | CAD the capital of the Acadian Empire |
| 13:31 | · | the first Empire in recorded history |
| 13:34 | · | that we know of is actually lost and |
| 13:36 | · | although there are some ideas about |
| 13:38 | · | where it might be located including a |
| 13:40 | · | specific site near modern day Baghdad |
| 13:43 | · | the kings of the Neo Babylonian Empire |
| 13:46 | · | which spanned about 626 BC to 539 BC |
| 13:50 | · | including the aforementioned nabonidus |
| 13:52 | · | apparently knew where the city was and |
| 13:55 | · | apparently they excavated portions of it |
| 13:58 | · | and engaged in what we would understand |
| 14:00 | · | to be something like restoration work so |
| 14:03 | · | in this sense yes ancient peoples did |
| 14:06 | · | have genuine ancient civilizations of |
| 14:08 | · | their own and for the rest of this video |
| 14:11 | · | we're essentially going to be talking |
| 14:12 | · | about what can be described as Neo |
| 14:14 | · | Babylonian archology of their Babylonian |
| 14:17 | · | Assyrian and Acadian past ancient |
| 14:19 | · | Mesopotamia has a long long tradition of |
| 14:22 | · | sacred kingship and this is basically |
| 14:25 | · | what forms the background to the |
| 14:26 | · | archaeology conducted not only by nantis |
| 14:29 | · | but other neo-babylonian kings like |
| 14:31 | · | nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar II sites |
| 14:34 | · | were not just selected for excavation or |
| 14:36 | · | restoration work at random instead it |
| 14:39 | · | was often revealed to the monarchs |
| 14:41 | · | through some sort of a divine |
| 14:42 | · | intervention like a dream or a rainstorm |
| 14:46 | · | or a flood something of that nature |
| 14:48 | · | which we'll be talking about more in a |
| 14:49 | · | minute and the excavations were done to |
| 14:52 | · | fulfill Divine will the sites chosen for |
| 14:54 | · | excavation in this manner were the major |
| 14:56 | · | cities of the ancient near East Babylon |
| 14:59 | · | for Fairly obvious reasons as it was the |
| 15:01 | · | capital of the Neo Babylonian Empire and |
| 15:04 | · | an ancient city in its own right |
| 15:06 | · | certainly by the time of nabonidus but |
| 15:07 | · | also aad nepur Larsa separ Kish Uruk and |
| 15:12 | · | Ur and at Ur specifically there does |
| · | Ancient Babylon |
| 15:15 | · | actually appear to be evidence that the |
| 15:17 | · | great zigurat of the order 3 period |
| 15:20 | · | otherwise known as the NEOS summerian |
| 15:21 | · | Empire which dates between about the |
| 15:24 | · | 22nd and about the 21st centuy BC was |
| 15:28 | · | actually expanded during the Neo |
| 15:30 | · | Babylonian Empire another way of |
| 15:32 | · | conceptualizing that is that the Neo |
| 15:34 | · | Babylonians restored and expanded a |
| 15:36 | · | temple complex which was something like |
| 15:38 | · | 1700 years old by that point the |
| 15:41 | · | structure had evidently fallen into |
| 15:43 | · | disrepair by the time of the Neo |
| 15:45 | · | Babylonian State and when it was |
| 15:46 | · | excavated in the early 20th century the |
| 15:49 | · | original foundations were uncovered as |
| 15:51 | · | well as much later restoration at the |
| 15:53 | · | top of the zigurat dating to the time of |
| 15:56 | · | King nabonidus and in a Cod |
| 15:59 | · | Nebuchadnezzar II was looking for the |
| 16:00 | · | Temple of ishar the famous ulash and he |
| 16:03 | · | dug trenches in the city attempting to |
| 16:05 | · | locate the foundations of this building |
| 16:07 | · | now he apparently failed but evidently |
| 16:11 | · | nabonidus claims to have succeeded in |
| 16:14 | · | this endeavor he apparently found the |
| 16:15 | · | foundations of this Temple and we have |
| 16:18 | · | four different texts concerning the |
| 16:19 | · | restoration of ancient temples and here |
| 16:22 | · | I mean ancient even to the Neo |
| 16:24 | · | Babylonians they come to us in the form |
| 16:26 | · | of three cylinder seals and one tablet |
| 16:29 | · | and they tell us that nabonidus restored |
| 16:31 | · | four different temples and according to |
| 16:33 | · | those records nabonidus workers were |
| 16:35 | · | digging in the trenches dug by |
| 16:37 | · | Nebuchadnezzar for 3 years expanding and |
| 16:40 | · | going in different directions and still |
| 16:42 | · | they found nothing until as luck would |
| 16:44 | · | have it or divine intervention in |
| 16:46 | · | keeping with the understanding of the |
| 16:48 | · | neo- Babylonian Kings a sudden rainstorm |
| 16:51 | · | created a channel in the earth and |
| 16:52 | · | nabonidus halted work in the trenches |
| 16:55 | · | and he ordered his workers and field |
| 16:57 | · | directors to dig in that spot and |
| 16:59 | · | apparently this is where they located |
| 17:01 | · | the temple to ishar now is that real |
| 17:06 | · | well you would be forgiven if you were |
| 17:07 | · | to say no because that does just sound |
| 17:09 | · | like either divine intervention or |
| 17:11 | · | really just plain dumb luck but natis |
| 17:15 | · | may indeed have found this Temple the |
| 17:17 | · | city of aad today is lost but there is |
| 17:19 | · | an archaeological site called the tel |
| 17:21 | · | Muhammad which is one of the proposed |
| 17:23 | · | locations for the city and excavation |
| 17:26 | · | there by modern-day archaeologists has |
| 17:29 | · | revealed a temple not of the Neo |
| 17:30 | · | Babylonian period but of a much older |
| 17:33 | · | era potentially Acadian and it contained |
| 17:37 | · | work credited to King nabonidus texts |
| 17:39 | · | were also important in this regard and |
| 17:42 | · | evidently the older the writing the |
| 17:43 | · | better a great example here is the |
| 17:46 | · | tablet of shamash or the tablet of the |
| 17:48 | · | sun god so this tablet was discovered in |
| 17:50 | · | the early 1880s during excavation and it |
| 17:53 | · | was found broken into eight different |
| 17:55 | · | pieces and it dates to about the 9th |
| 17:57 | · | century BC |
| 17:59 | · | associated with Nabu appla Adena king of |
| 18:02 | · | Babylon and there are 15 passages |
| 18:04 | · | written on this tablet and it tells us |
| 18:07 | · | essentially that somewhere on the |
| 18:09 | · | Western Bank of the Euphrates an image |
| 18:12 | · | of the God baked in clay was located |
| 18:15 | · | that image was recognized as being very |
| 18:18 | · | very old from at least the old |
| 18:20 | · | Babylonian period so about 1894 BC to |
| 18:24 | · | about 1595 BC in other words 7al hundred |
| 18:27 | · | years before this King managed to get a |
| 18:29 | · | hold of it and he used it to |
| 18:31 | · | reconstitute a cult of this Sun God we |
| 18:34 | · | can tell that this God is older than the |
| 18:36 | · | n9th century basically by the artwork it |
| 18:39 | · | doesn't match the styles of the 9th |
| 18:40 | · | century and because we don't live in the |
| 18:43 | · | 9th century a way to maybe think about |
| 18:45 | · | this would be and the examples are not |
| 18:47 | · | going to be exact but it would be sort |
| 18:49 | · | of like having let's say an Andy Warhol |
| 18:52 | · | painting dating to the 1960s and you |
| 18:54 | · | know it's the 1960s but there's also a |
| 18:57 | · | figure in the painting that looks like |
| 18:59 | · | it came right out of a Viking runstone |
| 19:01 | · | from the 10th Century in Sweden it |
| 19:04 | · | stands out and it's very clearly older |
| 19:08 | · | so 200 years later nabonidus the main |
| 19:11 | · | subject of this portion of the video |
| 19:13 | · | evidently found this same tablet and |
| 19:15 | · | when he did there were two copies of it |
| 19:17 | · | that had been made and the original was |
| 19:19 | · | housed in a fired clay box for |
| 19:21 | · | safekeeping and this was encased in clay |
| 19:24 | · | for further protection which produced a |
| 19:25 | · | copy of the tablet on either side and |
| 19:29 | · | while neo- Babylonians were certainly |
| 19:30 | · | interested in the history of the ancient |
| 19:32 | · | near East and while they did undertake |
| 19:34 | · | archaeological digs to excavate the past |
| 19:37 | · | and to use old artifacts and images like |
| 19:40 | · | the image of shamash to bolster their |
| 19:42 | · | claims through Imperial rulership they |
| 19:44 | · | were certainly not above forgeries in |
| 19:46 | · | the pursuit of that attempt to bolster |
| 19:48 | · | their claims the key artifact here is |
| · | The crucifer Monument |
| 19:51 | · | the crucifer Monument of Manis tushu |
| 19:54 | · | discovered in 1881 and this is an |
| 19:56 | · | inscribed stone whose writing attempts |
| 19:58 | · | to established the artifact as being a |
| 20:00 | · | Cadian but which was actually shown to |
| 20:03 | · | be a Neo Babylonian forgery although at |
| 20:05 | · | one point it was thought to be an old |
| 20:07 | · | Babylonian |
| 20:09 | · | forgery it claimed to be created at the |
| 20:12 | · | beest of Manish tushu the son of Saron |
| 20:14 | · | ofad and it declares that the renewal of |
| 20:17 | · | the worship of the God shamash and His |
| 20:19 | · | Associated rights should take place but |
| 20:22 | · | it in fact is not what matters though is |
| 20:26 | · | that it shows very clearly that the |
| 20:28 | · | textual record mattered to people like |
| 20:30 | · | nabonidus and the Neo Babylonian Kings |
| 20:33 | · | and it shows that they had some sort of |
| 20:35 | · | an idea about what it would have taken |
| 20:37 | · | to establish Imperial legitimacy by |
| 20:39 | · | drawing on the Deep past and on Ancient |
| 20:41 | · | religion and it's because of the |
| 20:43 | · | importance placed on religion that the |
| 20:45 | · | neo-babylonian Kings emphasized digging |
| 20:47 | · | down to the actual Foundation of ancient |
| 20:49 | · | temples and restoring them where |
| 20:52 | · | possible nebas uncovered the Temple of |
| 20:54 | · | istar at aad which I mentioned a few |
| 20:56 | · | minutes ago and which archaeology in the |
| 20:59 | · | modern day may have found and when he |
| 21:02 | · | restored the temple he made it extremely |
| 21:04 | · | clear that the bricks of the restored |
| 21:07 | · | building were to be placed on the tops |
| 21:09 | · | of the original foundations and to be |
| 21:11 | · | exactly on top it was to be as if the |
| 21:13 | · | temple had never fallen into ruin in the |
| 21:15 | · | first place NABA palasa the first king |
| 21:18 | · | of the neo- Babylonian Empire basically |
| 21:20 | · | did something similar with the walls of |
| 21:22 | · | Babylon itself Excavating down to the |
| 21:25 | · | foundations and when he located it he |
| 21:28 | · | took it as a Divine sign and then he |
| 21:30 | · | rebuilt them incorporating the original |
| 21:32 | · | foundations into his |
| 21:34 | · | construction when the Neo Babylonian |
| 21:36 | · | Kings did things like this they |
| 21:38 | · | explicitly looked for the foundation |
| 21:40 | · | deposits usually taking the form of a |
| 21:42 | · | text I am so and so I ordered this |
| 21:45 | · | construction that sort of thing they |
| 21:48 | · | apparently read them or claimed they did |
| 21:51 | · | claimed they could read this old writing |
| 21:53 | · | and they had their own Foundation |
| 21:54 | · | tablets made as close as possible to the |
| 21:58 | · | original |
| 21:59 | · | and place them alongside the ancient |
| 22:00 | · | ones and then rebuilt the structure now |
| 22:03 | · | this would have been extremely easy to |
| 22:05 | · | just demolish the ruins and start again |
| 22:07 | · | from scratch but the care that nabonidus |
| 22:09 | · | and his fellow king showed for the |
| 22:11 | · | ancient past is not only remarkable but |
| 22:13 | · | it was designed to establish themselves |
| 22:15 | · | as the inheritors of ancient religious |
| 22:17 | · | practices to venerate the same or |
| 22:19 | · | similar gods and thus in that sense to |
| 22:22 | · | claim to be the legitimate successors of |
| 22:25 | · | the ancient Kings now some of those |
| · | Museum of Analdi |
| 22:27 | · | artifacts were gathered and they were |
| 22:29 | · | put on display basically for the same |
| 22:31 | · | purposes and this is where we get to the |
| 22:33 | · | famous Museum of analdi the daughter of |
| 22:36 | · | nabonidus and the Priestess of the Moon |
| 22:38 | · | God sin at the city of UR this was a |
| 22:41 | · | religious office which had not been |
| 22:42 | · | filled in over 600 years and it was |
| 22:45 | · | resurrected by nabonidus once again we |
| 22:47 | · | see the attempts of a neo- Babylonian |
| 22:49 | · | King to claim legitimacy by utilizing |
| 22:51 | · | the ancient past her museum is probably |
| 22:54 | · | the first one in the world or at least |
| 22:56 | · | it's the earliest one that we know about |
| 22:58 | · | with any certainty and it contained |
| 23:00 | · | dozens of artifacts from across southern |
| 23:02 | · | Mesopotamia spanning over 1,000 years |
| 23:05 | · | now there was another Museum in Babylon |
| 23:08 | · | or what we think was a museum it's been |
| 23:10 | · | disputed because apparently not all the |
| 23:12 | · | artifacts came from the same area of the |
| 23:14 | · | dig site that was attributed to King |
| 23:17 | · | nabonidus and may have been used by |
| 23:19 | · | earlier Kings like Nebuchadnezzar II if |
| 23:22 | · | that's indeed what the structure was |
| 23:24 | · | temples also functioned in this manner |
| 23:26 | · | and many of the artifacts that have been |
| 23:28 | · | brought up in this video The cruciform |
| 23:30 | · | Monument the sun tablet as well as |
| 23:32 | · | inscribed a Cadian maces and bowls from |
| 23:34 | · | the uro period basically the first city |
| 23:37 | · | in the ancient near East and which were |
| 23:38 | · | repaired at some point in Antiquity |
| 23:40 | · | apparently were found by archaeologists |
| 23:42 | · | in the 1880s at a Neo Babylonian Temple |
| 23:45 | · | dedicated to the god shamash in the city |
| 23:48 | · | of Sapar essentially this functioned as |
| 23:50 | · | a museum so just a couple examples to |
| 23:52 | · | try and answer this question did ancient |
| 23:54 | · | civilizations have ancient civilizations |
| 23:57 | · | of Their Own yes they did but their |
| 24:01 | · | understanding of what those |
| 24:01 | · | civilizations actually were very often |
| 24:04 | · | were not accurate so that's it for this |
| 24:06 | · | one everybody if you want to do some |
| 24:08 | · | more reading about this subject and |
| 24:09 | · | really go on a deep dive the sources |
| 24:11 | · | I've used for the research in this video |
| 24:13 | · | are going to be listed in the |
| 24:14 | · | description and they are an excellent |
| 24:16 | · | jumping off point take care everybody if |
| 24:19 | · | you're dealing with the hurricanes in |
| 24:20 | · | the south of the US please stay safe |
| 24:23 | · | hope you enjoyed and I will see you all |
| 24:25 | · | next time |
