Category Archives: Ancient World

Ancient World

Ancient World Now:The Bronze Age

Click here for direct link to audio podcast Episode #34.

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The Princess of Vix must’ve been an amazing lady! When she was buried around
480 BCE, they laid her to rest in a chariot and put in her grave an enormous wine-mixing vessel called a krater. The bronze krater was made in Laconia (area around Sparta), or on the island of Rhodes, measures 5 feet 4 inches tall, and weighs 450 lbs. To get an idea how big that is, take a look at the photo of its excavation!

This single archaeological find points to the significance of imported wine to the wealthy Celtic warrior class and to Bronze Age trade between the Mediterranean and Europe. Ah, if we could only catch a glimpse of this maiden. I am quite sure she’d outshine the Mona Lisa. And she would crush her completely in any physical contest! I’d give anything to have her gorgeous gold torque (480 grams & 96% pure gold)!

Margaret Oliphant’s exceedingly useful Atlas of the Ancient World, gives two-page general, but erudite, breakdowns of time periods and civilizations. I reach for it to remind myself which came first, the Sumerians or the Assyrians. Or to answer questions like: when did those crazy Roman emperors rule? Today I read from Oliphant’s section on the Bronze Age.

In addition, I read a section on Bronze Age Trade from The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Greece by Robert Morkot. These Penguin atlases remain my favorite. If you are following along with my podcasts, this is a good book to get. You can pick it up used from Amazon for a couple of dollars, believe it or not.

Always on the lookout for references to the ancient world in our everyday lives, I found this 70’s punk band called
The Vix Krater! Their logo was this funky sketch of our lady’s famous vessel.

Next week: Crete & the Minoan civilization (Bronze Age continued!)

Ancient World

Ancient World Now:Neolithic Greece, Anatolia, & the Levant

Click here for direct link to audio Episode #33.

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Check out this site in our area of interest—the Franchthi Cave in the Peloponnese, which was continuously occupied from about 20,000 BCE (Paleolithic) to about 3,000 BCE (late Neolithic). Who wouldn’t live in a cave if you had the chance??? Apparently some people! In contrast to Franchthi’s loner types, some Anatolian folk decided to shack up en masse and created the settlement at Catal Hoyuk in modern day Turkey. The official website is not as user-friendly as it should be, but you can check out the cool videos of the archaeologists on the ground showing how it is all done.

Thank the gods I’ve gotten us through the Stone Age! Next week we turn our attention to The Bronze Age!

Ancient World, The Writing Life

Ancient World Now:Homo sapiens in the Paleolithic and Mesolithic Eras

Click here for direct link to audio podcast #31.

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Yabba Dabba Do! Here are Bianca & Jacob on the Flintstone ride at The Canyon Inn. Click here for the Flintstones Theme Song! It cracked me up (no pun intended!) that I was working on this podcast on Stone Age humans and I happened to be sitting right next to this Flintstone mobile! Talk about “Ancient World Now”! I always loved that their legs powered their vehicles!

And the great guys in the kitchen made me an amazing Bleu-Cheese Garden Burger and the Canyon Inn’s famous fries. I was in heaven! Thanks, guys!

This is the book I picked up in Berkeley yesterday: Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C. I’ve learned so much from it already! Incredibly rich in obscure details on the products being traded around the Bronze Age Mediterranean and Aegean.

Sorry, Fred, we will have to leave your crude Stone Age world behind soon!

Ancient World

Ancient World Now:Australopithicene to Homo sapiens neanderthalensis

Click here for direct link to audio podcast Episode #30.

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In 2008, researchers unveiled the first look at a DNA-based reconstruction of Neanderthal woman. And last year, National Geographic reported that DNA evidence shows that Homo sapiens neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens sapiens (us!) interbred! Egads! What’s more, most modern humans have a little Neanderthal DNA in them. Check out the National Geographic article.

And download today’s podcast which looks at those oh-so-lovely early hominids.

Ancient World

Ancient World Now:From Earth’s Beginning to Early Hominids

Click here for direct link to audio Episode #29.

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Yes. I’ve gone right back to the beginning. In my quest to understand the origins of democracy from ancient Athens and the spread of Hellenism after Alexander the Great, I had to go right back to Neolithic times. And to understand Neolithic times, I had to understand Paleolithic times, and on and on, until finally, I was back at the beginning of life on Earth itself. That’s what I call a top-notch three-day weekend! So hunker down and let’s take a look at those oh, so early days.

Thanks to the efforts of the International Commission on Stratigraphy, we have these mostly-standardized chronological divisions:

The 3 Pre-Cambrian eons:
Hadean Eon
Archean Eon (Eo era, Paleo era, Meso era, & Neo era)
Proterozoic Eon (Paleo era, Meso era, & Neo era)

The 1 Cambrian (multi-celled plants & animals) eon:
Paleozoic era
Mesozoic era (Triassic period, Jurassic period, & Cretaceous period)
Cenozoic era-current era, divided thus:
Paleogene period (Paleocene epoch, Eocene epoch, & Oligocene epoch)
Neogene period (Miocene epoch & Pliocene epoch)
Quaternary period (Pleistocene epoch & Holocene epoch YOU ARE HERE!)

And look at all those Greek affixes! My students would have a field day! And the very first eon is named after the Greek underworld, Hades! I did not include the dates, as they do not concern me much. I mean, really, who can comprehend 4.6 billion years?

This week’s podcast will walk you through the Pre-Cambrian eons and give you a brief overview of the Phanerozoic eon in order to prepare you for next week’s look at Stone Age humankind. Enjoy!