What Was Life Like in the World’s Earliest Empire?

The Akkadian Empire coincides with the “the heroic chapter” of Bronze Age History, when gods, great men, and battles abound. As such, it is all too easy to forget that there were ordinary people out there, the playthings of these heroes, who spent their days eking out what then constituted an ordinary existence. This episode is dedicated to them. -- This is the third episode in a series covering the Akkadian Empire. Sources & further reading: Dawn of Civilization (David Graeber & David Wengrow) Mesopotamia: The Invention of the City (Gwendolyn Leick) A History of the Ancient Near East, ca. 3000-323 BC (Marc Van de Mieroop) Ancient Iraq: Third Edition (Georges Roux) Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization (A. Leo Oppenheim) Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others (Stephanie Dalley) Pre-Sargonic Period: Early Periods, Volume 1 (2700-2350 BC) (Douglas R. Frayne) The Age of Agade: Inventing Empire in Ancient Mesopotamia (Benjamin R. Foster) Akkad, the first world empire: structure, ideology, traditions (Mario Liverani) Footage/Tracks used: Troy (2004) Sodom and Gomorrah (1962) The Revolt of the Slaves (1960) The Sumerian Silver Lyre (Peter Pringle)