8. The Sumerians - Fall of the First Cities

Fall of Civilizations is absolutely amazing stuff, I double recommend it. It has an episode that covers this specific topic as well - ▶ this video

If you’re interested in the history of Lagash and the wider Sumerian civilization, I highly recommend the _Fall of Civilizations Podcast_ episode 8. ▶ this video At 2.5 hours it’s more like an audiobook. During the pandemic this was my gateway into learning a ton about this ancient civilization, when humanity first began to write and thus be able to communicate with us thousands of years later.

Related: I was introduced to Sumerian history by this excellent episode of the “Fall of Civilizations Podcast”: ▶ this video

It's a great episode and I also recommend it. For those who wish to have something visual the better link would be ▶ this video

Yeah, the sea level rise thing is one explanation for why Sumerian is a language isolate. This YouTube series is a great deep dive into it all: ▶ this video

And one more resource with the history of many civilizations: link I especially enjoyed ▶ this video , as I had no idea the first cities were already so advanced and lasted for so many centuries. EDIT: fixed youtube link.

Fall of civilizations has the history of many: link I especially enjoyed ▶ this video , as I had no idea the first cities were already so advanced and lasted for so many centuries.

Arizona is very hot, very arid, and also very favourable for agriculture, with significant production of lettuce and cotton. As long as you can make sure your crops get water through irrigation (which ancient Mesopotamians were very skilled at), your crops will thrive. In fact, the heat and sunlight actually provide a bit of an advantage. However, a number of factors eventually led to the collapse of the civilisations in the fertile crescent. One factor has been the region getting warmer and drier, which poses a challenge even with irrigation. As an example of how different the climate is now from what it was then, Uruk used to be on a channel of the Euphrates, but now that riverbed is completely dried up. Meanwhile, Ur was once a coastal city, but is now ten miles inland. Another factor for the collapse of these civilisations is that the process of irrigation accumulated salt in the soil. The very process that made complex civilisation possible in this part of the world eventually contributed to its end. I recommend the Fall of Civilizations podcast for more on this and other societies: ▶ this video

this is just 30km from Ur, I thought Akkad capital was more to the north , in the traditionally Akkadian territory link btw this is great series on that time (and what preceded it) "The Sumerians - Fall of the First Cities" ▶ this video

I went down the cuneiform rabbit hole last summer after listening to the excellent “Fall of Civilizations Podcast” episode about Sumer: ▶ this video This led to many of Finkel’s videos and the book mentioned in this post. (So far I’m not too impressed with the book, TBH.)

> The producer of "civilization and culture"? In what sense? Farms produce the goods we eat, how does that lead to culture and civilization? I'm not that knowledgeable at history - if that is the case, then I'd really like to read more about it. Well, I recommend any history book about the Fertile Crescent and Ancient Egypt. If you have 1 hour, hear/listen to this podcast/video: ▶ this video

I clipped this from Fall of Civilizations - The Sumerians - Fall of the First Cities. I'm not sure if they got it right, but it sounds good. (not monetizing, so not promoting) link Full show ▶ this video