Episode I.03 – Introduction to Prehistory
The history before history. For most of human existence, there was no such thing as writing. Yet our ancestors did leave records and remains that we can study to learn more about the human past.
Episode I.02 – Introduction to the Ancient World
History and prehistory. Before the dawn of writing, the human past is shrouded in darkness. The episodes of the Ancient World explore events before and just after the rise of civilization.
Episode 25 – Fourth Mesopotamia
The Persians rise to power. Israel returns from exile.
Episode 24 – Third Mesopotamia
Two empires: Assyrian and Babylonian. The fall of Israel and Judah.
Episode 23 – Ancient Israel
The story of the Bible and archaeological counter-perspectives.
Episode 22 – Fourth Egypt
The last look at Ancient Egypt.
Episode 21 – Ancient Crete
The descendants of the early European farmers found a unique civilization on the island of Crete and prepare the way for Greek culture.
Episode 20 – Third Egypt
The Middle Kingdom of Egypt. Renewal and flourish. The evolution of religious belief. The Hyksos take power and bring Egypt to another intermediate period.
Episode 19 – Bronze Age Anatolia
The Hittites arrive in ancient Anatolia. With Bronze Age tools and weapons, they quickly take control of the peninsula. They encounter the Mesopotamians and the Egyptians in both diplomacy and in battle. They are the first major Indo-European speaking culture to appear in history.
Episode 18 – Second Mesopotamia
Babylon rises to power in Mesopotamia after the fall of the Akkadian Empire.
Episode 17 – Second Egypt
The series returns to Egypt in the 3rd millennium BC, when the dynasties of the Old Kingdom leave their lasting mark on human history in the construction of the pyramids.
Episode 16 – Canaan and Phoenicia
The land of milk and honey. Natufian culture transitions over thousands of years into the Semitic Canaanite culture of the Levant.
Episode 15 – First Egypt
Another civilization springs up alongside the Nile River. But before there were pharaohs, there was a lot of history in Egypt, from the Paleolithic to the opening of the Bronze Age.
Episode 14 – Sumer
The first known civilization arises in Mesopotamia around the year 3,500 BC.
Episode 13 – Introduction to Unit II: Civilizations of the Ancient Near East
A brief review of the unprecedented Near Eastern transition into urban life.
Episode 12 – The Proto-Indo-Europeans
A semi-legendary tribe, far to the north of lands previously described, expands into Europe and Asia carrying language and culture that will be passed down all the way to the present.
Episode 11 – Proto-Cities
The Natufian culture, the Rise of Jericho and Catal Huyuk, Neolithic religion and the cult of the skulls.
Episode 10 – Cataclysms
Great floods, the Younger Dryas Impact and the Toba eruption all present obstacles and challenges to the survival of early modern humans.
Episode 9 – The Bronze Age
Early modern humans begin to work with copper and then bronze as their societies change and expand.
Episode 8 – The Neolithic
Early modern humans adapt to a changing world. The Natufian culture rises in the Levant. The developments of agriculture and domestication create the foundations of the world in which we live today.
Episode 7 – The Mesolithic
Early modern humans begin the transition toward the Neolithic, tracking smaller game, experimenting with agriculture and building Gobekli Tepe.
Episode 6 – The Paleolithic
A review of the first portion of the Stone Age – A time in which our ancestors emerge from many diverse groups of archaic humans and spread over the planet, replacing all these others.
Episode 5 – The Development of Life
The development of life from single-celled organisms all the way to the earliest ancestors of man.
Episode 4 – In the Beginning
This fourth episode finally jumps into the historical timeline – starting with the creation of the universe.
Episode 3 – Introduction to Prehistory
Prehistory
Episode 2 – Introduction to the Ancient World
The Ancient World
Episode I.01 – The General Prologue
The introduction to the Western Traditions podcast. The Great Books of the Western World and the Bible. The great men and women of western civilization.