The Drumbeat Forever After

Please donate to Aseel in Gaza here: https://chuffed.org/project/128660-help-aseel-her-family-escape-gaza  Guest: Annika We've never been more back! We start off this new miniseries on Presargonic Lagash with a series of hymns to Nanshe, patron goddess of Ningen near the Gulf Coast and sister of Ningirsu, patron goddess of the kingdom of Lagash. Then, we take a boat trip up the "Going-to-Ningen canal" from the coastal town of Gu-abba, past Nanshe's hometown of Ningen, to the major Early Dynastic city of Lagash and then to its administrative capital of Girsu, where we have thousands of texts from the Presargonic dynasty of Ur-Nanshe and the queens who ran the temple of Baba, both of whom we'll examine more in future episodes. Then, we finish up as Nanshe's Sirara temple in Ningen appears to address some allegations of temple employees leaving work while on the clock, failing to clean the dough trough, eating from temple storerooms and lying about it, and so on. As my old history professor liked to say, the more things change... Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

Please donate to Aseel in Gaza here: https://chuffed.org/project/118973-save-aseels-family-from-genocide-in-gaza  Guest: Sheila We're so back! First, a Sumerian poem about Gilgamesh which mentions his trip to see Ziusudra (also known as Atrahasis, Utnapishtim, and/or Noah), which some have interpreted as evidence for the kind of mass human sacrifice we see in these tombs. Then, the famous Royal Tombs of Ur, first excavated a century ago, with their famous treasures and aforementioned mass human sacrifice! For the first time, we're able to look at the royal family through the generations rather than dealing with isolated kings' names. We might even be able to identify some of their bodies, unlike their dozens of unlucky victims. Then, we look at several of the famous artifacts which these tombs produced: the Standard of Ur, the Royal Game of Ur, and several bull-head lyres, including the Great Lyre, along with other musical instruments. We finish up with a look at four tombs: Personal Grave (PG) 1236, possibly the early king Aya-Anzu; PG 1237 (or the Great Death Pit), possibly King Meskalamdu; PG 755, possibly a later member of the royal family also named Meskalamdu; and PG 800, tomb of the famous Pu-abi with her famous jewelry. Then: Gilgamesh, he of well-proportioned limbs, has lain down and is never to rise again! Sheila (who had just got back from visiting family in India when we recorded this way back in 2023) compares modern Hindu practices with the style of Sumerian oral performances like this one. Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

Aseel and her family desperately need your help surviving the war on Gaza! Please donate to her through her friend Maggie at @dermestidae (on Paypal), since Gofundme has shut down her campaign, which used to be at: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-aseels-fight-for-life-and-family-in-gaza  Donate to Aseel's sister Tahrir here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-doaas-family-escape-to-safety?utm_campaign=fp_sharesheet&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link  Also, check out episodes 17-28, most of which I re-recorded and reuploaded recently. New episodes on Early Dynastic Sumer coming soon.

Guest: Stacy First, a story about Enlil, the Sumerian god of kingship, and his future wife Ninlil; he sees her bathing in a canal in their hometown of Nippur, and the narrative isn't especially concerned how consensual the resulting sexual encounter is.  Then, we visit Nippur, a temple center which one scholar called the "Mesopotamian Vatican", starting with a cylinder seal from a very early level of the later Inanna Temple complex. Then, we look at the first certain temple from that complex, including what may be a shrine to the mother/crafting goddess Nin-SAR. Then, we visit level VIIB of the same temple, dating to around the same time as the Fara texts from Shuruppak and Abu Salabikh, and look at the various inscribed objects dedicated to Inanna (and Nin-SAR). Then, we look at a few less-documented aspects of this period of Nippur's history: Enlil's E-kur temple complex (archaeologically invisible before the late 2200s), its municipal government (we know the names of a few ensis, but not much more), and a handful of burials (nothing fancy, compared to what's coming next episode). Finally, we finish with a short incantation from around this time. Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

Guests: Lily, Annika First: a literary debate between two women (much of its meaning hidden beneath several layers of abstraction). It tells us a lot about public expectations of Sumerian housewives, but one could argue that it tells us more about their private anxieties (as envisioned by their husbands): sex, property, and enslaved women. Then, we visit Abu Salabikh, the first major city downriver from Kish, in the north-central alluvium. We're primarily here for its Fara tablets (from the 26th century BCE), which are primarily scribal rather than administrative, for what may turn out to be interesting reasons.  After wondering why they moved the entire city shortly after 2900 BCE, we take a look at these tablets and their contents: gods, languages, advancements in the cuneiform writing system, and so on. Then, we look at the texts from Abu Salabikh that belong to the "Kish tradition" we talked about last time, many of which were apparently written in the local East Semitic language (which some scholars call Akkadian). Then, a brief detour through various types of bird skeletons found at Abu Salabikh: ducks, geese, doves, crows, and a complete goshawk buried in a child's grave. Then, we tackle the question of which city this might have been. Was it Gishgi (which I mentioned offhand in a different section)? Or Kesh (with an E)? Personally, I think it's most likely to have been Eresh, home of Nisaba, the patron goddess of scribes and writing. (Is that an interesting reason?) Finally: a story I've been talking about forever and finally including here, because this tablet from Abu Salabikh marks the earliest known narrative about the kings of Unug, a tradition most famous for the later epic of Gilgamesh. Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

(Sorry I disappeared for three months! I burned myself out working on rewriting old episodes and had to focus on other stuff for a couple months. I'm back in the saddle now, with episodes written up to the end of the Sargonic / Old Akkadian period! Also, I switched my scripts from bullet-point outlines to full paragraphs written out, in hopes that it will take less time to edit audio. Let me know if you think it sounds too robotic.) First, a hymn to the Semitic sun god Shamash, possibly the earliest known work of literature written in the Akkadian language, produced by the culture centered on the kingdom of Kish during the 2500s BCE. The TI.URU.DA is the SHU.AG of prince Ea, the god of rejoicing! Then, we return to Kish now that we have more documentary evidence to make sense of its kingdom. During the Fara period (2600-2450 BCE, named after the site of Shuruppak), texts from the so-called "Kish tradition" appear to reflect Kish's hegemony over much of central Mesopotamia. We take a look at the List of Geographic Names, which may be a list of the settlements in this kingdom. Then, we look at the geological differences between Kish (and the delta plain in the northern alluvium) and the Sumerian cities (situated in the floodplain in the southern alluvium), and the resulting differences in settlement hierarchy and political organization. Then, we look at the city of Kish itself: its two major temple complexes (the Hursang-kalama of Ishtar and the E-kishib-ba of Zababa), its cemeteries (including the cart burials, with parallels at Ur and Susa), and its palace complex, which was sacked late in the Early Dynastic IIIB period. Then, we examine our scanty evidence of Kish's political history during this period: two kings of Kish known from their own inscriptions, various Sumerian kings who called themselves Kings of Kish, the elusive queen Ku-Baba (alias Kug-Bau), and a few foreign kings who may have actually ruled Kish before Sargon. Finally, we finish up with the Kesh temple hymn. Earlier versions of this text refer to a ritual performed in Kesh (with an E) by the king of Kish; later versions (produced after Kish's heyday) remove this explicit reference. Will anyone else bring forth something as great as Kesh (with an E)?  Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

I interviewed Karrar Sabah Al Ramahi, PhD student at Baghdad University, about his research on the city of Eridu! Furqan Salam helped with the translation. We talk about its earliest settlement during the Ubaid period, its prominence as a temple town, the building projects of the kings of Ur, and the reason for its primacy in the Sumerian King List. Thanks to Karrar & Furqan for the interview! Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

Guest: Lily First: the world's oldest known wisdom literature, in the form of a series of proverbs delivered from the eponymous Shuruppak (king of Shuruppak) to his son Zi-ud-sura (alias Utnapishtim, the Noah figure from the Sumerian flood myth). Only insults and stupid speaking receive the attention of the Land! Then we visit the city of Shuruppak, in central Sumer. After a quick look at its early administration during the Jemdet Nasr and "Archaic" periods, we introduce the Fara period (roughly 2600-2450 BCE), a phase in the development of cuneiform writing that more or less corresponds to the Early Dynastic IIIA period. Most importantly, we have literature now!  Then, we look at Shuruppak's place in the world, including the copious evidence for intensive trade with the broader region. What was its relation to the "city league"? Was it part of the kingdom of Kish? Who destroyed Shuruppak, and why? Then: more proverbs from Shuruppak of Shuruppak. You should not beat a farmer's son; he has constructed your embankments and ditches! Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

Guest: Annika First, a classic sitcom setup: Ningishzida plans to sail a boat to hell with his friend (an ill-intentioned demon), but his sister Ama-shilama wants to tag along! Then, we visit the construction site of Mari, a city built from scratch in the middle of nowhere around 2900 BCE, along with 150 km (90 mi) of canals to connect it to both the Euphrates and the Khabur river. You can do the math: the perfectly circular outer walls, with a diameter of 1.9 km, enclose an area of about 280 hectares! (The inner walls enclose about 130 ha.) Who built it? Who built Thebes of the seven gates? So many questions! Then, we head west to the lower Diyala river, to see the temples in Tutub and the statuary in Eshnunna. What can famous art tell us about the chronology of the late early Early Dynastic period? Also, skipping forward in time: you're never going to guess where this textile worker who died young under unclear circumstances got her pendant from. Finally: the text is broken, but Ningishzida receives a blessing, possibly from Ereshkigal, the underworld goddess who fell in love with Nergal back in episode 6. Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

Guests: Kelten, James First, Gilgamesh ignores the branch of the government standing between him and a unilateral declaration of war on King Aga of Kish, the mightiest kingdom in the Mesopotamian alluvium at the time. Infrastructure is boring, kings are always right, and war is always glorious! Then, we look at the city of Kish during the Archaic period (2900-2600 BCE), which was apparently the seat of a powerful kingdom controlling much more territory than any other Sumerian city-state at the time. Then, we look at the oldest historical document from Mesopotamia, and our only historical document from this period of Kish's history. The "Prisoner plaque" totals 36,000 prisoners of war taken from at least 25 towns and villages during a series of military campaigns. Zababa is the god of manhood! Then, a look at the institution of the kingship of Kish (which, as you may know, long outlasted the kingdom of Kish as such). After revisiting the Sumerian King List, we meet two of our best candidates for the first kings to appear in both the Sumerian legendary tradition and the historical record: Enmebaragesi and his son Aga (or Akka), both of whom appear in this episode's Gilgamesh story. Speaking of which, because this is a Sumerian epic poem, it turns out that kings are always right and war is always glorious (for our heroes)! Gilgamesh captures his rival Aga, son of Enmebaragesi, and refers to a lost historical tradition of past interaction between Unug and Kish in deciding how to treat his prisoner. Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

Guest: James First: To punish Gilgamesh, Inanna sends the massive Bull of Heaven to ravage Unug. But, as it destroys farmland and drinks the rivers dry, Gilgamesh sits idle, drinking beer and listening to music! Then, we visit Ur during the Archaic period (2900-2600 BCE) and finally take a look at the first certainly Sumerian writing. Administrative texts record a complex economy centered on the temple of the moon god Nanna, school tablets give us a look at scribal education, and the first lists of deities give us a faint glimpse of early Sumerian religion (although most of the gods listed are obscure). Also: was Ur part of a league of Sumerian cities? Scattered evidence from the first half of the 3rd millennium BCE points to a confederation of city-states in southern Sumer (Ur, Unug, Nippur, Larsa, etc), who may have allied with each other to counterbalance the power of Kish (a large kingdom in the northern alluvium and our destination next episode!). Finally, Gilgamesh faces off against the Bull of Heaven! We discuss the logistics of animal sacrifice and what may be a Sumerian euphemism describing Gilgamesh slapping Inanna with a wet bull pizzle. Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

Guest: Lily First, we finally meet Gilgamesh! Cherished in Unug, heroic bearer of a scepter of wide-ranging power, noble glory of the gods, angry bull standing ready for a fight, etc. We read one of two Sumerian poems dealing with Gilgamesh's conquest of the remote Mountains of Cedar-felling and his fight against the mighty Ḫuwawa, the demigod who rules the mountains at the edge of the world! Then: an introduction to the Early Dynastic period (2900-late 2300s BCE) in Sumer. We take a first look at the geography of the 3rd-millennium Mesopotamian alluvium; the nature of temples, palaces, and city-states; the emergence of silver as money; the broader world surrounding Sumer; and language and identity in Mesopotamia. Then, a look at the Sumerian King List, a writing exercise (and an ideological tapestry of various folklore traditions) which often gets mistaken for an objective historical document. What can it tell us about the Early Dynastic period? Then, a look at our evidence for a historical King Gilgamesh of archaic Unug (2900-2600 BCE?). What does a king have to do in the 28th century BCE to be worshipped as a god by the 26th century? Then, we read the rest of this version of the Ḫuwawa story. The half-divine Gilgamesh reifies his power over both humans & the natural world by breaking an oath between gentlemen, on the one hand, and domesticating a demigod and exploiting his homeland for raw resources, on the other. Warrior, you lied! Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

It's the podcast's first interview! I talk to Malath Feadha and Dr. Jaafar Jotheri, two Iraqi archaeologists studying ancient Mesopotamia at Al-Qadisiyah University, about the relationship between the early inhabitants of the alluvium (in southern Iraq) and the rivers and wetlands that shaped their landscape. We talk about the history of irrigation, from a few Ubaid households digging small canals from gaps in the natural levees (in the 5000s BCE) to Sumerian city-states levying armies of manual laborers to incorporate the entire alluvium into a single irrigation network (in the 2000s). We also talk about a recent paper* they coauthored, a geoarchaeological analysis of ancient human movement through the alluvial wetlands. Both boats and domestic herds of water buffalo stirred up the sediment on the river floor over time, leaving tracks still visible in the modern desert landscape. What can these tell us about daily life in early southern Mesopotamia? Follow Malath and Grandchildren of the Sumerians on Twitter!  *Jaafar Jotheri, Michelle de Gruchy, Rola Almaliki, & Malath Feadha. "Remote Sensing the Archaeological Traces of Boat Movement in the Marshes of Southern Mesopotamia" Remote Sensing, 2019, 11, 2474. Also: look forward to the upcoming sequel, coauthored by our guests (et al), to be published in Sustainability: "Landscape archaeology of Southern Mesopotamia: identifying features in the dried marshes." Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

New update, as of July 18: Episode 17 is entirely new, and episodes 18-20 are mostly new. I've rearranged the order of episodes 22-26, and I've re-recorded audio for episodes 23-26 that I haven't edited yet.  Thanks for your patience! Like I mentioned, I have about 22 episodes written on Early Dynastic Sumer (2900-2350 BCE), of which I've recorded 4 so far. Stay tuned for more content!

Guest: Kelten First: Anzu, the mythical bird guarding the mountains at the edge of the world, comes home to find that Lugalbanda has treated his beloved chick with the utmost generosity. In return, he makes several attempts to grant Lugalbanda his destiny. Then, we continue the history of the temples at the center of the city-states in southern Mesopotamia from 3100-2900 BCE, mostly based on tablets from Unug and the northern site of Jemdet Nasr. What were they for? Who administered them? Whose work kept them running? Then, we look at language around the turn of the 3rd millennium, starting with a quick look at the evolution of writing in Iran and focusing on the "Sumerian question". We can read these texts, but can we be sure of the language they were written in? Can we even be sure they were meant to represent grammatical language as such? Then, Lugalbanda rejoins the soldiers who left him for dead in a mountain cave! Can he help Enmerkar win Unug's war against Aratta? Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

Guest: Kelten (I just finished re-recording episodes 1-10, so there's never been a better time to check them out!) First, we continue the story of Lugalbanda as he leaves his mountain cave. After he submits to the country of oppression, Zangara, the god of dreams, asks him for a space knife and goats of varying quality. Then, we start episode 1 of 2 on the Jemdet Nasr period (3100-2900 BCE), bridging the gap between prehistory and the beginning of recorded history. The collapse of the Uruk colonial network heralds massive cultural and demographic upheaval across the Near East, and the Mesopotamian alluvium isn't exempt. Then, we visit a handful of cities: the eponymous Jemdet Nasr, in the north, with the second-most texts from this period; Unug (with the most texts), whose patron goddess Inanna has already begun to take on her association with the planet Venus; and Ur, Kish, Shuruppak, and Tell Uqair. Then, we take a look at the advancements made in cuneiform writing during this period. It turns out math with fractions is exactly five thousand years old! Then, we examine the potential evidence for a league of cities— that is, a single political entity comprising several different city-states, seven hundred years before the conquests of Sargon of Akkad. If there was such an organization, it seems to have included Unug, Ur, Nippur (in the central alluvium), and possibly Eridu, among others. Finally, we begin the story of Lugalbanda and Anzu. Still lost in the distant mountains, Lugalbanda sets out to ask Anzu (the mythical bird guarding the mountains at the edge of the world) for directions. Stay tuned for part three! Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

Guest: Kelten, Bella First, the fragile peace has collapsed, and the virtuous king Enmerkar leads the army of fair Unug in an invasion of the faraway mountain kingdom of Aratta. However, en route to otherwise certain victory, the king's mightiest warrior, Lugalbanda, falls sick! His fellow soldiers, unable to help him and fearing the worst, lay him in a cave in the mountain wilderness as if it were his tomb. Then: feasting during the Late Uruk period (3400-3100 BCE), starting with a look at livestock as movable property of these nascent states: history's first farm subsidy (on wool, paid in dairy fat), the particular position of pigs in both the real economy and the iconographic landscape of Uruk cylinder seals, and the long-term effects of large-scale cattle herding on the environment as a whole. Then, a look at domestic commensality (that is, eating food together at home). What kinds of ingredients did people have access to? How did they prepare their meals?  Then, a look at the massive temple institutions that found themselves at the center of these sprawling new city-states. How did they organize feasts, and who was invited? What did their official propaganda have to say about them? Who prepared them? Most importantly, how did they parlay their massive grain stores into a permanent class hierarchy undergirded by grinding exploitation at the bottom? Let's find out! Then, instrumental music: how much of the modern guitar can we credit Uruk society with inventing? The day after recording this, I learned that the European lute isn't just incidentally related to the Arab oud— the word "lute" is literally derived from Arabic "al-'ud"! Then, Lugalbanda prays to a series of gods, to forestall the funeral feast his friends have already arranged for him. Will he ever leave the mountain cave? Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

Guests: Jojo, Sami First, at the dawn of cosmic time, Sheep and Grain descend from the abode of the gods, get drunk, and start a fight. Then, after a quick historical introduction, we take a thorough look at the Uruk-period wool industry, from gathering sheep in one place for shearing to spinning thread to weaving (on various types of loom) to dyeing, fulling, sewing, and so on. Then, we look at some other fibers: flax, being older and more firmly entrenched than wool, remained a valuable fabric well into historical times; nettles, on the other hand, had a slightly shorter tenure as a botanical source of textile fibers. Then, Sheep and Grain take their dispute to the gods, who declare the obvious winner. Praise be to father Enki! Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

Guest: Kelten, Kirra First, a familiar story that just happens to involve monumental construction projects, clay bricks, and universal language. Behold! Then, we visit the city of Unug (Uruk, Erech, Warka, etc), for which the period is named, and take a tour through the construction and demolition of increasingly monumental edifices in the office complex where written language and architectural columns were invented. What did it take to build all this? Then, a quick treatment of Uruk pottery production. Wheeled vehicles are much younger (and wine bottles are much older) than you think they are! Then, at long last, the bureaucrats in the E-anna temple complex finally get around to inventing writing! We take a stroll through the long prehistory of administrative record-keeping, the means by which young scribes learned to write, and the fundamental shift in world history precipitated by the adoption of cuneiform. Finally, we close with a hymn to Nisaba, goddess of writing (and cereal agriculture, of course)— good woman, chief scribe of An, record-keeper of Enlil, wise sage of the gods! Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

Guest: Kirra First, we sing the praises of Inanna, patron goddess of the city of Unug, whose home temple complex was the epicenter of the Uruk-period world system. Which god compares with her? Then continuing our tour of the Late Uruk period (3400-3100 BCE), we examine the city-state from the top down, from the so-called "priest-king" (alias EN, alias NAMESHDA?), to the bureaucrats who ran temple complexes like the E-anna, to the artisans in these temples' employ (increasingly subject to the forces of commoditization), to the slaves and manual laborers who actually built the cities and grew their food. Finally, we read some of the milder hymns celebrating the marriage of Inanna and her boytoy Dumuzi. He is well-watered lettuce! Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

Guests: Liyan, Bella, Kirra First, another debate poem! Hoe, child of the poor, bereft even of a loincloth, starts a quarrel with the Plow. A surprising amount of Sumerian literature boils down to the logistical complexity of various tasks facing early state institutions, not least among them the upkeep of various agricultural tools. Then: we've made it to the Uruk period! We'll start with a look at the climate of the alluvium during the 4th millennium BCE, focusing on the dense web of rivers and canals crisscrossing the Tigris-Euphrates alluvial plain. Rivers offered the settlements on their banks effortless travel (on reed boats), endless reeds (for building, burning, and making boats), and the best imaginable conditions for large-scale field irrigation (at least in the short term). What happens when they start to dry up? Then, a tour of the fields in the shadow of the new temples dominating Uruk life. What was the relationship between these new state organs and the millennia-old agricultural villages on their peripheries? How did their irrigation networks adapt to allow new, more efficient, less pleasant methods of year-round cultivation? Then, we look at the process of state formation during the Middle & Late Uruk period (ca 3800-3100 BCE), starting with a few definitions of the state. We review the process through which particular households (and other household-like social institutions) consolidated social, economic, political, and religious authority among their neighbors and trade partners. Then, we talk about how regular exchange between households might have developed over time into a permanent tribute obligation to these particular households, and the relationship between more intensive trade and social complexity. Finally, Enlil (god of kingship, king of the gods) intervenes in the debate between Hoe and Plow. Praise be to Nisaba! Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

Guest: Sheila First, strong Copper casts his legitimate insults, insults of a miserable dog, against Silver. In my delusional hubris, I've arbitrarily pieced this particular debate text together from disparate fragments and granted it unnatural life beyond death via galvanic abominations beyond the comprehension of its original creator. As usual, I'm using the ETCSL translation. Then, we track the development of copper metallurgy in the Near East, stretching from the early Neolithic to the Uruk and beyond. Sheila, actual chemistry expert, helps us understand the reactions occurring inside these Chalcolithic crucibles. Then, a look at specific metals: copper, silver, gold, lead, and iron— all available to smiths at the very beginning of the so-called Bronze Age. Speaking of which, why do we call it that anyway? Now that this podcast about the Bronze Age has finally reached the beginning of the story, it's worth explaining what exactly the familiar Stone Age / Bronze Age / Iron Age trichotomy means for our understanding of world history.  Then, we learn about arsenical bronze, the first intentional copper alloy to spread across the Near East. This, predictably, segues into an examination of the various health effects of these various metals on the people working with them. I learned something new about some familiar gods, and now you will too! Finally, the conclusion (such as it is) to Copper's debate with Silver. Silver puts up a valiant defense, given that the constraints of the genre preordained his failure. Father Enlil be praised! Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

Guest: Kelten First: the lord of Aratta devises a series of challenges to demonstrate his superiority over our hero Enmerkar, the august king of Unug, who casually invents written language two-thirds of the way through the story. Can he outsmart his nemesis in the mountains? Or, at the very least, ignore his specifications and send him something else entirely? Then, we continue our survey of the Uruk expansion: the Persian Gulf, the Habuba Kabira metropolitan area, and Hassek Höyük. Then, we finish with Arslantepe, a native Anatolian site in close contact with the Uruk exchange network. What can this site tell us about endogenous social complexity outside the influence of southern Mesopotamian city-states? Then: the Uruk colonial network collapses! Was it climate change? Environmental degradation? The declining rate of profit? Foreign invasion? Internal political instability? All of the above? Let's find out! Finally, we finish up the story of Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta. Inanna blesses the two kingdoms and, as you should've guessed by now, the gods invent new types of manual labor for humans to perform for them. Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

Guest: Kelten First: Our hero Enmerkar, grandson of the sun-god Utu, demands tribute (in the form of labor and precious minerals) from the anonymous lord of faraway Aratta, with the blessing of his lover (and Utu's sister), the goddess Inanna. Then, we look at the Late Uruk period in Iran, starting with Susa and its role in the invention of writing (and possibly in the colonization of the Iranian highlands). Chogha Mish was a centrally planned city (like Habuba Kabira, next episode), and Godin Tepe and Tepe Sialk were home to Uruk outposts. Was this colonization? Or something else entirely? Then, after a quick history of Egypt up to the mid-3000s BCE, we look at Mesopotamian and Iranian influences on Egypt's Naqada period, when it acquired many of the characteristic features of later pharaonic society. Finally, we meet the eponymous lord in his highland fastness of Aratta, who bets the entire proverbial farm on his contest with Enmerkar. As the proverb goes: he who acknowledges a contest can be the outright winner, like the bull which acknowledges the bull at its side! Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

Guests: Kirra, Jojo First, Ensuhkeshdanna, the haughty lord of faraway Aratta, demands the submission of our hero Enmerkar, the wise king of noble Unug. When Enmerkar refuses to so debase himself, the lord of Aratta plots a campaign of economic sabotage by means of dark sorcery. Then, an introduction to the Uruk expansion (or the Uruk phenomenon), a process of intensive trade, migration, and cultural interaction spanning most of the Near East for most of the 4th millennium BCE. This episode focuses on the Middle Uruk period (3800-3400 BCE). Then, we return to Susiana, in southwestern Iran, to pick up right after the end of the Susa 1 period (in episode 16). A population explosion accompanies the introduction of Uruk-style material culture (that is, similar to the culture of southern Mesopotamia). We tour the small rural village of Shafarabad and the revitalized city of Susa. What can we know about Susiana's relationship to the Mesopotamian alluvium during this period? Then, we return to Tell Brak in northeastern Syria as it, too, is incorporated into the Middle Uruk economy. The climate is drying and the city is shrinking, but they do manage to build a pretty cool temple! Then, a handful of other sites incorporated into the Uruk world: Tell Hamoukar (near Brak), Tepe Gawra (from episode 15), and Nineveh (more famous as the capital of the Neo-Assyrian empire). Then, we visit Hacınebi in southeastern Anatolia, one of several pre-existing large towns with their own history of administrative record-keeping subsumed within the Uruk trade network. Finally: wizard fights are the continuation of diplomacy by other means! Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

Guest: Annika First, Antigone gets caught burying her brother, a foolish judge arraigns her folly, and we wonder whether the good might actually desire a like portion with the evil. Then, we visit Tell Brak in northeastern Syria (most famous for its "eye idols"), as it becomes southwest Asia's first city and the world's largest settlement (130 hectares, maybe as many as 24,000 people) in the early 4th millennium BCE. What did climate have to do with its sudden rise and gradual decline?  More relevantly, what did climate and the city's gradual decline have to do with the dozens of disarticulated corpses and skulls defleshed with tools made from human bone in several mass graves around town? Then: Gilgamesh grieves for Enkidu, and we talk about one very specific lion-based metaphor common to both the Iliad and the Epic of Gilgamesh (although, in the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that these elements are spread out across two different scenes in the Iliad). Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

(Formerly episode 15) Guest co-host: Kelsey First, Inanna sets her mind to capturing the House of Heaven (that is, the E-anna) from her father, the sky-god An, after including it on her wedding registry proved too subtle of a request. Then, we visit Susiana, the alluvial plain just east of the Ubaid homeland, just in time to see the foundation of Susa (modern Shush— it's had the same name for five millennia) and its first heyday (ca 4200-4000 BCE). They built a monumental platform eighty meters square and ten meters tall, probably the largest artificial structure in the world at the time.  Then, we talk about Susa's social organization, and one possibility for an intermediate stage between egalitarian Neolithic villages and theocratic Bronze Age monarchies.  Then, they burn their towering achievement twice, obliterating any evidence of a temple that may have stood on top. Was it intentional? Is it relevant that Chogha Mish, the center Susa was built to replace, was also destroyed by a fire? Finally, the thrilling conclusion of Inanna's quest to capture the E-anna from An. Bad day to be a scorpion! Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

(Formerly episode 14) Guests: Kelsey, Kelten First, we meet the moon god Nanna-Suen (alias Sin, alias Ashimbabbar), as he prepares to journey from Ur upriver to the city of his father Enlil. Then, a brief look at the Halaf culture (early-mid 5000s BCE) in late Neolithic upper Mesopotamia, which managed to avoid social hierarchy and wealth inequality millennia after developing agriculture and herding. How did they do it? Then, the southern Ubaid culture reaches the north. In just a few centuries (ca 5300-4500 BCE), the southerners managed to export not just their material culture (tools, pottery, building styles, etc) but also an economy centered on the large households of wealthy and well-connected families, which coordinated not only grain storage and redistribution but also manual labor projects, long-distance trade, and religious activity. How did they do it? Then, a visit to our new friends at Tepe Gawra, a town in northern Iraq occupied more or less continuously from the Halaf period well into the Bronze Age. We'll be back! (Correction: Level 19 is Gawra's oldest Ubaid level. Level 20, dating to the Halaf, is the earliest occupation at Gawra). How did northerners navigate different markers of identity in the face of cultural transformation? What can stamp seals tell us about the growing power of one particular household and/or the breed of dogs at Gawra? We wrap up with a tour of the Post-Ubaid north (ca 4500-3800 BCE). Even as southern influence subsided, northern chiefs appear to have enjoyed their newfound power, at least enough to find new and interesting ways to turn other people's labor into jewelry for their children. Then, we return to Tepe Gawra until the beginning of the Uruk period. What's a town so small doing with all this treasure? And why is so much of it buried with children? Finally, Enlil's little fellow who eats sweet cakes arrives at his father's dinner table to exchange porcupines, long-tailed bush rats, turtles, and various birds and fishes for bread, beer, sweet cake, syrup, crescent cake, and clear water. May Lord Ashimbabbar make you be born for seven days! Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

(Formerly episode 13, partially re-recorded as of June 30, 2022) Guests: Annika, Kelsey First, we start with the Sumerian flood story (which later inspired the flood stories in the Bible and the Epic of Gilgamesh), pieced together from fragmentary tablets. What does this have to do with the Arabian Neolithic? Then, we meet the shepherds & fishers of the Arabian Neolithic during the Holocene Humid Period, living amidst forests, grasslands, rivers, and inland lakes large enough to support herds of hippopotami.  Then, we visit Dosariyah, a seasonal campsite, oyster processing center on the modern Saudi Arabian coast, and trade outpost. Did they have any boat-related ideas about the afterlife in common with an Ubaid site in northern Syria? Then, we look at the sea trade between the Ubaid alluvium and the Persian gulf. What can pottery tell us about the role of feasting in bringing together Mesopotamian sailors and Arabian shepherds? Then, we visit as-Sabiyah on the Kuwaiti coast, a settlement with intensive trade links with the alluvium and possibly an "ethnically Ubaid" population. What would that mean? Can we know for sure? Finally, the Sumerian goddess Nanshe builds a home for her fish. Who's invited to the housewarming party? Which species of fish isn't allowed as a temple offering? The answer probably won't surprise you! Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

(Formerly episode 16, partially re-recorded as of June 30, 2022) Guest: Kelten First, one of the common soldiers at Troy tells Agamemnon what everyone else is thinking and Odysseus threatens to smack him upside the head. Then, we tour Tell Abada (on the far northeastern edge of the Ubaid world), with interesting evidence of political centralization around 5000 BCE. Then, we talk about increasing social & economic complexity in the late 4000s & early 3000s BCE. What makes cereals more conducive to state formation than other Neolithic crops (like lentils)? Then, we look at the administrative centers in Ubaid towns like Eridu, both as socio-political institutions and as architectural monuments. At this point, they're in the process of transforming from the domestic houses of prominent families to the sprawling temple bureaucracies which dominate the early history of Mesopotamia. Then, we visit one of the other most famous cities in Mesopotamia. Unug, alias Uruk, alias Erech, alias Warka, home to Gilgamesh and Inanna and the biblical Nimrod, will be the world's largest city throughout the late 4th millennium BCE, during which time humanity will invent bronze, the state, and the written word. Then, we take one last look at Ubaid society. How does the concept of chiefdom apply to the Ubaid alluvium? Finally, Odysseus & Thersites resolve their dispute like civilized men! Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

(Re-recorded as of June 30, 2022) Guests: Kelsey, Michaela, Annika First, Enki, patron god of Eridu, creates the world, invents agriculture, blesses foreign lands, and produces the Tigris and the Euphrates as part of an extremely convoluted and mildly unsettling metaphor. Then, we visit Eridu, the first city in Sumerian legendary history, and possibly the oldest continuously occupied settlement when the first historical texts were written. What can it tell us about life during the Ubaid? Then, we follow the extended household (which first developed during the Pottery Neolithic in the north) as its Ubaid incarnation spreads across the Near East. Also, we look at the relationship between women and these new social institutions. Then, we visit one of the most famous cities in Mesopotamia in its infancy. Ur, home to Enheduanna and Shulgi and the biblical Abraham, has a long history ahead of it, and its earliest levels date to the Ubaid. We also visit the nearby site of the eponymous al-'Ubaid. Then, a look at domestic life during the Ubaid. Also, just for fun, head-shaping! Then, we tackle the "Sumerian question": what can we know about the language(s) spoken in the alluvium over a millennium before the development of written language? (In other words, "were they Sumerians?") Along the way, we raise a few other questions: how would we know if it replaced other, earlier languages? How much of a language's history appears in its vocabulary? Can there even be such thing as a proto-Sumerian language unaffected by contact with any other language? Finally, Inanna confronts Enki about ignoring her in his cosmic plan, so he grants her the heaping up of human heads like piles of dust, among other blessings. How does she feel about that? We actually won't find out! Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

It's season two! (Re-recorded as of June 27, 2022) Guest: Annika First, we visit the chronological beginning of Sumerian cosmology again. As soon as Enki transforms the Tigris-Euphrates alluvial plain into marshland, our two combatants make themselves at home and immediately start insulting each other. Then, an introduction to the Ubaid period in southern Mesopotamia (mid-6000s to late 4000s BCE), specifically its climate and wetland ecosystem. Then, we visit Tell el-'Oueili, the oldest known settlement in southern Mesopotamia, and explore its connections to the earlier Pottery Neolithic cultures in the north. Also, a brief introduction to the chronology of the Ubaid period. Then, an introduction to Ubaid crafts: wool & textile production, advancements in pottery technology, and the uniquely Ubaid "ophidian" figurines. Finally, Bird and Fish each engage in some light infanticide before they decide to take their case to the proper authority.  Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

Guests: Kelten, Kimberly, Victoria, Kirra We made it to the end of season one! First, a lamentation for Eridu and the 19th-century-BCE destruction of its Great-Ziggurat-of-Heaven-and-Earth-Covered-with-Terrible-Awesomeness. Then, a quick note on agriculture and climate. Then, everything I cut out of previous episodes during re-recording (in late May & early June of 2022): Kelten: Paris's duel with Menelaos from the Iliad & the evolutionary history of aggression. Kimberly: Human evolution, sex, & reproduction. Kelten: The mass burial at Jebel Sahaba, among the earliest known evidence of organized violence, and the genetic descendants of a particular population living in modern-day Basque country during the Last Glacial Maximum. Kirra: Skin color & stature during the Neolithic. Kimberly: Burial in predynastic Egypt & bone strength in Neolithic Germany. Victoria: Society & feasting during the Neolithic. Kelten: Now that the truce has been broken, the Trojans & the Achaeans pick back up where they left off! Stay tuned for season two, on prehistoric southern Mesopotamia & its relations with the rest of the Near East! Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

(Re-recorded as of June 4, 2022) Guests: Kimberly, Sheila First, we meet two of the most important gods in the Sumerian pantheon, as one of them gets drunk and goes on a gift-giving spree. Then, we visit Sabi Abyad in northern Syria. What can this site cluster tell us about the state of Late Neolithic gender relations and political development? Then, a look at gender across the world created by the widespread adoption of the Neolithic lifestyle: skeletal evidence that women did more manual labor in northern Syria, a transregional and disproportionate drop in life expectancy for women during the Neolithic, the use of newly domestic livestock as wedding gifts, and an introduction to textile crafting (usually associated with women in ancient societies). Then, we take a look at some of the first stamp seals and the type of administrative system that used them. Were female figurines related to the early stages of the development of written language? Finally: the more things change... "What has been is what will be,  and what has been done is what will be done;  there is nothing new under the sun.  Is there a thing of which it is said, 'See, this is new'?  It has already been, in the ages before us.  The people of long ago are not remembered,  nor will there be any remembrance of people yet to come  by those who come after them." (Ecclesiastes 1:9-11) Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

(Re-recorded as of June 4, 2022) Guests: Kelten, Sheila First, some Sumerian literary vitriol and proverbs on the subject of good old-fashioned in-person vitriol. It is an insult resulting from an insult; it is a curse resulting from a curse; it is the constant renewal of destiny! Then, we look at the evidence for warfare during the 8.2-kiloyear climatic event, which affected societies across the Near East during the late 7th millennium BCE. Then, we visit a singular burial installation in southeastern Anatolia: a death pit containing the remains of about three dozen people and several dogs, not to mention the bones of the animals eaten for their funerary feast. What were they doing with all these bones? Then, we visit southwestern Iran for the first time, to track the growth of Chogha Mish, the eastern counterpart of its later neighbor Susa. Then, more Sumerian proverbs, on the topics of money, social class, and animals. Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

(Re-recorded as of June 4, 2022) Guest: Sheila First, some Sumerian proverbs on various topics. Who is it that you are butting?  You cannot kill me; I am running away! Then, an introduction to the Pottery Neolithic (or the Ceramic Neolithic, or the Late Neolithic), spanning roughly 7000-5300 BCE. We'll look at the complementary trends of village fragmentation and increased interactions between individual households. We'll also examine the chemical process of firing ceramic pottery, now that the early farmers of southwestern Asia have figured it out. Then, a quick tour of two sites in northern Iraq: Tell es-Sawwan, with tripartite public buildings similar to those in southern Mesopotamia, and Choga Mami, home to the oldest known evidence of the type of irrigation agriculture which will later spread to southern Mesopotamia. Guess where season two is headed! Then, some Sumerian proverbs on the subject of whining! Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

(Re-recorded as of June 4, 2022) Guests: Kirra, Jojo First, a look at some medical remedies from New Kingdom Egypt, ca 1500 BCE. Then, we examine the eventful life of James Mellaart, the first archaeologist in charge of the excavations at the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük. Then, we tour Çatalhöyük (in modern south-central Turkey) itself, one of the biggest and densest communities in the world during the late 6,000s BCE. What can their patterns of burial tell us about their social organization? What did this dense concentration of people portend for public health? What do the few murals with photographic documentation imply about the history of volcanic eruptions in the region? Then, the adoption and spread of the Neolithic lifestyle had a variety of effects on the human body, including a few useful adaptations, like lactase persistence. However, the combination of a grain-based diet, daily interaction with new species of livestock, and the growth of large, dense settlements also exposed people to countless new (or newly common) diseases: anemia, brucellosis, malaria, tooth decay, and more! Finally, the Egyptian understanding of human anatomy and a step-by-step walkthrough for Late Bronze Age surgeons. Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

(Re-recorded as of May 31, 2022) Guest: Annika First, some Sumerian proverbs about animals. Pigs, foxes, donkeys, mongeese, elephants— they're just like us! Then, a look at the Zanclean flood, which filled the Mediterranean basin with seawater and formed the island of Cyprus over 5 million years ago. What happens when hippopotami find themselves stranded on an island that used to be a mountaintop? Then, we'll spend some time with the other domestic animals living in Neolithic villages (dogs, cats, and donkeys), as well as a few other species with unique relationships to the domestication process (bees, foxes, and deer). Then, we return to Cyprus along with the earliest waves of humans: Epipaleolithic hunters, game wardens, and eventually sedentary agriculturalists bringing not only domestic livestock but also a whole suite of wild animals to stock the Cypriot forests. By the late 8000s BCE, they will have terraformed the island in the image of Pre-Pottery Neolithic B Syria and integrated its natural resources into the trade networks connecting the Fertile Crescent to the rest of the world. Finally, more proverbs, including written language's first merciful lion and Mr. Monkey's plaintive cry to his mother Lusalusa. Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

(Re-recorded as of May 28, 2022) Guest: Kelten First, we meet Enkidu, Gilgamesh's enemy and future soulmate, as he roams the hills eating wild grass with the gazelles. Then, we learn how foragers' attempts to manage wild herds gradually transformed into a lifestyle centered around domestic livestock, and how Neolithic hunters permanently altered the genetics of wild sheep without even having to domesticate them first. Then, we take a look at the process of domesticating wild herds of ruminants, focusing on goats in Ganj Dareh, in the highlands of western Iran. It turns out every domestic goat on the planet can trace its genealogy to a single lineage of wild male goats in the Zagros mountains in the late 9th millennium! Then, we look at the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period outside the Fertile Crescent— that is, outside the area where it rains enough for intensive cereal agriculture without irrigation. What did the domestication of sheep and goats have to do with their herders' ability to assimilate the al-Jazira grasslands into the Neolithic economy? Did they have any thoughts on the sex lives of six-toed women? Then, we examine the four species of livestock most important to the Neolithic revolution: pigs, sheep & goats, and cattle. Finally, Enkidu makes a friend! Also, he finds out whether or not the instincts that served him so well as a wild animal might, in new circumstances, alter every aspect of his being and sever his connection with the wilderness altogether. Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

(Re-recorded as of May 25, 2022) Guest: Jojo First, we sing the wrath of Telipinu, which brought down countless ills upon the mortal world and ruined dinner in Hittite heaven. Then, we continue our tour of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period in the Fertile Crescent, stopping off at Jericho, a Neolithic monumental site famous for other reasons. What should we make of its famous plaster skulls? Or its tower & wall, the first of their kind by thousands of years? Might the answer incorporate both the summer solstice sunset and Satan's temptation of Jesus in the desert? Then, three fruits not included in the "eight founder crops": grapes, olives, and date palms— all marginal in the PPNB Fertile Crescent but extremely important in later Mediterranean & Persian Gulf economies. Then, we take a look at the rest of the canonical founder crops (lentils, chickpeas, flax, peas, & vetch) as well as the natural phenomenon of parthenocarpic reproduction and its relationship to PPNA fig cultivation. Finally: Telipinu's miraculous return! Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

(Re-recorded as of June 3, 2022) Guest: Kelten First, the warrior-prince of an orderly Sumerian heaven hears of a challenge to his authority and sets out to meet it with his obsequious talking mace. Then, we begin our look at the agricultural revolution with a look at the domestication process that turned wild large-seeded grasses on the fringes of Epipaleolithic forests into domestic staple crops of large, complex societies. Which areas are part of the so-called "Fertile Crescent"? What role did the volcano Karaca Dağ play in cereal domestication? What does "domestication" mean, anyway? Then, we'll visit the villagers of Nevalı Çori, who almost certainly helped build the monuments at Göbekli Tepe. What can they tell us about the state of agriculture in the late ninth millennium BCE? Then, we follow the histories of specific grains: emmer, einkorn, barley, and rye. Also, the evolution of human's fondness for getting drunk, and its newfound expression in the age of cereal agriculture. Finally: After the battle, because Sumerian mythology is rarely subtle, Ninurta invents forced labor, hydraulic engineering, and intensive agriculture. Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited

(Re-recorded as of May 25, 2022) Guest: Kelten First, the gods create humans to break a strike! We take a look at the world that produced this myth (more famous for its second half, about the flood that wipes out every human except for one man with a boat), at the height of political and economic complexity during the Bronze Age. Then, a brief introduction to the focus of the podcast: ten episodes on the Neolithic, about ten more on the Chalcolithic period in southern Mesopotamia (the Ubaid and Uruk periods), an extended vacation in Early Bronze Age Sumer, and then an inexorable march forward in time to the city destructions and mass migrations of the 12th century BCE. Then, after a quick jaunt through the Paleolithic, we visit the Epipaleolithic Natufian culture in Syro-Palestine (alias The Levant) around 11,000 BCE. What did their society look like before the agricultural revolution? Then, the Younger Dryas (ca 10,700-9600 BCE) was a brief return to glacial climate conditions that marked the boundary between the Pleistocene and the Paleolithic on one side and the Holocene and the Neolithic on the other. How did it affect the Syrian village of Abu Hureyra? How did it affect the local tortoise population? Then: the dawn of the Neolithic! The early Pre-Pottery Neolithic period (PPNA, ca 9600-8700 BCE) saw a warmer, wetter climate and increasing experimentation with cultivating certain types of large-seeded grasses. Finally, a tour of Göbekli Tepe circa 9000 BCE, to see what beer, severed heads, and colossal blocks of limestone have to do with each other. (It isn't aliens!) Questions? Feedback? Email us at drumbeatforeverafter@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @drumbeatforever Works cited