Ancient Babylon Was Weirder Than You Think (No AI)

What was life really like in Babylon? We examine the ancient history behind the city's medical practices and daily existence. By analyzing cuneiform tablets and historical maps, we can piece together how this society functioned beyond the legends! Sources: Named in the script Paul Kriwaczek, the “Kriwaczek’s read” on the eye-for-an-eye penalties, probably Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization (2010) Eckart Frahm, Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World’s First Empire (2023) “A New King in an Old Shoebox,” the paper on the Uruk king Naram-Sin found at the University of Minnesota Stephanie Dalley’s argument that the Hanging Gardens were at Nineveh, The Mystery of the Hanging Garden of Babylon (2013) Herodotus, Histories 1.178-191 (Babylon’s walls and the river diversion) Laws of Hammurabi Mari letters (Shamshi-Adad to his son, the Qatna horses, the “ten to fifteen kings follow Hammurabi” letter, the contagion quarantine order) The Edubba “school days” story and the Dialogue of Pessimism Adda-guppi’s Harran inscription, the Nabonidus Cylinder, and Nabonidus’s Eulmash dig text The Nabonidus Chronicle and the Verse Account of Nabonidus Nebuchadnezzar’s Ishtar Gate inscription The Cyrus Cylinder Woolley’s Ur excavation reports (Dumuzi-gamil, Number Three Niche Lane)