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A common non-military reason to build city walls was to collect tolls.

Those clay bullets were still somewhat in use when I was deployed to Iraq in 2008. I was stationed in a Theater Internment Facility providing medical care to Iraqi detainees. They would sometimes mix their tea with sand, make it into a ball, and leave it out in the sun to bake. Most of the time, they used them to lob messages back and forth between separate compounds, but they did occasionally use them as weapons, throwing them at us from time to time.

I like how the story of David and Goliath is considered the ultimate story of defeating the odds, but no matter how big Goliath was a stone from a sling to the head was a killing blow. Literally a weapon of warfare

I'm pretty sure he just goes by Carl now

The idea that bullet design is at least 5000 years old is mindblowing to me

About the capes with armor plating, this would be rather cumbersome but the added defensive bonuses (especially for skirmishers) for troops using hit and run tactics to not catch a sling stone to the back on the way out of range was huge. Japanese samurai wore a similar device that would catch air as the fled and inflate like a balloon, stopping arrows in the void created by the rush of air.

Halfway through I realized this video was 50 minutes long; it felt like 5! You really make these artifacts come alive and tell such rich but easy to follow stories!

Highly underrated channel. Dan’s story telling approach to history is so refreshing.

experts on ancient combat and weaponry made extensive research into the equipment and fighting style of the retiarius. they found that the net was not very useful at all against a skilled armed fighter. it was there more for the style that the retiarius had to uphold (like all the other types of gladiators who all had their style which included elements that we of no practical use) if net was used by the Sumerians and Akkadians, it was most likely to hunt unarmed civilians who were to become slaves. after all you don't want to damage the merchandise :)

48:07 What a beautiful image of Shemitic fighting.

So glad we have someone covering these incredibly important but much less well known periods. These very early civilizations are endlessly fascinating.

It's not even my birthday but it sure as hell feels like it. Ancient Mesopotamia is where my interest lies the most. I love history but esecially these times all the way up to the Bronze Age Collapse are so incredibely interesting! Thanks for these amazing documentaries!

I personally feel that it's likely that the Steele of Vultures is depicting an actual formation. Firstly throughout history whenever artists are depicting Phalanx/Spear Wall like formations they tend to do it in this way, by having loads of overlapping spears, we see this both in purely artistic depictions and in military manuals and that's probably just because it's a simple way to depict that formation. Secondly a spear wall type formation is just a really simple and easy formation to come up with while also being incredibly effective, there's a reason why this formation has been independently invented and reinvented several times throughout history, it's easy to train soldiers to be effective in this formation and it's easy to come up with. It's just sorta the natural thing to do if you have a bunch of dudes with spears and shields to think "what if we lined them all up with their spears pointing towards the enemy and the shields overlapping", even children playing with wooden weapons tend to come up with this idea as well even though they have little exposure to history. It might not have been anything as advanced as say the Phalanx, which was a much more complex formation than just having dudes with spears line up. But it seems highly likely that the Sumerians had probably invented some basic military formations like a spear wall if they had been conducting warfare on any kind of scale. It's basically unheard of for armies to fight completely uncoordinated if they have any significant experience or come from any kind of organized state. On the other hand I think it is going too far to conclude that they had standardized equipment based on the similarity in this Steele. That seems more like artistic shorthand to me plus it probably looked more impressive to have them all be fairly well equipped. It's just significantly easier to depict a bunch of completely identical dudes rather than giving them all individual gear, plus the artist very likely did not see the battle for themselves and were just told what happened and thus probably didn't know what the soldiers were actually wearing. They were probably just told something along the lines of "this many spearmen were present" and just drew that. Again looking at other historical depictions of battles it's rare that artists actually depict the gear accurately, often it's depicted as fairly identical even in battles where we know for a fact the armies didn't have standardized equipment such as on the Bayeux Tapestry, where both sides seem to be wearing roughly the same gear with only a few differences in colors and weapons. In general in historical depictions of battles they only displayed differences in equipment when it mattered to them, such as showing the banner or emblem of a specific lord/king, so in medieval depictions of battles you can often see a lot of banners because the monk drawing it wanted us to know who was there but they all wear basically the same armor. This is mostly just because artists were rarely present for the battles they were depicting and so just depicted whatever they thought a soldier looked like, you can usually glean some general info about equipment from this such as which weapons were the most common (in this case spears but in the Bayeux Tapestry there's a lot of swords) and what the armor of that period generally looked like, this Steele clearly shows helmets in a very specific pointed shape so that was probably a common design for helmets in this period because these are things the artist probably did know. The shape of the shield also seems notable, it seems really square which is a rare shape for shields to have, the only other square shields we really know of are the Roman scutum. Essentially when trying to glean information from artistic depictions of warfare you have to consider what exactly the artist might have known, if you know anything about modern warfare you'd know just how inaccurately movies and games portray that, but like some details from them are correct such as tanks existing and their general shape, the same would have been the case for historic art about warfare. There are general biases that tend to stay true throughout history such as a tendency to always depict everyone as wearing the best and most impressive armor and having the best gear, that's a bias that holds true to this day with how games and movies love to focus on hyper advanced weapons and special ops soldiers. Also as a sidenote those helmets were probably almost definitely bronze because leather armor isn't really a thing. It's probably a case of either the soldiers wore bronze helmets or they wore a woolen cap.

Hope you do a video on the Assyrians. Their towering lamassu, depictions of mutilated foes in their art, alongside the gorgeous lion hunt scenes and even depictions of siege crafts. Incredibly evocative, awe inspiring stuff.

Very good content packed into a storyline that's condensed enough to avoid bogging down in mind numbing academic minutiae, but with the right amount for a decent understanding. The flow or cadence of the narrative is superb which makes Dan's videos so enjoyable to hear and learn.

Didn't think I'd care about another Sumer / Akkad video, but you nailed it

Thank you so much for your hard work, Dan. Your videos are especially relevant for the quotes you give from ancient texts, like this one 0:13 "From the city of Nipur an inscription on the pedestal of a statue erected by Sargon, says the following, 'Sargon, king of Akkad, overseer of Inanna, king of Kish, anointed of Anu, king of the land, governor of Enlil, he defeated the city of Uruk and tore down its walls. In the battle of Uruk he won, took Lugal Zaghezy, king of Uruk, in the course of the battle and led him in a collar to the gate of Enlil.'"

Been studying this part of history & even it's mythology a ton lately, in preparation for my next episode. This is yet another sync encountered in my research. skål 💪🏽🐻

Let out an audible "yesssss" when I saw this was out

Nobody else puts everything together like this. Outstanding work!

Very good summary. I'd add that a further advantage of city walls is that it introduces entry points to the polity which can then be used as customs posts for import/export duty, and thus can, over time, help fund themselves.

I'm really glad you mentioned that the army number is a round number in the sexigesimal system. So many people forget that numbers had sacred roles in Sumerian culture and were not literal most of the time.

I am almost speechless. This is so wonderful, thank you! So clear, so well presented, so based in primary sources but up to date with historiography. Truly, what a pleasure.

Loved the reference to Kenneth Clark at 9:14

Looking forward to this, this time in history is a favourite of mine, something about it feels very mythical.

Dan Davis and Dan Cooper (Fall Of Civilization) are my go to when im thirsty for a historical stuff. Thanks Dan, keep up the good work!

Dan I never got my alert bloody youtube, I can't believe you uploaded, fantastic I just love you're work the whole package, going to get my virtual headset and lie back and enjoy. Thanks Dan for sharing. 🇮🇪

I am excited about the extended geographical range of this channel's content!

The ancient Sumer is so fascinating! I hope you do more videos about them. Your format is amazing!

I love Sargon's videos

Just discovered this channel. 20 minutes in am subbed and I have two tabs open just waiting for me. Pity its a work night. I can't wait for Friday. Great channel and heart felt thanks

Bloody great video Bro! Thank you

This is amazing Dan, thank you for your work!

Great video, Dan! Always looking forward to new releases.

Almost an hour long! Will have to wait until tonight.

I really like the theory of James C Scott that these ancient cities, because of diseases, lost population, so they required extra population to keep them going. This meant that conquering people to get slaves was required for these cities/empires to survive.

I agree with you that the Uruk expansion was violent that is generally credited...

worth noting that wet clay is also much much heavier than dry clay, hence packs a harder punch

Awesome video Dan Davis! Really enjoying it so far, 13 minutes in!

Man this gotta be one of your best works. The structure and pacing as we arch across millenia leading up to Sargon and the pay-off 👌👌 You do have "profesional documentary writer" on your resume besides "professional book author", right?

Incredible video, brother Thank you so much for your work

Looking great! It’s always a good day when Dan puts out another video!

Excellent work man. I have learned so much from your channel.

Always looking forward to your take on the many aspects of Bronze Age history. As always i was not disappointed. Great work, please keep it up!

I've been reading William Hamblin's Warfare in the Ancient Near East to 1600 BC. This video is excellent as a supplement to that book because not only does it refresh the earlier chapter it also brings in some outside knowledge. Love this video Davis.

amazing video it in depth drive into what was happening in Ancient Mesopotamia and how city states developed into empires.

Dan, you did it again. Amazing. Thank you.

Excellently prepared and presented! Well worth watching till the end.

Love these videos. Would really enjoy one about Nuragic culture, Gigantija, Neolithic Orkney/Hebrides, etc. There's so much to cover out there but you go into such a depth that I always learn something new. Thanks for making these!

Great narration and content. Really enjoyed this. Rare subject wonderfully done.

Yay, my favorite Bronze Age region! I was hoping you would make a video about this. Though I have watched many videos about it, few go as deep as yours.

Ah yes, I’ve been patiently waiting for you next video, I can’t wait to watch!

Only recently I found out that Sumerian was a language isolate, like Etruscan and Basque. But how did they end up there? Speculation: During the glacial maximum the Persian Gulf was mostly dry land and their ancestors lives there along the extended Euphrates River. When our current interglacial began the sea levels rose and over millenia the Sumerians moved further and further upriver to their final areas until the sea levels stabilised.

great video, great format

5,400 is a lot of Royal Guards. Excellent video. Thanks!

I saw the Stele of the Vultures a few days ago at the Louvre. It's absolutely phenomenal. Highly recommend a trip to Paris just for the Mesopotamian section alone

This video is some serious quality stuff. Congrats!

Superb documentary, many thanks.

Awesome video!!!

The Standard ofUr is in the British Museum, seeing the real thing is quite spectacular.

Wow Carl Benjamin conquered Mesopotamia? Good for him.

Excellent!!!!

Great video. Keep up the good work!

I’ll check out your books. I don’t think people know that writing books sometimes requires a lot of research. Thank you so much for sharing the information you’ve acquired (or are acquiring) with us!

Just came across your channel - great job on your videos! 👍🏻

I really like how you analyze and interpret ancient artifacts instead of showing a bunch of re-enactments or little dots moving around a map. I hope other history channels might take a cue from you in the future.

Wow! my mind is blown! This certainly puts the shot put and other competitions in a whole new light

Awesome video! Great research as usual. Thank you!

Curiosity stream need to be funded by the government. Citizens should have access to that kind of quality learning.

I have always seen the Sumerian army depicted in stele described as a phalanx or less often as a shieldwall so it's interesting to see that such descriptions are open to interpretation. I wonder how well trained a Sumerian force would've been in combat. Considering the numerous accounts of their defeats by mountain tribes it would seem that perhaps it wasn't as well trained or motivated as a name like 'phalanx' (which tends to conjure up images of Alexander's army) would have people believe. On another note, I was lucky enough to see the Standard of Ur and the golden helmet in the British museum a few years back. Amazing artefacts. I also wonder, despite being the earliest civilization, why Sumer hasn't really penetrated the public consciousness much. I can't think of any representation of Sumer in pop culture - not in novels, comics, films, TV, or games, unless it's a passing mention - they never take centre stage. Another excellent and informative video too.

Great video as allways

Very interesting video Dan! Thank you!

YES!!!! Finally, the topic has been done justice. Thank you!

Thank you! Excellent. If you narrate this, your voice is also excellent, very engaging with authority.

Great video!

Thanks!

You don't find evidence of conquest early in Babylon because Nimrod subjugated his own people politically. Then, began conquering other lands, including Egypt. Nimrod hunted men to build bullworks, according to the Bible and Book of Enoch.

Outstanding work, as always.

Another excellent video

Excellent work as always!

thanks a ton dan. effing love this stuff. gives me porpoise.

I follow your content and I have to prise you - it is one of your best so far in my modest opinion. Subject is covered in great detail with lots of references. Clearly you had some good materials to work with. I wish you expanded on this like another 2 or 3 pieces. It rises lots of questions but I forgot them 🙂. I will watch it again and write the questions down and post them under your vid.

Great video, some of my research focuses on this (recently published a paper on copper/bronze weapons from the Early Dynastic and Akkadian periods at the site of Khafajah in the Diyala region), my Phd supervisor Clemens Reichel excavated at Tell Hamoukar. You covered the topic really well! There are some fantastic Akkadian artifacts you could have discussed; the Sargon victory stele, the Naram-Sin stele, the Nasiriyah stele and others that depict Akkadian soldiers and warfare.

Your presentation is superb!

I can't get enough of your lectures. Keep up the great work!

Dan your videos are great! Thanks you for creating such informative and interesting content.

Just found your vids and my first thought it that your voice makes everything you say sound legit.. I am cautiously excited for a new youtube history channel!

Great work, wow. I immediately thought of Julian Jaynes when you spoke of the way their gods fought, and literally lived in houses, almost commanding them via the kings

27:40 if you have ever been in the infantry, youd know how much leadership sees themselves as big men who have total control of the battlefield taking credit for anything succesful. When in reality its the dudes in formation making things happen. Some things never change.

Thank you for this.

One of my favourite periods in history. I’ve always loved RTS games such as Age Of Empires and Game of War. These people lived it

I would like to thank you for your time consuming effort to bring us a wealth of information and knowledge. All of videos are very entertaining and well delivered. So glad to found your channel. 👍👍💯❤

Thank you interesting and informative

Hello! I found your videos recently, and have really been enjoying them. I’m glad to see people making videos and writing fiction about the Bronze Age, it’s a truly fascinating time. I was wondering about your opinion on the difference between archeological cultures and ethnographic cultures? As I understand it, archeologists tend to be pretty cautious about combining the two. Their reasoning (again, as I understand it) is that there are a number of cultures today and in the historical record that would present a very similar material record or archeological culture, but we know from existing evidence that their ethnographic culture was very different (ie ((pulling this out of my ass a bit, just as an example)) modern Vermont and the Deep South (EDIT: or even two parts of the same large modern city) might produce a very similar archeological material record but have very different cultures). I do agree with what you say in some of your videos about weaponry - the likelihood of these finds being ceremonial or ritual objects, as archeologists suggest in lieu of definitive evidence of their purpose, seems pretty low to me as well. Do you think that the same logic you’d apply to the clubs applies to the distinction archeologists usually make between archeological and ethnographic cultures?

Why is KZfaq only just now showing me this channel?! Right up my alley - liked and subscribed 😎

Truly great. I didn't think you would talk about mesopotamia. I am glad you did.

Loved this video very good 👍🏼

For the most part this seems to be an overlooked topic. Great choice and well done as usual.

Excellent!