November 3, 2021 • 34 mins
Tim introduces us to a dynasty that ruled over Babylonia during one of the periods of its greatest influence. Where did they come from? What were their achievements? And what is their legacy?
2:29 who were the Kassites?
4:57 where did they come from?
9:20 Kassite achievements
18:04 characteristic Kassite material culture
23:13 where to see Kassite objects
24:57 where to find out more
28:49 Tim's own research
Tim's Academia page
Music by Ruba Hillawi
Website: http://wedgepod.org
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSM7ZlAAgOXv4fbTDRyrWgw
Email: wedgepod@gmail.com
Twitter: @wedge_pod
Patreon: http://Patreon.com/WedgePod
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jon Taylor (00:14):
Welcome to the Thin End of the Wedge, the podcast
where experts from around theworld share new and interesting
stories about life in theancient Middle East. My name is
Jon. Each episode I talk tofriends and colleagues, and get
them to explain their work in away we can all understand.
This episode we meet a foreigndynasty who become the
(00:36):
quintessential Babylonians, andpreside over a golden age. The
early history of the Kassites isstill shrouded in mystery. And
many details of their activitiesremain to be discovered by
future researchers. It's a bitlike studying English history,
without being sure quite howmany Henry's there were, or
(00:58):
which one is involved in aparticular event.
But under the Kassites Babyloniaflourishes. It forms part of the
international network of greatpowers, in regular
correspondence with theEgyptians and the Hittites. It's
a time of huge investment in thetraditional infrastructure of
(01:18):
the country. And under them,learning and literature blossom.
Our guest is an expert in theKassites. He offers us a gentle
introduction to their world andtheir legacy. How do we identify
them? And where can we exploretheir history?
(01:38):
So get yourself a cup of tea,make yourself comfortable, and
let's meet today's guest.
Hello, and welcome to Thin Endof the Wedge. Thank you for
joining us.
Tim Clayden (01:57):
Jonathan, how nice to hear you this morning. Lovely
to see you.
Jon Taylor (02:01):
Can you tell us please
you do?
Tim Clayden (02:06):
My name is Tim Clayden, and I'm a Bursar at one
of the Oxford colleges--GreenTempleton. But I'm also a member
of Wolfson College, Oxford,where I did my doctorate in the
archaeology of the Kassiteperiod in Iraq. So I'm an
independent researcher onKassite culture, history,
(02:27):
anything to do with theKassites.
Jon Taylor (02:29):
The first question then, is who were the Kassite
and what do we know about them
Tim Clayden (02:34):
A great place to start, Jonathan. The Kassites
were not indigenous toBabylonia. We're talking about
ancient Iraq. And they ruledBabylonia for about 300 years
from about 1450 BC to 1154 BCE.
But they had been in Babyloniafor about 300 years prior to
(02:56):
that. But that's another story.
They had their own language,although we know very, very
little about it. We've got theremains of a couple of
dictionaries. Some of them arein the British Museum. And they
give the Akkadian equivalents ofa few words. Akkadian being the
language of ancient Iraq. Andthere's a lot of discussion
(03:17):
about whether the language hasan Indo-European root or not.
But frankly, we know so littleabout it, that it's difficult to
be conclusive. They adopted theBabylonian religion. They had a
few deities of theirown--Shuqamuna and Shumaliya,
but fundamentally they acceptedthe indigenous Babylonian
religion. They arrived in aperiod when there was a bit of a
(03:40):
dark age between the famous OldBabylonian period of the first
half of the second millenniumBCE. And essentially they bridge
the dark age between that andwhen they took over in the late
15th century, early 14thcentury, by which time they were
also present in the Gulf, and uptowards the border with modern
(04:01):
day Iran. So they became one ofthe great kingdoms of the
ancient Near East, equivalent tothe pharaohs over in Egypt,
and--when the Assyrian Empiregrew--to the Assyrian Empire.
They were great traders. But intruth, we don't know an awful
lot about their history. Sadly,those documents have not
survived. We do know they hadbattles with the Assyrians to
(04:25):
the north, and with the Elamitesover in modern Iran, but they
were builders, traders. Theywere good Babylonians, by and
large. It came to an end in the12th century, when the Elamites
from the east finally conqueredthem. But they lived on more or
less, one way or another, foranother 200-300 years. And
(04:45):
indeed, there's traces of them isome of the classical sources
uring the campaigns of Alexandr the Great. So they were around
for a long
Jon Taylor (04:57):
You said they weren't originally from
Babylonia. Where did theKassites come from? And what do
we know about their arrival inBabylonia?
Tim Clayden (05:06):
We don't really know where they come from. But
all the evidence very, verystrongly points to them coming
from the east, somewhere in themountains, to the east of modern
Iraq, and particularly down theDiyala corridor. Some of the
early evidence we have for themcomes in texts from the ancient
side of Nuzi, south of Kirkuk.
And that's in the late 15thcentury where we know they were
(05:31):
settled. But much earlier thanthat, in the reign of
Samsu-iluna in the 18th century,the mid-18th century, they
started appearing in the texts.
And they seem to have integratedinto Old Babylonian society. We
see them in a range ofroles--merchants, bakers, just
generally all over. But theirspecialisation appears to have
(05:54):
been as soldiers, and theyserved as mercenaries. It's a
modern term. But this wasn'tunusual in the Old Babylonian
kingdom. People from a varietyof nationalities--Elamites from
the Sealand, from varioustribes, the Suhu, also served in
detachments, named detachments,in the army of the Babylonian
(06:16):
king.
But they appeared in the reignof Samsu-iluna. We see them
coming up in the texts. Andtheir initial appearances,
they're quite violent. Some ofthe year names--the year names,
which were used to date thetablets, the texts,
administrative texts of the OldBabylonian kingdom--they
recorded the key event in theyear of a king's reign. We see
(06:37):
them appearing in a couple ofthose, and they're quite
violent. So although they doappear to have integrated quite
quickly, aspects of theirarrival were quite violent. But
they mixed into society veryquickly. And they became, as I
say, most prominent--and we aredependent on survival of
texts--they became mostprominent as soldiers serving
(06:58):
the Babylonian king.
There's some evidence that theymay have come in waves in a
couple of tribes. But again,that's still quite early days on
being able to be definitive onthat. But once integrated, they
seem to have adapted themselvesto the life of Old Babylonian
society pretty well. And it'sinteresting their arrival
(07:18):
coincides with collapse ofcontrol of southern Babylonia on
the part of the Old Babyloniankingdom under Samsu-iluna based
in Babylon. Now, it had beenthought at one point that the
Kassites helped precipitatethat, but there's no real
evidence for it. What actuallyhappened in the south is
unclear. Obviously, peoplecarried on living there, but the
(07:42):
control of that area fromBabylon was limited.
And in its place, a new kingdom,the kingdom of the Sealand
Dynasty, which has only reallycome to life in the last 12-15
years with the publication oftablets, and the excavation of a
couple of sites. They seem tohave spread their influence from
the south, getting as far northas the great city of Nippur,
(08:05):
which is sort of halfway upsouthern Iraq. But the Kassites
lingered on. And by the time weget to the 15th century, they
really got into conflict withthe Sealand and eventually took
over. There is some evidencethat immediately after the
collapse of the Old BabylonianEmpire, beginning of the 16th
(08:26):
century, about 1595 BC, verysoon after that--30 or 40 years
later--they started settlingaround, actually now within the
suburbs of modern Baghdad at asite called Tell Muhammad. But
it's still quite unclear justwhere they fit into the story.
There's no real archaeologicaltype fossil, as it were, that we
(08:47):
can point, that points to theKassite arrival. All this
evidence comes from texts. So Ithink it's easiest to say they
came in from the east in the18th century, started
integrating into the OldBabylonian society. And we know
that from the names and theprofessions, they were obviously
specialists as soldiers. Andeventually, in the mid 15th
(09:09):
century BCE, conquered theSealand dynasty and took over
control of Babylonia. Andremained in control for another
300 years.
Jon Taylor (09:20):
So we have this group who arrive in Iraq, and
they rule a great kingdom thatrivals Egypt. But what makes the
Kassites so interesting andimportant to study?
Tim Clayden (09:31):
I think one of the key characteristics of the
Kassite dynasty is that theykept ancient Babylonian
civilisation not just alive, butthey refurbished it. When the
great king Kurigalzu took thethrone round about 1400 BCE. We
don't know exactly when he tookover, but he died something like
(09:52):
1375 BCE. When he took controlof the country, one of the first
things he did was reallyrefurbish many of the temple
complexes in the southern citiesof Babylonia. We recall that
they had probably been ... well,they had no royal patronage.
Royal patronage was important tokeep these buildings alive and
(10:13):
going. The great temples, theyhad no royal patronage for
300-400 years since the reign ofSamsu-iluna. Kurigalzu in what
was obviously a very, verydeliberate political--not just
political as in politics, but ina geopolitical, as an expression
of where he wasruling--statement, rebuilt some
of the temples, the great citiesof Ur, for example, down in the
(10:36):
south, and so on. And herefurbished those temples,
restored the cults, got them allback up and running.
There's a fascinating excavationgoing on at the moment being led
by Iraqi colleagues from theUniversity of Babylon at the
great site of Dilbat, where wesee again, it's a very new,
breaking excavation, evidencefor his rebuilding the great
(11:00):
temple there. So the fact thatthat refurbishment, that repair,
that restoration of ancientBabylonian temples and cultic
practices after 200-300 years,of really not much going on at
all, and if we remember thatthese buildings are all built of
mud brick, and you have to keeprepairing refurbishing and
(11:21):
patching mud brick, because therain simply melts it. 200-300
years of neglect would have seenthese buildings in a pretty
sorry state. Well, he pulledthem back together again.
We also see very early on fromeven before the reign of
Kurigalzu, so in the late 15thcentury, we know that the king
(11:44):
in Babylonia, the Kassite king,was in contact with the pharaoh
in Egypt. Well, that's a longway away from southern Iraq. But
they were on correspondingterms, and called each other
"brother". And that'sfascinating, because what it
suggests is that there's a wholebackstory, as it were, to what
was going on in that part of theancient world, before the
(12:07):
records give us evidence forwhat was really happening. So
the fact that this group ofpeople took control, didn't come
in introducing and imposing newbuildings, new religions, but
pretty much adopted the ancientreligion that had been there for
a millennia. And refurbished andrestored is in itself
(12:29):
interesting, really interesting.
And then they became a greatpower. So when they started off,
it was the Hittites, theEgyptians and the Babylonians.
And then, a little while later,the Assyrians to the north in
northern Iraq, their power grewand they became another part of
the club of great powers, as itwere. At the start of that, the
Babylonians rather objected.
(12:54):
They weren't particularly keenon seeing a new member join that
club. And indeed, north andsouth ancient Iraq remained
enemies throughout the history,so warfare between the two areas
in the Kassite period continued.
They also codified much of theliterature. So they set up
scribal schools, and cuneiformand Akkadian as you know,
(13:17):
Jonathan, it's your field ofexpertise, this is a complex
language. It's a complex script.
It requires an enormous amountof training. And they took on
the inheritance of all theseancient texts, which would have
been physically quiteinteresting how they found them.
All the centres would have beennot quite in ruins. The great
(13:37):
city of Nippur continued, butthey were sufficiently
interested. They went and lookedfor them. And so some of the
great stories that have survivedfrom ancient Iraq were pulled
together and codified in theKassite period. Again, that's
really interesting.
And the fact that it was astable dynasty. It remained
(13:58):
pretty much in place for 300years. There was a short
interregnum in the 13th century,when the Assyrians finally
conquered the Babylonians, theytook their king, the Babylonian
king Kashtiliashu, back toAssyria and there's evidence,
they sort of kept him and hisfamily as sort of honoured
guests, honoured captive guests,in the royal court. And the
(14:22):
Assyrians controlled the highpolitics of Babylonia for
perhaps 20 years, 10-20 years.
But that really is the onlybreak. Otherwise, the dynasty
carried on all the way through.
So for me, it's that thesestrangers who came in in the
18th century, ended up the oneswho restored, codified,
(14:45):
stabilised, made Babyloniagreat. It's just interesting how
that process happened. So that'swhy I would say they're
fascinating--an international,literate power.
Jon Taylor (14:57):
They've also left an important physical legacy,
haven't they?
Tim Clayden (15:01):
They have Jon, and one of the most striking remains
in modern Iraq from the ancientperiod is the city
Kurigalzu--the Kurigalzu who Iwas talking about just now, who
started his reign about 1400 BC.
And it's the city of modern AqarQuf, which is now on the western
outskirts of modern Baghdad,about 20-30 kilometers to the
(15:24):
west. And it was named forKurigalzu, so the ancient name
was Dur Kurigalzu, named afterthe king. And it is the best
remains we have have a zigguratthat survived from ancient Iraq.
The ziggurat still stands about57 meters high. It stands on a
limestone ridge, the whole citystood on a limestone ridge,
(15:48):
which in a plain that would havebeen surrounded by water for
large periods of the year, itwould have been the most
striking sight on the horizon ofa city wall and there's great
ziggurat. It's still one of thehighest points in Iraq, and is
an absolute landmark, was alandmark all the way through to
(16:08):
the early 20th century fortravellers coming across the
desert from Syria.
And there's a whole city there,a massive temple complex, large
palace, and we have evidence forsome of the private housing. So
that is the very, very visibleremains. Our Iraqi colleagues
have been excavating the sitesince about 1942. And it has
(16:31):
been restored, very heavilyrestored most recently and has
been, and let's hope it will beagain one day, a tourist
attraction for visitors fromBaghdad. So that's a very
visible, easily accessibleremain from the Kassite period.
But Kurigalzu who also built inother cities--at Ur, again,
(16:53):
worked on the ziggurat, but hedidn't build a ziggurat. But he
did repair a lot of the templesand the temple structures around
them.
Other kings built in cities likeLarsa and Isin. So it's mainly
temples. Unfortunately, becausethey built in mud brick, they're
not very spectacular looking atthem today. When I take my wife
(17:15):
to these sites, "It looks", shesays, "Well, looks like a lot of
mud hills". And to a certainextent, that's exactly what it
is. But if we try and think ofwhat it would have looked like
when they did rebuild thecities, it would have been very,
very spectacular. So they didall that work. At the moment our
(17:35):
Iraqi colleagues from theUniversity of Babylon are
excavating a fascinating site atDilbat, where they found a
temple that we didn't knowabout, again, refurbished by
king Kurigalzu. So you know, newdiscoveries are coming all the
time. But if you GoogleKassites, the first image you're
(17:55):
bound to come up with 99 timesout of 100 is a photograph of
the ziggurat, Aqar Quf,Dur-Kurigalzu.
Jon Taylor (18:04):
As an archaeologist, what would you expect to find on
a Kassite site, apart from themonumental architecture? Are
there any characteristic objectsthat suggest you found Kassite
levels?
Tim Clayden (18:16):
I am an archaeologist. And what you hope
to find are texts which tell youa bit more about what was going
on. But on the sites that havebeen excavated, you find things
like kudurrus. Now kudurrus arestone monuments, a bit like a
milestone in scale. So perhapshalf a meter, 60-70 centimeters
(18:38):
high and made of stone. So veryrare in Babylonia to find things
made of stone. And they bearinscriptions from the king,
giving a grant of land tosomebody to whom they wanted to
show favour. And these have beenfound a place like Larsa, Ur,
Dur-Kurigalzu, there's quite alot of them around, but very
(19:01):
spectacular and they have symbolof the gods carved on them as
well. So they would beprotecting these grants. So
there's sort of a contractsaying the king gives you this
grant of land, and it's yoursand your descendants forever and
the gods protecting that grantor the terms of the grant. And
then they would have been set upin a temple to give added
(19:21):
protection. So you might belucky finding one of those.
There's a lot of pottery,obviously. And there's a very
distinctive type of pottery fromthe Kassite period, so-called
goblet or flask. It's got a sortof flat foot and then a flute.
And then it narrows at the topto a mouth. We don't know what
(19:42):
was in them, but they're about20 centimeters, 20-30
centimeters, high and they areabsolutely characteristic of the
period. You know you're on aKassite site when you find a
fragment of one of thesegoblets. They're instantly
recognisable.
Some of the other morespectacular things that have
been found are fragments ofglass axes. They were found at
(20:05):
Nippur. And these were axes madeto be put in a temple. They bear
inscriptions, dedicatoryinscriptions of the king. So to
the god Enlil, one of the chiefgods of the Babylonian pantheon,
and one of the chief deitiesworshipped in ancient Nippur.
And they were carved onto axesmade out of glass to make them
(20:29):
look as though they were lapislazuli. It was done in the 13th
14th century BCE. And they'requite big. They're about 20
centimeters long. They have ahaft, so they would have had a
wooden handle in them. And theyare the earliest, largest bit of
inscribed glass that we've gotfrom Babylonia. Chemical
(20:53):
analysis on them has shown thatthey are made of Babylonian,
Iraqi materials. They're notimports. So although glass was
being made in Syria and Egypt atthe time, this is an indigenous
industry. They're rather nice.
And there's also notinfrequently on sites, a form of
dedicatory object calledeyestones.
Jon Taylor (21:15):
You've worked on eye stones, haven't you? What are
they? What is an eye stone?
Tim Clayden (21:20):
They're called eye stones. In fact, they were
called eye stones in ancientBabylonia. And they are pretty
much what the word says. They'reflat disks with a rounded upper
surface, perhaps the size of athumbnail, some a little bit
larger, but more or less on thatscale, with a dark center--the
pupil of the eye--and a whiteouter ring. And they again bear
(21:42):
a dedicatory inscription almostexclusively, from the king to a
deity. So, you know, to the lordEnlil, may he protect the life
of his servant, king Kurigalzu.
And they're pierced. So theywere probably worn as part of
necklaces on the statues ofdeities inside the temple. And
the Kassites, they didn't inventthese; they appear in the Old
(22:05):
Babylonian period as well. Butthey were most popular in this
period, in the period of theKassites.
The next time they show such adegree of popularity is in the
Neo-Babylonian period, many manycenturies later, under the reign
of King Nebuchadnezzar theSecond. But there's a lot of
(22:26):
Kassite eye stones. And they'rerather beautiful things. And
there's a lot of other bits andpieces. But Kassite texts, as I
say, are relatively raresurprisingly. We haven't found
many of the archives that musthave existed. Most of the texts
we have come from the ancientcity of Nippur. But they do
(22:50):
appear at various other sites,including all the way down in
the Gulf, down in Bahrain, andFailaka. So showing that the
Kassite kingdom extended all theway down there, or at least
merchants from the Kassitekingdom got down to into the
Gulf. But unfortunately, thereare not as many Kassite texts as
one would like. But then that'sprobably always the case.
Jon Taylor (23:13):
Where can people go to see Kassite objects like this
now?
Tim Clayden (23:17):
Well, obviously the best place is Baghdad, and I do
hope Iraqi friends are able togo there and see them. But if
you're not lucky enough to go toBaghdad, then the British Museum
in London has a very goodcollection. Particularly of
kudurrus, many of which are nowon public display. So they're
easy to see. But there's otherKassite objects there. The
(23:40):
Vorderasiatisches Museum inBerlin has again a very, very
fine collection, particularlyfrom the site of Babylon. And
many of the objects on displaythere, including a reconstructed
wall relief from the ancientcity of Uruk. And it's one of
the features of the Kassiteperiod that they decorated some
of their temple exteriors withmolded mudbrick depictions of
(24:02):
gods. And the one in theVorderasiatisches Museum there
shows the gods in moldedmudbrick from a temple surround,
as I say, from Uruk. it's maleand female and they're holding
little jugs with flowing watercoming out. It's very beautiful.
It's almost life size. It's veryspectacular. The Louvre of
course in Paris has got a numberof Kassite objects on display.
(24:26):
The Met in New York, and theAshmolean here in Oxford has a
few. There are also quite a lotof objects in the museum in
Istanbul. Because of course,when some of the very earliest
excavations took place in Iraqup until the First World War,
Iraq was part of the OttomanEmpire. So many of the objects
(24:47):
that were excavated before 1914,they ended up in Istanbul and
many of them are on displaythere. So there's quite a range
of places to see them.
Jon Taylor (24:57):
And if that inspires us to learn more, where's a good
place to start with that?
Tim Clayden (25:02):
I think there's perhaps a number of ways,
Jonathan. For easy entry intothe background as it were, the
subject area, the history, thechronology, I would recommend,
there's a couple of books on thehistory of Babylon, which I
would recommend. The first wasby Joan Oates called Babylon,
which is now quite old, but isstill very, very good. And it's
(25:24):
got a chapter on the Kassites,and the Kassite period. And it
just puts it into context. Herdescription of the period is
still very valid. There's also abook that's just come out a few
years ago by Paul-Alain Beaulieufrom Canada. And again, the
history of Babylon. He's got avery good chapter of the Kassite
(25:44):
period. And just this period,Stephanie Dalley, one of our
colleagues here in Oxford haspublished a history of Babylon,
which again, includes a verygood chapter on the Kassite
period. So I think that wouldgive you a very good background
to the subject. You know, how itfits in, and the broad outlines.
If you want to get more involvedin some of the interesting
(26:07):
questions that are developing atthe moment. And I should say, in
the last 10-15 years, there'sbeen a crop of young scholars
coming through doing somefabulous work on the Kassite
period. It's great, really nicefor me to see the generation of
new scholars doing some reallygood work coming through. And
there's two volumes I wouldrecommend that would give you
(26:29):
absolute up to date informationand outline of some of the
current issues. The first is abook called Karduniash:
Babylonia under the Kassites,which was published in 2017. And
that was edited by AlexaBartelmus and Katye Sternitzke.
It's got a collection of paperswhich pretty much covers all the
(26:51):
current issues. And then there'sanother one that appeared last
year, Babylonia under theSealand and Kassite dynasties,
edited by Susanne Paulus andmyself, which brings the whole
thing up to date, even more. Weincluded the Sealand dynasty,
because being totally frank, upuntil 15 years ago, what we
(27:12):
could say about the Sealanddynasty would fit in big letters
on a very small stamp. We nowknow a huge amount more. And
it's giving us a much moreinteresting complex vision of
what was going on in southernIraq in ancient Babylonia in
that period between Samsu-ilunaand the emergence of the
(27:32):
Kassites 300-400 years later.
So those last tworecommendations are very
academic. But I would say veryreadable and come with very good
book lists. Between them, you'vegot pretty much every book,
article, paper that's going onthe Kassites. The first one,
Karduniash, includes a masterfulsummary by the doyen of Kassite
(27:55):
studies, Professor John A.
Brinkman from Chicago. Andanybody wanted to do anything on
Kassite history, Kassite texts,would want to read that.
Another easy way of keeping intouch is through membership of
organizations like the BritishInstitute for the Study of Iraq,
(28:15):
BISI. It's based here in the UK.
Subscriptions are relativelycheap, and especially cheap for
students. And there's an annualjournal, there's talks, there's
a website presence. It happensthat I serve on the council for
BISI at the moment, but I'vebeen a member for many, many
years. And it introduces you tothe community of people studying
(28:36):
the subject. It's ancient andmodern. If you're looking for a
way into the field, into thestudy, into the area, then you
could do a lot worse than joinBISI.
Jon Taylor (28:49):
What about your own work specifically? How can we
follow your ongoing research?
Tim Clayden (28:54):
For those who use it, Academia. All my papers are
loaded up on Academia. And I say"all"; there's about 15 or so,
all about the Kassites. I'vejust had a paper published in
Italy in the journalMesopotamia, actually looking at
the dated Kassite texts fromIraq. So having a look at that.
(29:17):
In the volume I edited, I do areview of the Kassite period at
Ur, looking at the physical andtextual evidence. I also give a
little review of the earlierhistory of the Kassites in the
area, because Ur is right at theepicenter of where the Sealand
dynasty came to power and fromthere extended power over the
(29:39):
rest of Iraq. So the Kassiteappearance in Ur is quite
interesting. So I've done that.
I've done a study on the glassaxes I was talking about; the
inscriptions were done, werestudied by a colleague now at
Philadelphia, Grant Frame. Soyou could see the objects and
the inscriptions they bore. Andeye stones. But they're all
(30:01):
available on Academia. Allavailable for free download, and
very, very happy to be incorrespondence with anybody who
wants to find out a little bitmore about the Kassites. It's
easy to get me through Academia.
I'm in correspondence withseveral scholars at the moment
doing doctorates and the likeresearch, always happy to look
at ideas, proposals, papers,comment, and generally support
(30:23):
the study. So, yeah, Academia isprobably the easiest way to get
my research.
Jon Taylor (30:31):
Thank you very much.
Tim Clayden (30:32):
My absolute pleasure. It's a fascinating
area of study. And there's noend of interesting research
topics, things to look at.
There's a lot of unpublishedmaterial. Anybody who's
interested in, I do encourage,go and have a look in the local
museum, talk to the museumsabout it. There's a lot of
material around. It's afascinating period. I get teased
now when I go to conferences: "Ah, it's the Kassite man!" It's (30:52):
undefined
a badge I wear with honour.
Jon Taylor (31:03):
Id also like to thank our patrons
Russell, Enrique Jimenez, JanaMatuszak, Nancy Highcock, Jay C,
Rune Rattenborg, Woodthrush,Elisa Rossberger, Mark Weeden,
Jordi Mon Companys, ThomasBolin, Joan Porter MacIver, John
(31:23):
MacGinnis, Andrew George, YelenaRakic, Michael Katsevman, Mend
Mariwany, Kathryn Topper, ZachRubin, Sabina Franke, Sophus
Helle, Shai Gordin, Aaron Macks,Jonathan Stkl, Maarja Seire,
Jaafar Jotheri, Morgan Hite,Chikako Watanabe, Mark
(31:47):
McElwaine, Heather Baker,Sukanya Ramanujan, Laura
Battini, Jonathan BlanchardSmith, Vanessa Richards, Kliment
Ohr, TT, ChristinaTsouparopoulou, Andwer Senior,
Melanie Gross, as well as thosewho prefer to remain anonymous.
(32:08):
I really appreciate yoursupport. It makes a big
difference. Every penny receivedhas contributed towards
translations. Thanks of courseto the lovely people who have
worked on the translations on avoluntary basis or for well
below the market rate. ForArabic, thanks in particular to
Zainab Mizyidawi, as well asLina Meerchyad and May Al-Aseel.
(32:31):
For Turkish, thank you to PinarDurgun and Nesrin Akan. TEW is
still young, but I want to reacha sustainable level, where
translators are given propercompensation for their hard
work.
And thank you for listening toThin End of the Wedge. If you
enjoy what we do, and you wouldlike to help make these podcasts
(32:54):
available in Middle Easternlanguages, please consider
joining our Patreon family. Youcan find us at
patreon.com/wedgepod. You canalso support us in other ways:
simply subscribe to the podcast;leave us a five star review on
iTunes or your podcatcher ofchoice; recommend us to your
fri (33:15):
@wedge_pod. If you want the latest podcast news, you can
sign up for our newsletter. Youcan find all the links in the
show notes and on our website atwedgepod.org. Thanks, and I hope
youll join us next time.
Welcome to the Thin End of the Wedge, the podcast
where experts from around theworld share new and interesting
stories about life in theancient Middle East. My name is
Jon. Each episode I talk tofriends and colleagues, and get
them to explain their work in away we can all understand.
This episode we meet a foreigndynasty who become the
(00:36):
quintessential Babylonians, andpreside over a golden age. The
early history of the Kassites isstill shrouded in mystery. And
many details of their activitiesremain to be discovered by
future researchers. It's a bitlike studying English history,
without being sure quite howmany Henry's there were, or
(00:58):
which one is involved in aparticular event.
But under the Kassites Babyloniaflourishes. It forms part of the
international network of greatpowers, in regular
correspondence with theEgyptians and the Hittites. It's
a time of huge investment in thetraditional infrastructure of
(01:18):
the country. And under them,learning and literature blossom.
Our guest is an expert in theKassites. He offers us a gentle
introduction to their world andtheir legacy. How do we identify
them? And where can we exploretheir history?
(01:38):
So get yourself a cup of tea,make yourself comfortable, and
let's meet today's guest.
Hello, and welcome to Thin Endof the Wedge. Thank you for
joining us.
Tim Clayden (01:57):
Jonathan, how nice to hear you this morning. Lovely
to see you.
Jon Taylor (02:01):
Can you tell us please
you do?
Tim Clayden (02:06):
My name is Tim Clayden, and I'm a Bursar at one
of the Oxford colleges--GreenTempleton. But I'm also a member
of Wolfson College, Oxford,where I did my doctorate in the
archaeology of the Kassiteperiod in Iraq. So I'm an
independent researcher onKassite culture, history,
(02:27):
anything to do with theKassites.
Jon Taylor (02:29):
The first question then, is who were the Kassite
and what do we know about them
Tim Clayden (02:34):
A great place to start, Jonathan. The Kassites
were not indigenous toBabylonia. We're talking about
ancient Iraq. And they ruledBabylonia for about 300 years
from about 1450 BC to 1154 BCE.
But they had been in Babyloniafor about 300 years prior to
(02:56):
that. But that's another story.
They had their own language,although we know very, very
little about it. We've got theremains of a couple of
dictionaries. Some of them arein the British Museum. And they
give the Akkadian equivalents ofa few words. Akkadian being the
language of ancient Iraq. Andthere's a lot of discussion
(03:17):
about whether the language hasan Indo-European root or not.
But frankly, we know so littleabout it, that it's difficult to
be conclusive. They adopted theBabylonian religion. They had a
few deities of theirown--Shuqamuna and Shumaliya,
but fundamentally they acceptedthe indigenous Babylonian
religion. They arrived in aperiod when there was a bit of a
(03:40):
dark age between the famous OldBabylonian period of the first
half of the second millenniumBCE. And essentially they bridge
the dark age between that andwhen they took over in the late
15th century, early 14thcentury, by which time they were
also present in the Gulf, and uptowards the border with modern
(04:01):
day Iran. So they became one ofthe great kingdoms of the
ancient Near East, equivalent tothe pharaohs over in Egypt,
and--when the Assyrian Empiregrew--to the Assyrian Empire.
They were great traders. But intruth, we don't know an awful
lot about their history. Sadly,those documents have not
survived. We do know they hadbattles with the Assyrians to
(04:25):
the north, and with the Elamitesover in modern Iran, but they
were builders, traders. Theywere good Babylonians, by and
large. It came to an end in the12th century, when the Elamites
from the east finally conqueredthem. But they lived on more or
less, one way or another, foranother 200-300 years. And
(04:45):
indeed, there's traces of them isome of the classical sources
uring the campaigns of Alexandr the Great. So they were around
for a long
Jon Taylor (04:57):
You said they weren't originally from
Babylonia. Where did theKassites come from? And what do
we know about their arrival inBabylonia?
Tim Clayden (05:06):
We don't really know where they come from. But
all the evidence very, verystrongly points to them coming
from the east, somewhere in themountains, to the east of modern
Iraq, and particularly down theDiyala corridor. Some of the
early evidence we have for themcomes in texts from the ancient
side of Nuzi, south of Kirkuk.
And that's in the late 15thcentury where we know they were
(05:31):
settled. But much earlier thanthat, in the reign of
Samsu-iluna in the 18th century,the mid-18th century, they
started appearing in the texts.
And they seem to have integratedinto Old Babylonian society. We
see them in a range ofroles--merchants, bakers, just
generally all over. But theirspecialisation appears to have
(05:54):
been as soldiers, and theyserved as mercenaries. It's a
modern term. But this wasn'tunusual in the Old Babylonian
kingdom. People from a varietyof nationalities--Elamites from
the Sealand, from varioustribes, the Suhu, also served in
detachments, named detachments,in the army of the Babylonian
(06:16):
king.
But they appeared in the reignof Samsu-iluna. We see them
coming up in the texts. Andtheir initial appearances,
they're quite violent. Some ofthe year names--the year names,
which were used to date thetablets, the texts,
administrative texts of the OldBabylonian kingdom--they
recorded the key event in theyear of a king's reign. We see
(06:37):
them appearing in a couple ofthose, and they're quite
violent. So although they doappear to have integrated quite
quickly, aspects of theirarrival were quite violent. But
they mixed into society veryquickly. And they became, as I
say, most prominent--and we aredependent on survival of
texts--they became mostprominent as soldiers serving
(06:58):
the Babylonian king.
There's some evidence that theymay have come in waves in a
couple of tribes. But again,that's still quite early days on
being able to be definitive onthat. But once integrated, they
seem to have adapted themselvesto the life of Old Babylonian
society pretty well. And it'sinteresting their arrival
(07:18):
coincides with collapse ofcontrol of southern Babylonia on
the part of the Old Babyloniankingdom under Samsu-iluna based
in Babylon. Now, it had beenthought at one point that the
Kassites helped precipitatethat, but there's no real
evidence for it. What actuallyhappened in the south is
unclear. Obviously, peoplecarried on living there, but the
(07:42):
control of that area fromBabylon was limited.
And in its place, a new kingdom,the kingdom of the Sealand
Dynasty, which has only reallycome to life in the last 12-15
years with the publication oftablets, and the excavation of a
couple of sites. They seem tohave spread their influence from
the south, getting as far northas the great city of Nippur,
(08:05):
which is sort of halfway upsouthern Iraq. But the Kassites
lingered on. And by the time weget to the 15th century, they
really got into conflict withthe Sealand and eventually took
over. There is some evidencethat immediately after the
collapse of the Old BabylonianEmpire, beginning of the 16th
(08:26):
century, about 1595 BC, verysoon after that--30 or 40 years
later--they started settlingaround, actually now within the
suburbs of modern Baghdad at asite called Tell Muhammad. But
it's still quite unclear justwhere they fit into the story.
There's no real archaeologicaltype fossil, as it were, that we
(08:47):
can point, that points to theKassite arrival. All this
evidence comes from texts. So Ithink it's easiest to say they
came in from the east in the18th century, started
integrating into the OldBabylonian society. And we know
that from the names and theprofessions, they were obviously
specialists as soldiers. Andeventually, in the mid 15th
(09:09):
century BCE, conquered theSealand dynasty and took over
control of Babylonia. Andremained in control for another
300 years.
Jon Taylor (09:20):
So we have this group who arrive in Iraq, and
they rule a great kingdom thatrivals Egypt. But what makes the
Kassites so interesting andimportant to study?
Tim Clayden (09:31):
I think one of the key characteristics of the
Kassite dynasty is that theykept ancient Babylonian
civilisation not just alive, butthey refurbished it. When the
great king Kurigalzu took thethrone round about 1400 BCE. We
don't know exactly when he tookover, but he died something like
(09:52):
1375 BCE. When he took controlof the country, one of the first
things he did was reallyrefurbish many of the temple
complexes in the southern citiesof Babylonia. We recall that
they had probably been ... well,they had no royal patronage.
Royal patronage was important tokeep these buildings alive and
(10:13):
going. The great temples, theyhad no royal patronage for
300-400 years since the reign ofSamsu-iluna. Kurigalzu in what
was obviously a very, verydeliberate political--not just
political as in politics, but ina geopolitical, as an expression
of where he wasruling--statement, rebuilt some
of the temples, the great citiesof Ur, for example, down in the
(10:36):
south, and so on. And herefurbished those temples,
restored the cults, got them allback up and running.
There's a fascinating excavationgoing on at the moment being led
by Iraqi colleagues from theUniversity of Babylon at the
great site of Dilbat, where wesee again, it's a very new,
breaking excavation, evidencefor his rebuilding the great
(11:00):
temple there. So the fact thatthat refurbishment, that repair,
that restoration of ancientBabylonian temples and cultic
practices after 200-300 years,of really not much going on at
all, and if we remember thatthese buildings are all built of
mud brick, and you have to keeprepairing refurbishing and
(11:21):
patching mud brick, because therain simply melts it. 200-300
years of neglect would have seenthese buildings in a pretty
sorry state. Well, he pulledthem back together again.
We also see very early on fromeven before the reign of
Kurigalzu, so in the late 15thcentury, we know that the king
(11:44):
in Babylonia, the Kassite king,was in contact with the pharaoh
in Egypt. Well, that's a longway away from southern Iraq. But
they were on correspondingterms, and called each other
"brother". And that'sfascinating, because what it
suggests is that there's a wholebackstory, as it were, to what
was going on in that part of theancient world, before the
(12:07):
records give us evidence forwhat was really happening. So
the fact that this group ofpeople took control, didn't come
in introducing and imposing newbuildings, new religions, but
pretty much adopted the ancientreligion that had been there for
a millennia. And refurbished andrestored is in itself
(12:29):
interesting, really interesting.
And then they became a greatpower. So when they started off,
it was the Hittites, theEgyptians and the Babylonians.
And then, a little while later,the Assyrians to the north in
northern Iraq, their power grewand they became another part of
the club of great powers, as itwere. At the start of that, the
Babylonians rather objected.
(12:54):
They weren't particularly keenon seeing a new member join that
club. And indeed, north andsouth ancient Iraq remained
enemies throughout the history,so warfare between the two areas
in the Kassite period continued.
They also codified much of theliterature. So they set up
scribal schools, and cuneiformand Akkadian as you know,
(13:17):
Jonathan, it's your field ofexpertise, this is a complex
language. It's a complex script.
It requires an enormous amountof training. And they took on
the inheritance of all theseancient texts, which would have
been physically quiteinteresting how they found them.
All the centres would have beennot quite in ruins. The great
(13:37):
city of Nippur continued, butthey were sufficiently
interested. They went and lookedfor them. And so some of the
great stories that have survivedfrom ancient Iraq were pulled
together and codified in theKassite period. Again, that's
really interesting.
And the fact that it was astable dynasty. It remained
(13:58):
pretty much in place for 300years. There was a short
interregnum in the 13th century,when the Assyrians finally
conquered the Babylonians, theytook their king, the Babylonian
king Kashtiliashu, back toAssyria and there's evidence,
they sort of kept him and hisfamily as sort of honoured
guests, honoured captive guests,in the royal court. And the
(14:22):
Assyrians controlled the highpolitics of Babylonia for
perhaps 20 years, 10-20 years.
But that really is the onlybreak. Otherwise, the dynasty
carried on all the way through.
So for me, it's that thesestrangers who came in in the
18th century, ended up the oneswho restored, codified,
(14:45):
stabilised, made Babyloniagreat. It's just interesting how
that process happened. So that'swhy I would say they're
fascinating--an international,literate power.
Jon Taylor (14:57):
They've also left an important physical legacy,
haven't they?
Tim Clayden (15:01):
They have Jon, and one of the most striking remains
in modern Iraq from the ancientperiod is the city
Kurigalzu--the Kurigalzu who Iwas talking about just now, who
started his reign about 1400 BC.
And it's the city of modern AqarQuf, which is now on the western
outskirts of modern Baghdad,about 20-30 kilometers to the
(15:24):
west. And it was named forKurigalzu, so the ancient name
was Dur Kurigalzu, named afterthe king. And it is the best
remains we have have a zigguratthat survived from ancient Iraq.
The ziggurat still stands about57 meters high. It stands on a
limestone ridge, the whole citystood on a limestone ridge,
(15:48):
which in a plain that would havebeen surrounded by water for
large periods of the year, itwould have been the most
striking sight on the horizon ofa city wall and there's great
ziggurat. It's still one of thehighest points in Iraq, and is
an absolute landmark, was alandmark all the way through to
(16:08):
the early 20th century fortravellers coming across the
desert from Syria.
And there's a whole city there,a massive temple complex, large
palace, and we have evidence forsome of the private housing. So
that is the very, very visibleremains. Our Iraqi colleagues
have been excavating the sitesince about 1942. And it has
(16:31):
been restored, very heavilyrestored most recently and has
been, and let's hope it will beagain one day, a tourist
attraction for visitors fromBaghdad. So that's a very
visible, easily accessibleremain from the Kassite period.
But Kurigalzu who also built inother cities--at Ur, again,
(16:53):
worked on the ziggurat, but hedidn't build a ziggurat. But he
did repair a lot of the templesand the temple structures around
them.
Other kings built in cities likeLarsa and Isin. So it's mainly
temples. Unfortunately, becausethey built in mud brick, they're
not very spectacular looking atthem today. When I take my wife
(17:15):
to these sites, "It looks", shesays, "Well, looks like a lot of
mud hills". And to a certainextent, that's exactly what it
is. But if we try and think ofwhat it would have looked like
when they did rebuild thecities, it would have been very,
very spectacular. So they didall that work. At the moment our
(17:35):
Iraqi colleagues from theUniversity of Babylon are
excavating a fascinating site atDilbat, where they found a
temple that we didn't knowabout, again, refurbished by
king Kurigalzu. So you know, newdiscoveries are coming all the
time. But if you GoogleKassites, the first image you're
(17:55):
bound to come up with 99 timesout of 100 is a photograph of
the ziggurat, Aqar Quf,Dur-Kurigalzu.
Jon Taylor (18:04):
As an archaeologist, what would you expect to find on
a Kassite site, apart from themonumental architecture? Are
there any characteristic objectsthat suggest you found Kassite
levels?
Tim Clayden (18:16):
I am an archaeologist. And what you hope
to find are texts which tell youa bit more about what was going
on. But on the sites that havebeen excavated, you find things
like kudurrus. Now kudurrus arestone monuments, a bit like a
milestone in scale. So perhapshalf a meter, 60-70 centimeters
(18:38):
high and made of stone. So veryrare in Babylonia to find things
made of stone. And they bearinscriptions from the king,
giving a grant of land tosomebody to whom they wanted to
show favour. And these have beenfound a place like Larsa, Ur,
Dur-Kurigalzu, there's quite alot of them around, but very
(19:01):
spectacular and they have symbolof the gods carved on them as
well. So they would beprotecting these grants. So
there's sort of a contractsaying the king gives you this
grant of land, and it's yoursand your descendants forever and
the gods protecting that grantor the terms of the grant. And
then they would have been set upin a temple to give added
(19:21):
protection. So you might belucky finding one of those.
There's a lot of pottery,obviously. And there's a very
distinctive type of pottery fromthe Kassite period, so-called
goblet or flask. It's got a sortof flat foot and then a flute.
And then it narrows at the topto a mouth. We don't know what
(19:42):
was in them, but they're about20 centimeters, 20-30
centimeters, high and they areabsolutely characteristic of the
period. You know you're on aKassite site when you find a
fragment of one of thesegoblets. They're instantly
recognisable.
Some of the other morespectacular things that have
been found are fragments ofglass axes. They were found at
(20:05):
Nippur. And these were axes madeto be put in a temple. They bear
inscriptions, dedicatoryinscriptions of the king. So to
the god Enlil, one of the chiefgods of the Babylonian pantheon,
and one of the chief deitiesworshipped in ancient Nippur.
And they were carved onto axesmade out of glass to make them
(20:29):
look as though they were lapislazuli. It was done in the 13th
14th century BCE. And they'requite big. They're about 20
centimeters long. They have ahaft, so they would have had a
wooden handle in them. And theyare the earliest, largest bit of
inscribed glass that we've gotfrom Babylonia. Chemical
(20:53):
analysis on them has shown thatthey are made of Babylonian,
Iraqi materials. They're notimports. So although glass was
being made in Syria and Egypt atthe time, this is an indigenous
industry. They're rather nice.
And there's also notinfrequently on sites, a form of
dedicatory object calledeyestones.
Jon Taylor (21:15):
You've worked on eye stones, haven't you? What are
they? What is an eye stone?
Tim Clayden (21:20):
They're called eye stones. In fact, they were
called eye stones in ancientBabylonia. And they are pretty
much what the word says. They'reflat disks with a rounded upper
surface, perhaps the size of athumbnail, some a little bit
larger, but more or less on thatscale, with a dark center--the
pupil of the eye--and a whiteouter ring. And they again bear
(21:42):
a dedicatory inscription almostexclusively, from the king to a
deity. So, you know, to the lordEnlil, may he protect the life
of his servant, king Kurigalzu.
And they're pierced. So theywere probably worn as part of
necklaces on the statues ofdeities inside the temple. And
the Kassites, they didn't inventthese; they appear in the Old
(22:05):
Babylonian period as well. Butthey were most popular in this
period, in the period of theKassites.
The next time they show such adegree of popularity is in the
Neo-Babylonian period, many manycenturies later, under the reign
of King Nebuchadnezzar theSecond. But there's a lot of
(22:26):
Kassite eye stones. And they'rerather beautiful things. And
there's a lot of other bits andpieces. But Kassite texts, as I
say, are relatively raresurprisingly. We haven't found
many of the archives that musthave existed. Most of the texts
we have come from the ancientcity of Nippur. But they do
(22:50):
appear at various other sites,including all the way down in
the Gulf, down in Bahrain, andFailaka. So showing that the
Kassite kingdom extended all theway down there, or at least
merchants from the Kassitekingdom got down to into the
Gulf. But unfortunately, thereare not as many Kassite texts as
one would like. But then that'sprobably always the case.
Jon Taylor (23:13):
Where can people go to see Kassite objects like this
now?
Tim Clayden (23:17):
Well, obviously the best place is Baghdad, and I do
hope Iraqi friends are able togo there and see them. But if
you're not lucky enough to go toBaghdad, then the British Museum
in London has a very goodcollection. Particularly of
kudurrus, many of which are nowon public display. So they're
easy to see. But there's otherKassite objects there. The
(23:40):
Vorderasiatisches Museum inBerlin has again a very, very
fine collection, particularlyfrom the site of Babylon. And
many of the objects on displaythere, including a reconstructed
wall relief from the ancientcity of Uruk. And it's one of
the features of the Kassiteperiod that they decorated some
of their temple exteriors withmolded mudbrick depictions of
(24:02):
gods. And the one in theVorderasiatisches Museum there
shows the gods in moldedmudbrick from a temple surround,
as I say, from Uruk. it's maleand female and they're holding
little jugs with flowing watercoming out. It's very beautiful.
It's almost life size. It's veryspectacular. The Louvre of
course in Paris has got a numberof Kassite objects on display.
(24:26):
The Met in New York, and theAshmolean here in Oxford has a
few. There are also quite a lotof objects in the museum in
Istanbul. Because of course,when some of the very earliest
excavations took place in Iraqup until the First World War,
Iraq was part of the OttomanEmpire. So many of the objects
(24:47):
that were excavated before 1914,they ended up in Istanbul and
many of them are on displaythere. So there's quite a range
of places to see them.
Jon Taylor (24:57):
And if that inspires us to learn more, where's a good
place to start with that?
Tim Clayden (25:02):
I think there's perhaps a number of ways,
Jonathan. For easy entry intothe background as it were, the
subject area, the history, thechronology, I would recommend,
there's a couple of books on thehistory of Babylon, which I
would recommend. The first wasby Joan Oates called Babylon,
which is now quite old, but isstill very, very good. And it's
(25:24):
got a chapter on the Kassites,and the Kassite period. And it
just puts it into context. Herdescription of the period is
still very valid. There's also abook that's just come out a few
years ago by Paul-Alain Beaulieufrom Canada. And again, the
history of Babylon. He's got avery good chapter of the Kassite
(25:44):
period. And just this period,Stephanie Dalley, one of our
colleagues here in Oxford haspublished a history of Babylon,
which again, includes a verygood chapter on the Kassite
period. So I think that wouldgive you a very good background
to the subject. You know, how itfits in, and the broad outlines.
If you want to get more involvedin some of the interesting
(26:07):
questions that are developing atthe moment. And I should say, in
the last 10-15 years, there'sbeen a crop of young scholars
coming through doing somefabulous work on the Kassite
period. It's great, really nicefor me to see the generation of
new scholars doing some reallygood work coming through. And
there's two volumes I wouldrecommend that would give you
(26:29):
absolute up to date informationand outline of some of the
current issues. The first is abook called Karduniash:
Babylonia under the Kassites,which was published in 2017. And
that was edited by AlexaBartelmus and Katye Sternitzke.
It's got a collection of paperswhich pretty much covers all the
(26:51):
current issues. And then there'sanother one that appeared last
year, Babylonia under theSealand and Kassite dynasties,
edited by Susanne Paulus andmyself, which brings the whole
thing up to date, even more. Weincluded the Sealand dynasty,
because being totally frank, upuntil 15 years ago, what we
(27:12):
could say about the Sealanddynasty would fit in big letters
on a very small stamp. We nowknow a huge amount more. And
it's giving us a much moreinteresting complex vision of
what was going on in southernIraq in ancient Babylonia in
that period between Samsu-ilunaand the emergence of the
(27:32):
Kassites 300-400 years later.
So those last tworecommendations are very
academic. But I would say veryreadable and come with very good
book lists. Between them, you'vegot pretty much every book,
article, paper that's going onthe Kassites. The first one,
Karduniash, includes a masterfulsummary by the doyen of Kassite
(27:55):
studies, Professor John A.
Brinkman from Chicago. Andanybody wanted to do anything on
Kassite history, Kassite texts,would want to read that.
Another easy way of keeping intouch is through membership of
organizations like the BritishInstitute for the Study of Iraq,
(28:15):
BISI. It's based here in the UK.
Subscriptions are relativelycheap, and especially cheap for
students. And there's an annualjournal, there's talks, there's
a website presence. It happensthat I serve on the council for
BISI at the moment, but I'vebeen a member for many, many
years. And it introduces you tothe community of people studying
(28:36):
the subject. It's ancient andmodern. If you're looking for a
way into the field, into thestudy, into the area, then you
could do a lot worse than joinBISI.
Jon Taylor (28:49):
What about your own work specifically? How can we
follow your ongoing research?
Tim Clayden (28:54):
For those who use it, Academia. All my papers are
loaded up on Academia. And I say"all"; there's about 15 or so,
all about the Kassites. I'vejust had a paper published in
Italy in the journalMesopotamia, actually looking at
the dated Kassite texts fromIraq. So having a look at that.
(29:17):
In the volume I edited, I do areview of the Kassite period at
Ur, looking at the physical andtextual evidence. I also give a
little review of the earlierhistory of the Kassites in the
area, because Ur is right at theepicenter of where the Sealand
dynasty came to power and fromthere extended power over the
(29:39):
rest of Iraq. So the Kassiteappearance in Ur is quite
interesting. So I've done that.
I've done a study on the glassaxes I was talking about; the
inscriptions were done, werestudied by a colleague now at
Philadelphia, Grant Frame. Soyou could see the objects and
the inscriptions they bore. Andeye stones. But they're all
(30:01):
available on Academia. Allavailable for free download, and
very, very happy to be incorrespondence with anybody who
wants to find out a little bitmore about the Kassites. It's
easy to get me through Academia.
I'm in correspondence withseveral scholars at the moment
doing doctorates and the likeresearch, always happy to look
at ideas, proposals, papers,comment, and generally support
(30:23):
the study. So, yeah, Academia isprobably the easiest way to get
my research.
Jon Taylor (30:31):
Thank you very much.
Tim Clayden (30:32):
My absolute pleasure. It's a fascinating
area of study. And there's noend of interesting research
topics, things to look at.
There's a lot of unpublishedmaterial. Anybody who's
interested in, I do encourage,go and have a look in the local
museum, talk to the museumsabout it. There's a lot of
material around. It's afascinating period. I get teased
now when I go to conferences: "Ah, it's the Kassite man!" It's (30:52):
undefined
a badge I wear with honour.
Jon Taylor (31:03):
Id also like to thank our patrons
Russell, Enrique Jimenez, JanaMatuszak, Nancy Highcock, Jay C,
Rune Rattenborg, Woodthrush,Elisa Rossberger, Mark Weeden,
Jordi Mon Companys, ThomasBolin, Joan Porter MacIver, John
(31:23):
MacGinnis, Andrew George, YelenaRakic, Michael Katsevman, Mend
Mariwany, Kathryn Topper, ZachRubin, Sabina Franke, Sophus
Helle, Shai Gordin, Aaron Macks,Jonathan Stkl, Maarja Seire,
Jaafar Jotheri, Morgan Hite,Chikako Watanabe, Mark
(31:47):
McElwaine, Heather Baker,Sukanya Ramanujan, Laura
Battini, Jonathan BlanchardSmith, Vanessa Richards, Kliment
Ohr, TT, ChristinaTsouparopoulou, Andwer Senior,
Melanie Gross, as well as thosewho prefer to remain anonymous.
(32:08):
I really appreciate yoursupport. It makes a big
difference. Every penny receivedhas contributed towards
translations. Thanks of courseto the lovely people who have
worked on the translations on avoluntary basis or for well
below the market rate. ForArabic, thanks in particular to
Zainab Mizyidawi, as well asLina Meerchyad and May Al-Aseel.
(32:31):
For Turkish, thank you to PinarDurgun and Nesrin Akan. TEW is
still young, but I want to reacha sustainable level, where
translators are given propercompensation for their hard
work.
And thank you for listening toThin End of the Wedge. If you
enjoy what we do, and you wouldlike to help make these podcasts
(32:54):
available in Middle Easternlanguages, please consider
joining our Patreon family. Youcan find us at
patreon.com/wedgepod. You canalso support us in other ways:
simply subscribe to the podcast;leave us a five star review on
iTunes or your podcatcher ofchoice; recommend us to your
fri (33:15):
@wedge_pod. If you want the latest podcast news, you can
sign up for our newsletter. Youcan find all the links in the
show notes and on our website atwedgepod.org. Thanks, and I hope
youll join us next time.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.