Ancient World Magazine

Another year, another episode of the Ancient World Magazine podcast! In this episode, Josho Brouwers is joined by contributing editor Joshua Hall, regular contributor Arianna Sacco, and special guest Silvannen Gerrard to talk about chariots. A chariot is a fast and light vehicle with two spoked wheels, drawn by a team of at least two horses. In this sense, it should not be confused with the heavier two-wheeled carts or with waggons, which have four wheels.

We start with a brief survey of the origins of the chariot, including the Sumerian battle-carts of the third millennium BC. We then turn our attention to the introduction of the chariot proper, its use in the armies of the Bronze Age kingdoms, and how they eventually made way, in the Early Iron Age, to what we refer to as "true" cavalry.

Still, even after the introduction of cavalry, chariots did not immediately fall out of the use. They continued to be used in the armies of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and we also encounter them in a military context on ancient Greek vases. As usual, there are problems of interpretation, but chariots did continue in use on the battlefield for some time. The best late examples are probably the scythed chariots of the Hellenistic era.

It’s been a while, but here’s finally a new episode of the Ancient World Magazine podcast. In this episode, Dr Joshua Hall talks with Dr Ulla Rajala (Stockholm University) about Early Rome, with special reference to a number of books that have recently been published on this topic.

The first of these books is Nicola Terrenato’s The Early Roman Expansion into Italy: Elite Negotiation and Family Agendas (2019). The second is Gabriele Cifani’s The Origins of the Roman Economy: From the Iron Age to the Early Republic in a Mediterranean Perspective (2021). Both books have been published by Cambridge University Press.

The discussion also includes a reference to The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity (2021) by David Graeber and David Wengrow, and in particular to Christopher Smith’s review of the book, which you can read for yourself on his website.

Special guest Dr Helena Meskanen joins the regular team of Matthew Lloyd, Joshua Hall, and Josho Brouwers to talk about museums, including some that are not strictly archaeological. We talk about our favourite museums, relate personal experiences when visiting them, and discuss what the role of archaeological museums should be. We also touch upon open air or “living history” museums.

This episode picks up from where we left off last time by focusing on ancient Greek sculpture of the Classical and Hellenistic periods. Among other things, we devote quite a bit of time to talking about male and female nudity, and what this says about Classical and Hellenistic perceptions of the role of men and women in the ancient Greek world. We also talk about the sculpture of Etruria and Central Italy, and touch upon statuary from Magna Graecia.

The team talk about sculpture in the ancient Greek world. There was a lot of ground to cover so we decided to spread it out across two episodes. In part 1, our focus is on the Bronze Age, Early Iron Age, and Archaic period, so down to ca. 500 BC. Part 2 will be uploaded in the next few days. That episode picks up where we leave off here by examining sculpture of the Classical age and beyond.

Joshua Hall, Matthew Lloyd, and Josho Brouwers talk about sanctuaries in ancient Greece. We define what a "sanctuary" is and what kind of sacred places there in the ancient Greek world. Sanctuaries are the focal point for religion, so we naturally also talk about priests and priestesses, festivals, and sacrifices. Greek plays and athletic competitions were usually organized in honour of the gods. We also talk about the main elements of the typical sanctuary and pay particular attention to the altar, which was also a place of refuge for those fearing for their lives.

In this episode, Joshua Hall and Josho Brouwers are joined by experts Stephanie Craven and Hannah Ringheim to discuss mercenaries in the ancient world. This podcast is dedicated to the memory of Matthew Trundle. His scholarship had a significant impact on our discussion of mercenaries. The introduction and closing are handled by contributing editor Matthew Lloyd.

Joshua Hall, Matthew Lloyd, and Josho Brouwers are joined by special guest Dr Lieve Donnellan of Aarhus University to talk about networks and interconnectivity in the ancient Mediterranean. The discussion is prompted by our reading of Cyprian Broodbank’s monumental work, The Making of the Middle Sea: A History of the Mediterranean from the Beginning to the Emergence of the Classical World, published in 2013 by Thames & Hudson.

This is the first instalment of a series that deals with the history of Carthage. Joshua Hall talks with Josho Brouwers about Phoenicia, the Phoenicians (whoever they might be), and colonization in the Mediterranean during the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age. We also touch upon the differences between territorial states and city-states in the Levant, and how the Phoenician cities interacted with their neighbours.

A key question to ask is who the Phoenicians were. We talk about the problems involved in ascribing a Phoenician "ethnicity", referring to among others Jospehine Quinn's recent book on the Phoenicians, and on the perception of the Phoenicians in Greek and Roman sources.

We've been writing a lot about the Trojan War on Ancient World Magazine and also devoted an earlier episode of the podcast to chat about the 2004-movie Troy. Virgil's Aeneid is a useful topic of discussion, since it connects the world of Greek mythology with that of Roman legend, and also connects myth to history.

Virgil (70–19 BC) consciously modelled the Aeneid after the two Homeric epics, Iliad and Odyssey. The first half of the poem (books 1 through 6) focus on Aeneas' wanderings and are analogous to the Odyssey. The second half (books 7 through 12) focus on Aeneas struggles in Latium and the war against the Rutulians and their allies, with clear allusions to the Iliad.

Virgil's poem is an intricate work of literature, incorporating Greek and Italic myths, legends, and folklore. A key theme of the poem is the tension between pietas (piety) on the one hand, and furor (violence, rage) on the other. More specifically, Virgil asks us whether the end justifies the means. Is human suffering in the short term worth the establishment of peace and order in the long term?