Fall of Civilizations Podcast
@Fall_of_Civ_Pod
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A history podcast by @PaulMMCooper looking at a different collapsed society each episode. Book coming April 2024:
Joined October 2018
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@elonmusk
Hi Elon, at present the platform is too compromised for me to consider it. It's become a safe haven for hate speech, and meanwhile crypto scammers and bots are paying to be boosted to the top of replies. Everything that once made Twitter special seems to be leaching away.
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@stillgray
Hi Ian, thanks for your concern, but I will probably not take advice on moral culpability from a man who wrote a column called "incel corner" for Milo Yiannopoulos, or advice on hate speech from the author of the following. All the best.
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The statues that walked...
The successful experiment by archaeologists Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo, who managed to "walk" a replica of an easter island statue for more than 100 yards, using only 3 teams of people with ropes.
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🐘🐘 EPISODE 17 IS NOW LIVE 🐘🐘
In this episode, we take a look at one of the most dramatic stories from the ancient world - the rise and fall of the Phoenician empire of Carthage.
Spotify:
YouTube:
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#RuinoftheDay
: Harihar fort in Maharashtra, India.
Built at a height of 3676 ft to watch over mountainous trade routes, Harihar fort is only accessible up a long stretch of rock-cut steps, which reach a peak steepness of 80 degrees.
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In 1982, a Turkish sponge diver Mehmed Mehmed Çakir was diving for sponges off the coast of Uluburun in southwestern Turkey.
He was about 44m deep when he came across a strange clutter of objects, half-buried in the silt & sand.
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#RuinoftheDay
: The Valley of the Mills (Valle dei Mulini) in Sorrento, Italy.
These 13th-century flour mills used to have access to the sea, but construction of a piazza in the 1940s cut it off. They were abandoned, and greenery quickly overtook the whole valley.
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Today, we know that Sahara Desert as a vast sea of sand and salt flats. But up until around 5,000 years ago, this is how it looked.
It was a green landscape of Savannahs, lakes and rivers where early humans lived, hunted and fished.
(📷 )
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#RuinoftheDay
: The abandoned sea fort of Murud-Janjira, built in the 17th century off India's Maharashtrian coast.
Its name actually means "island-island", since it conjoins the Konkani word "morod" with the Arabic "jazeera", both meaning island.
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Finally sitting down to record Episode 14. Looking forward to seeing this one come together!
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Some modern reconstructions of how the lost island city of Tenochtitlan may have looked, before Europeans arrived in Mexico.
(and an early 16th-century European rendition for comparison)
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It's often said that the indigenous people of South America never developed a system of writing.
But this isn't entirely true. In fact, they created a unique and complex system of notation based on the tying of knots, known as quipu, which remain undeciphered to this day.
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🌴🦁EPISODE 13 IS NOW LIVE 🦁🌴
In this episode, we tell the story of the Assyrian Empire.
With ancient poetry, palace carvings and a whole load of lions, discover how the world's largest empire fell into ruin.
Spotify:
YouTube:
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Today I'm announcing the release of Fall of Civilizations TV.
Bringing aerial drone footage, stunning landscapes, maps and satellite images, haunting ruins, and battle reenactments to the screen alongside the usual stories, all in glittering 4K resolution.
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#RuinoftheDay
: Rajgad hill fort in Maharashtra, India.
This fort, "The King of Forts", sits atop a volcanic plug. It was the capital of the Maratha Empire under the rule of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj for 26 years, after which the capital was moved 140km away to the Raigad Fort.
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A thread on some of the most amazing examples of art in the Aztec codices.
These were illustrated books written by the indigenous people of Mexico both before and after contact with Europeans, and contain incredible glimpses into their lives, their memories, and their beliefs.
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Happy new year to all our listeners and viewers. Wishing you a year full of happiness.
And I should have some good news about episode 18 coming soon... ⏳
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#RuinoftheDay
: Timgad, Algeria.
Known as "the Pompeii of North Africa", this Roman-Berber town was founded around 100 AD by Emperor Trajan in the mountains of Algeria.
In the 5th century, the city was sacked by the Vandals before falling into decline.
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🗻⛰️ EPISODE 12 IS NOW LIVE ⛰️🗻
In this episode, we tell the story of the Inca Empire.
With Inca poetry, Quechuan hymns, and Andean instruments, discover how the largest indigenous empire of the Americas fell.
Spotify:
YouTube:
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For centuries, nobody thought much of the grassy mound that rose out of a field on a small farm in Gokstad, Norway.
Local people called it Kongshaugen, or "King's Mound". But most assumed this was just a fanciful piece of local folklore.
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One of the most remarkable journeys to take place in the ancient world was that of the Chinese explorer Gan Ying.
In the first century, he became the first recorded human to travel the whole length of the route known as the Silk Road, and wrote a remarkable account of his trip.
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#RuinoftheDay
: Chand Baori stepwell in Rajasthan, India.
Built in the 9th century by the Pratihara Dynasty to conserve water in the arid landscape, this stepwell is 20m deep & has 3,500 steps.
At the bottom of the well, the air remains 5-6° cooler than at the surface.
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🐘☸ EPISODE 16 IS NOW LIVE! ☸🐉
Looking at the Bagan kingdom of medieval Myanmar, we explore how this society rose and fell, and left thousands of temples behind in the dry flatlands of central Burma.
Soundcloud:
Spotify:
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#RuinoftheDay
: The Gardens of Ninfa, Italy.
Built on the site of a Roman temple to the water nymphs, Ninfa grew into a thriving medieval town of 150 houses.
In 1382, it was sacked during Papal wars, and a malaria outbreak left it a ghost town. It is now a public garden.
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A short thread on Ancient Mayan hieroglyphics.
The only true writing system that developed in the American continent, these were carved into the stones of temples, pyramids & palaces without the help of metal tools.
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🌙✨ EPISODE 11 IS OUT NOW ✨🌙
This episode, we look at the 1000-year epic of the Byzantine Empire. Find out about the Roman Empire that survived - and what happened to finally bring it crashing to the ground.
YouTube:
Spotify:
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☪️🐎 Episode 14 is now live! 🐘🕉️
With recordings of classical Carnatic Music, and readings in Sanskrit, we explore the story of the collapse of the Vijayanagara Empire of South India.
Spotify:
YouTube:
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👑 Episode 7 is now live! 👑
With traditional Malian folksinging, myths & medieval chronicles, we look at the fall of a civilization that has been virtually forgotten by history: West Africa's Songhai Empire.
Spotify:
YouTube:
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#RuinoftheDay
: The Meroe Pyramids, Sudan.
Built by the rulers of the ancient Kushite kingdoms in the south of the Nile Valley known as Nubia, these are the tombs of kings.
So far more than 350 pyramids have been discovered, some dating back to 3000 BC.
(📷 Sorin Furcoi)
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🌓 Episode 8 is now live! 🌔
With myths, proverbs & recreated ancient music, we travel back to the age of the Sumerians, and find out how humanity's first civilization fell.
Spotify:
YouTube:
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#RuinoftheDay
: The River Necropolis of Myra, Turkey.
A system of rock-cut tombs built by the Lycian civilisation as early as the 5th century BCE.
Once a rich land, Lycia was conquered by Alexander & hellenised, its language disappearing from inscriptions & coins by 300 BCE.
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#RuinoftheDay
: Takeda Castle, Japan.
Built by Otagaki Mitsukage in 1441, this castle is known as the "Machu Picchu of Japan".
The castle was abandoned in the 17th century after its final lord, Akamatsu Hirohide, was accused of arson & committed ritual suicide.
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Here are some images of the some of the cities mentioned in the second episode of Fall of Civilizations, destroyed during the Bronze Age Collapse.
First the Hittite city of Hattusha, which the episode opens on. It's currently in modern Turkey.
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#RuinoftheDay
: Nossa Senhora da Graça Fort, Portugal.
One of the finest examples of a bastion fort anywhere in the world, this fortress was never taken in battle. It was used as a military prison in later years, & until recent restoration work had fallen into a ruinous state.
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⛰️🏯Episode 10 is now Live!🏯⛰️
This episode, we look at the first lasting dynasty of imperial China.
With ancient poetry, songs and folk music, we explore the first empire's rise, and its final, dramatic fall.
YouTube:
Spotify:
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🔥Episode 9 is now Live!🔥
With Mexica riddles, songs and poetry, we look back at the age of the Aztecs, and find out what happened when the two sides of the world finally met.
YouTube:
Spotify:
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#RuinoftheDay
: The River Necropolis of Myra, Turkey.
A system of rock-cut tombs built by the Lycian civilisation as early as the 5th century BCE.
Once a rich land, Lycia was conquered by Alexander & hellenised, its language disappearing from inscriptions & coins by 300 BCE.
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I'm excited to announce that Episode 15 has now been released to the public on YouTube.
YouTube:
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𓅟𓃦𓍝𓆙𓃭𓅓 Episode 18 is now live! 𓅓𓃭𓆙𓍝𓃦𓁟
In this episode, we travel to the Nile Valley, and tell the 3,000-year story of one of the most iconic cultures ever produced by humankind: Ancient Egypt.
YouTube:
Spotify:
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🐪🌴EPISODE 15 IS OUT NOW🌴🐪
In this episode, we go to the deserts of Jordan to tell the story of the Nabataeans, the builders of the ancient stone city of Petra.
Spotify:
YouTube:
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Excited to announce that Episode 14 is now available for Patreon subscribers.
General release coming soon!
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The slightly dazed look you get after doing 2 days and a total 10 hours of recording.
This episode is going to be really big, and I can't wait to share it. It's one of my favourite ever subjects!
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#RuinoftheDay
: The world's most impressive ziggurat ruin at Aqar-Quf, just west of Baghdad, Iraq. Built by King Kurigalzu I in the C14th BCE.
Today the ziggurat stands at 52m. The striations are actually layers of reed mat used to hold the structure together & for drainage.
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The temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, from the air.
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The 3,300 year old Uluburun wreck shows how long humans have crossed vast distances, just to meet people in faraway lands & exchange goods.
It reminds us how this human instinct has driven so much of our progress, & also what was lost in the violent collapse of the Bronze Age.
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🚨 THE FIRST TWO EPISODES OF FALL OF CIVILIZATIONS ARE NOW LIVE! 🚨
1. Roman Britain - The Work of Giants Crumbled
2. The Bronze Age Collapse - Mediterranean Apocalypse
Find them here:
Soundcloud:
YouTube:
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An aerial photograph of excavations in the ruins of Ur, taken in 1927.
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#RuinoftheDay
: Rani ki Vav stepwell in Gujarat, India.
Located on the banks of Saraswati River, Rani ki Vav was built as a memorial to the 11th-century King Bhimdev Solanki by his wife.
Stepwells are a form of subterranean reservoir, built in India since the 3rd millennium BC.
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An animation recreating the flooding of the Persian Gulf, as sea levels rose following the end of the Ice Age.
(UC Santa Barbara: )
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The Pyramid of the Moon in Teotihuacan...
Notice how the lines of the pyramid mimic the lines of the Cerro Gordo mountain behind it.
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#RuinoftheDay
: Ciudad Perdida (literally 'Lost City'), Colombia.
This city deep in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains once held 5,000 people, but it was abandoned during the Spanish conquest.
It was only rediscovered in the 1970s, and remains accessible only by foot.
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𓃪𓂀𓀼𓀚 Episode 18 is out now for Patreon subscribers! 𓀀𓁀𓃕𓅋
In this episode, we go to the banks of the Nile to find out how the societies of ancient Egypt rose and fell.
Coming next week for all audiences!
Link:
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#RuinoftheDay
: The Square Tower House in Mesa Verde, Colorado.
Occupied from the 12-13th centuries, this 28ft tall tower is the tallest structure in these pueblo ruins.
It is built from double-coursed stone, & the population of this settlement may have reached several thousand.
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#RuinoftheDay
: The Bhaja Caves in Maharashtra, India.
A group of 22 rock-cut caves dating back to the 2nd century BC. They are the earliest example of chaityas, a kind of shrine containing a domed stupa.
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☸ Episode 16 audio is now live for subscribers: ☸
Looking at the Bagan kingdom of medieval Myanmar, we explore how this society rose and fell, and left thousands of temples behind in the dry flatlands of central Burma.
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Excited to announce that Episode 9 on the Aztecs now has a video accompaniment, in the form of two feature-length documentaries!
Part 1:
Part 2:
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Thanks to everyone for your patience on waiting for the new episode! Should have some exciting news soon...
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EPISODE 17 is now available on video!
With state of the art drone photography, re-enactments and 3D recreations, find out how the empire of Carthage rose and fell.
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🗿 Episode 6 is now live! 🗿
With island folklore, captain's logs and some very special guests from around the world, we look at the so-called mystery of what happened to the people of Easter Island.
Spotify:
YouTube:
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These communities were largely hunter-gatherers, but were increasingly beginning to practise pastoralism, ie. keeping cows and sheep.
They observed the world around them, and created incredible artworks like the so-called Dobous Giraffes (pictured).
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#RuinoftheDay
: The Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan, Mexico.
The city flourished between 100 BC-550 AD, & had great influence over Mayan culture to the south. Its collapse is a mystery, but only buildings of the ruling class were burned, suggesting an internal rebellion.
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In the studio today recording for episode 8!
This episode is around 20,000 words, so it's going to be a long session. But I'm really excited about this one, can't wait to share it.
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#RuinoftheDay
: Hattuša, Turkey.
The ancient capital of the Hittite Empire, the city was destroyed together with the Hittite state itself around 1200 BCE as part of the mysterious "Bronze Age collapse".
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#RuinoftheDay
: The head of a Buddha absorbed into a banyan tree in Ayutthaya, Thailand.
The head was a sculpture in the Wat Mahathat temple, which was abandoned after Ayuttahaya was sacked by the Burmese in the 18th century.
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#RuinoftheDay
: Saryazd Castle, Iran.
Built during the Sassanid Dynasty (the 3th-7th century) out of adobe, Saryazd was once used as a stronghold for the protection of grains, jewellery & other valuables.
There are 480 rooms, in varying states of crumbled ruin.
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Episode 13 is now available as a video on YouTube!
With drone photography from Mosul and Ashur, colourised carvings from ancient Assyria, and 3D recreations of ancient cities, we look at what happened to bring the Assyrian empire crashing down.
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Some of the most influential and beautiful renderings of ancient ruins are those of the 19th-century artist Frederick Catherwood.
Catherwood was known for his remarkably precise and beautiful sketches of the overgrown ruins of the Mayan civilization in Central America.
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#RuinoftheDay
: The Palace of Ardashir Pāpakan, Iran.
Built in 224 CE by King Ardashir I of the Sassanid Empire, it is located 2km north of the ancient city of Gor.
The Sassanid Empire collapsed abruptly over 5 years due to Arab military successes in the 7th century.
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I've been recording over the last two days for Episode 11, which is now finally on its way!
I hope people can bear with me a little if there a slightly more "live performance" feel to this one - the home set-up has taken a while to put together, but it's no sound studio.
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Finally sitting down to record episode 6! It's the longest episode yet at 15,000 words, and it's been the hardest to research by far. Can't wait to share it with you guys!
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Excited to announce the release of the video accompaniment to Episode 11, on the Byzantine Empire.
These will be exclusive to Patreon subscribers for the next week, and released for all on YouTube on Saturday 30th.
Part 1:
Part 2:
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If only this one would stop licking himself at 1,000 decibels right next to me...
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Episode 16 is out now with video!
With drone photography, re-enactments and footage from the Namnaa school of horse archery in Mongolia, find out what happened to turn Myanmar's thriving empire of Bagan into a crumbling series of ruins.
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I'm getting a number of confused emails after supporting the brilliant
@QanonAnonymous
podcast on Patreon.
I don't know why Patreon thought it appropriate to let you all know who I support, but to clear up any confusion, this is not a pro-QAnon show. 🙈🙈
We are critical of the QAnon movement and have covered it for several years. We are not promoters of the conspiracy theory.
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🎺 Episode 5 of Fall of Civilizations is now live! 🎺
With Cambodian epics, carvings, & folklore, we look at what happened to the Khmer Empire, and the collapse of the mega-city of Angkor.
Spotify:
YouTube:
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Further investigation revealed that Çakir had discovered an ancient shipwreck, dating back to the Bronze Age.
Archaeologists put the date of its construction around the year 1,300 BC, making it over 3,300 years old.
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@SandraRugina
Seems to be a confused AI image generator. There aren't any jungles or mountains in the south of Iraq
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Photos of Istanbul in the 1880s, taken towards the end of the 19th century by photography pioneer Guillaume Berggren.
Including the Theodosian Walls, just as Théophile Gautier would have seen them...
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#RuinoftheDay
: Temple of Hatshepsut, Upper Egypt.
Built for the 18th dynasty Pharaoh Hatshepsut, this funerary temple is dedicated to the sun deity Amun.
The architecture of the original temple was considerably altered by misguided reconstruction in the early 20th century.
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☁️☁️Excited to announce the release of the video version of Episode 12, available now to Patreon subscribers! ☁️☁️
Part 1:
Part 2:
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#RuinoftheDay
: The Theatre of Pergamon, Turkey.
Built during the 3rd century to seat 10,000 spectators, & on an unusually steep incline for a Roman theatre, its highest seat is 36m above the stage.
The city was damaged in a 262 earthquake & was sacked by the Goths shortly after
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Interesting suggestion here that some Sumerian cuneiform tablets could have been painted, and may even have been colour-coded.
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In the studio today cooking up Episode 7! Can't wait to share it with you all.
This one is 17,500 words long, and will be the longest episode yet. It will probably be a 4-hour record. 🥺
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#RuinoftheDay
: The Archway of Ctesiphon, Iraq.
The largest unreinforced brick arch in the world, built for the main palace of the Sassanid Empire.
Over 7 centuries of Sassanid rule, Ctesiphon was sacked 3 times by the Romans & was finally depopulated & superceded by Baghdad.
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Blown away by Tom Chandler's 'Visualising Angkor' project, seeking to bring the ancient city back to life using digital animation based on cutting-edge LIDAR data.
Source:
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But it's the range and variety of these goods that really astonished the divers.
The origins of the objects onboard range from northern Europe to Africa, as far west as Sicily and Sardinia, & as far east as Mesopotamia.
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While estimates vary wildly, some believe that this process could have taken only a few hundred years.
Human societies fled the advance of the desert, moving to the coasts. Their populations concentrated there, and they built settled societies that lived in cities.
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Part 1 of the Byzantium Episode is now available to watch on YouTube!
With a traditional Byzantine choir and authentic instruments, as well as state-of-the-art CGI recreations of Constantinople, find out how the Eastern Roman Empire finally fell.
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Also among the cargo were 175 glass ingots of cobalt blue turquoise & lavender, as well as logs of ivory, ostrich eggs, tortoise shells, beads of amber, quartz and gold, arrows and spears, oil lamps, the tusks of elephants and a dozen hippopotamus teeth.
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One of the most exciting aspects of this episode was partnering with the award-winning animation studio Faber Courtial, who designed these 3D images of the city of Carthage in its golden era.
You can see more of their work, including Babylon & Rome here:
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Episode 14 is now available to watch on YouTube!
Using state of the art drone photography and reenactments, find out how the stone city of Vijayanagara collapsed into ruin.
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#RuinoftheDay
: "El Gigante", the largest Easter Island statue ever carved.
This enormous statue, or Moai, is almost twice the size of any other completed on Easter Island. If finished, it would have stood 22m (6-storeys) tall, and would have weighed an estimated 270 tons.
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Here are some images of the ruined places featured in Episode 3 of Fall of Civilizations: The Maya Collapse.
First, the city of Tikal, the largest and most powerful city in the Mayan world for much of the classic period (and one of the cities that held out the longest)
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This era is known as the African Humid Period, and it peaked between 9,000 and 6,000 years ago.
In those days, the landscape of the Sahara would have supported rolling grasslands, lakes and rivers, as well as sparse forests of trees like acacia.
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It was also home to Neolithic human communities.
In fact, rock paintings have been found in the central Sahara that depict abundant animal life, and even people swimming, in places that are today a barren desert.
(📷 Dr. Stefan Kröpelin, Köln University)
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A video version of Episode 14 is now available to watch for Patreon subscribers.
Coming soon to general release on YouTube!
Link:
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From all of this, archaeologists have been able to paint a picture of how trade tied together the kingdoms of the late Bronze Age.
We see from this wreck that a lively exchange of goods took place, and that these societies were in many ways as interconnected as ours today.
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Episode 18 is now available with video!
With state of the art photography, re-enactments and drone footage, follow the longest epic we've covered so far: the story of Egypt.
Coming soon to general release on YouTube!
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