This Week in the Ancient Near East

The Opium Trail from Egypt to Persia, or Putting Your Hope in Dope, Ancient Edition

The discovery of opium residues in an Egyptian alabaster jar with the Achaemenid king Xerxes’ name on it has us wondering. How stoned were they in the past? Was that why the jar ended up at Yale? Talk about a legacy admission!

The Case of the Very Different Iron Age Shipwrecks at Dor, or, Underwater Insurance Adjusters, Assemble!

The lagoon off Tel Dor is filled with shipwrecks and wouldn’t you know it, new excavations have turned up three from the Iron Age. Our contestants talk about the finds, changing patterns of Mediterranean trade, and the problem of getting insurance. Iron Age maritime economies? Learn to swim.

A Prehistoric Figurine of Problematic Possibilities, or Or, Mythogram for Mother Goose

The discovery of a teeny tiny figurine at the 12,000 year old site of Nahal En Gev II has us asking uncomfortable questions. Why is the woman carrying the goose on her back? Why does the goose seem pleased about this? Are women and geese separate parts of nature or sort of the same? Wait, what? It’s the Mother Goose mythogram of the millennia!

Dear Judah, This is Not a Bill, Except It Really Is, Signed, Assyria; or, The Iron Age Tax Man Cometh

In Iron Age Jerusalem, finding a tiny bit of a cuneiform tablet is a big deal, since in that town, they use the alphabet. But when the Neo-Assyrian authorities ask, hey, where’s our tax money, they can do it in any script and language they want. So you’d better read the email, otherwise -there- will be a meeting, and you won’t like it.

The Great Nubian Gold Rush (of the Second Millennium BCE?), or, Gold Bugs of the Bronze Age

How much gold was mined in antiquity anyway? A new economic analysis suggests that second millennium BCE Nubia produced hundreds of tons of the stuff, which is way more than anyone ever thought. Mining expeditions were super profitable too. So where’s the archaeological and textual evidence? Screw that, where’s all the gold now dammit?

All I Want for Chanukah is a New Hasmonean Wall in Jerusalem, or, Shameless Holiday Tie In Edition

The discovery in Jerusalem of a big section of the late second century BCE Hasmonean city wall from has us asking the usual questions. Actually the reverse of the usual questions: not who put it up but who took it down, the Hasmoneans themselves or that Herod guy? Which satisfying, text based historical scenario should we choose? With a seasonally appropriate and tasty lightning round!

Does Anybody at Iron Age Arad Really Know What Time It Is? Or, If You Can Write the Weekly Invoices, Can You Write the Bible?

At the 6^th century BCE Arad fortress Judean soldiers waited patiently for resupply every week. But new research shows that a week was really six days, which added up to a 360 day year. This may not have been a problem for military logistics but it certainly made sending birthday cards harder.

To Live and Die at Late Bronze Age Yavne Yam, or, I Dream of a Gini with a Jar Full of Opium

A wealthy Late Bronze Age tomb at Yavne Yam on the coast of Israel has us talking about trade, class, and real estate. How did folks at a pokey little port afford all that stuff, not to mention all the opium? Is this the Southern Levant’s Boca Raton? Come for the wide-ranging discussion of social inequality, stay for shoutouts to the one and only ‘Grandpa’ Al Lewis and the classic hit by Golden Earring, Radar Love!