Hour 7 | 480 - 300 BCE
Second Temple Period · Writing of the Bible · Judaism · Abrahamic Religions · Nok Culture · Woodland Period in North America · Adena and Hopewell Cultures · Great Hopewell Road · Classical Period of Ancient Greece · Alexander the Great
Note: We’ve added links throughout the SYNOPSIS which are not our official sources. We’ve linked pictures, maps, encyclopedia entries, etc for you to enjoy if you want to see the things we are discussing, or get a quick reminder of people, time periods, concepts etc (what is an australopithecine again??). For our official sources check out the BOOKS, and OTHER tabs.
This episode will cover from 480 - 300 BCE, this includes the second temple period of Israel, a defining time for Judaism when much of the bible was written. As we travel Southwest over Egypt and the Sahara, we find a major civilization in Nigeria known as the Nok, whose history is baked into terracotta. Spinning the globe, we arrive in the Woodland Period in North America, where the Adena and Hopewell cultures are building intricate earthen-mounds. Back in the Mediterranean Sea, a group of disparate warring city states is hellbent on conquering and enslaving one another. We now call them all simply, Greece. And finally, the story of one famous Greek, who the Greek’s seem to have hated, Alexander the Great.
Second Temple Period · Writing of the Bible
Listen to the prologue to the Canterbury Tales here. It is recognizable as English but only just.
Many stories in the Bible are familiar, Eden, Joseph, Noah’s Arc.
The oldest parts of the Bible are the Song of Deborah and the Song of the Sea.
The Nok
Another description of the Nok with great pictures.
Description of the Nok Terracotta from the Met. First wide spread statuary in west Africa.
Nok sculptures of people - See the classic posture and the perforated eyes: Example, example, example.
One of the articles that references the teaspoon of soil on the Niger vs. ton of soil on the Nile quote.
Woodland Period in North America
Ohio River Basin map, seasonal living. homes of bent samplings. Caves in the region. diet. earliest domesticates. distinction is fake news.
The grave goods of the Adena and Hopewell include pipes, tablets, copper.
Reminder of Poverty Point. (Discussed in episode 3).
Many of the Hopewell earthworks align with the rising and setting of the moon at the solstices or equinoxes.
One set of mounds that has been used as a golf course for 100 years.
Classical Period of Ancient Greece
The Bronze Age Collapse.
The Greek Dark Age.
The Greek Heroic Age.
Are the tales of the Trojan War memories of the Bronze Age Collapse?
Athens and Sparta fought a series of wars called the Peloponnesian Wars .
The Olympics was a way for Greek city-states to compete without all out war.
Plato has his character of Socrates call the Greeks Ants or frogs around the pond.
Euripides, Sophocles, Aristophanes, and Aeschylus. Not to mention Homer and Sappho.
Cleisthenes of Athens, Herodotus, Pythagoras, Euclid, Archimedes shouts Eureka.
Why do so many public buildings in the US look like Greek Temples?
Alexander the Great
A picture of the borders of Alexander’s empire.
A map of the Hellenistic world after the death of Alexander the Great.
Royal Society of Chemistry, “The Chemistry of Pottery”
BC Campus, “Chemical Weathering”
The Bible for Normal People (Podcast Interview), “Richard Elliott Friedman - Who Wrote the Pentateuch.”
Digital Hammurabi (Podcast Interview), “Did Moses Write the Torah? Interview with Dr. Joel Baden.”
Archaeology Magazine, “The Nok of Nigeria.”
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Episodes
- Jan 24, 2023 Hour 1 | 3,300,000 - 4000 BCE
- Jan 23, 2023 Hour 2 | 4000 - 1700 BCE
- Jan 22, 2023 Hour 3 | 1700 - 1200 BCE
- Jan 21, 2023 Hour 4 | 1200 - 800 BCE
- Jan 20, 2023 Hour 5 | 800 - 575 BCE
- Jan 19, 2023 Hour 6 | 575 - 480 BCE
- Jan 18, 2023 Hour 7 | 480 - 300 BCE
- Jan 17, 2023 Hour 8 | 300 - 100 BCE
