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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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?

In this fourth episode of the podcast, we try to show that ancient Egypt was every bit as dynamic as any other region of the world (ancient or modern), with plenty of change over time and a large amount of regional variation. Furthermore, modern research looks beyond the eye-catching treasures and massive monuments to better understand what made ancient Egyptian society tick. Host Josho Brouwers is joined by two Italian researchers who are both writing their PhD theses at Leiden University, Renata Schiavo and Arianna Sacco.

In the episode, Renata references an article by J. Moreno García, "The cursed discipline? The peculiarities of Egyptology at the turn of the twenty-first century", in: W. Carruthers (ed.), Histories of Egyptology: Interdisciplinary Measures (2014), pp. 50-63. The article is available for download on the author's Academia profile.

The team for this episode consists of archaeologists Matthew Lloyd and Josho Brouwers, and ancient historian Roel Konijnendijk. They talk at length about the film: the choices made in fitting the story within a fairly limited running length (a little over three hours for the Director's Cut); the curious mix of Bronze Age and Archaic/Classical elements in set design, props, and costumes for a movie ostensibly set around 1200 BC; the performances, ranging from amazingly hammy to not so great; why more Sean Bean is the best reason to watch the Director's Cut, and more.

Josho Brouwers, Joshua R. Hall, and Roel Konijnendijk are joined by archaeologist Matthew Lloyd and ancient historian Owen Rees. They focus mostly on issues of definition, as well as socio-economic and cultural aspects of the hoplite, rather than tactics, although they do briefly discuss the phalanx.