-
The Sasanian Empire
Podcast
The Sasanian Empire (224–651 AD) represents one of the high points in the history of Iranian civilisation, with Sasanian cultural influence spreading far beyond the territory that it controlled, influencing regions as distant as Western Europe, Eastern Africa, China and India.
Following the defeat of the Parthian Empire (247 BC–224 AD), Ardashir I of the House of Sasan established an...
The Sasanian Empire
-
An introduction to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Podcast
The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe. The Commonwealth had a unique constitution which placed strict controls on monarchical authority. Legislation was administered by a bicameral legislature, with the king bound to comply with the constitutional principles dictated by the Henrician...
An introduction to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
-
The British Templars
Podcast
Dr Steve Tibble unpacks the true history of the Knights Templar, challenging centuries of myth and conspiracy to reveal their real legacy - particularly in Britain. He explores their origins during the Crusades, the evolution of their military and religious roles, and the dramatic events that led to their downfall....
The British Templars
-
Tutankhamun, Howard Carter and the Griffith Institute
Podcast
Tutankhamun (c. 1341 BC – c. 1323 BC), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh who ruled c. 1332 – 1323 BC during the late Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt.
Tutankhamun acceded to the throne around the age of nine following the short reigns of his predecessors Smenkhkare and Neferneferuaten. He married his half-sister Ankhesenpaaten, who was probably the mother of his two infant daughters. During his reign...
Tutankhamun, Howard Carter and the Griffith Institute
-
Technology and Innovation in the Medieval Near East
Podcast
In this podcast Dr Nicholas Morton (Nottingham Trent University) discusses the role the Near East played in the development and transmission of technology and innovation during the medieval period. Dr Morton looks examines the significance of gunpowder, the navigational compass and maritime chart, and also how the changing civilisations of the medieval Near East...
Technology and Innovation in the Medieval Near East
-
Everyday Life in a 17th Century English Village Episode 4
Close-knit Communities?
In this episode, Dr Hailwood investigates what the relationship between villagers might have been like four centuries ago. There can be a tendency to romanticise the ‘close-knit’ communities of a past age, but through a case study of a pub crawl in a Somerset village we come to see that...
Everyday Life in a 17th Century English Village Episode 4
-
Everyday Life in a 17th Century English Village Episode 3
Isolated and Insular?
In this episode, Dr Hailwood (University of Bristol) examines whether rural villages were really as cut off from the outside world as is often assumed. The evidence of court records not only shows that people often travelled quite far as part of their work, but also that surprisingly high levels...
Everyday Life in a 17th Century English Village Episode 3
-
Everyday Life in a 17th Century English Village Episode 2
Working Life
In this episode, Dr Hailwood (University of Bristol) uses witness statements from court records to reconstruct a ‘typical’ working day for 17th century villagers. Contrary to our expectations that men toiled in the fields all day whilst women were occupied with work around the home, the evidence reveals that both...
Everyday Life in a 17th Century English Village Episode 2
-
Everyday Life in a 17th Century English Village Episode 1
‘Hard, Cold, Short?’
In this episode, Dr Hailwood (University of Bristol) asks whether everyday life in English villages 400 years ago was really as uncomfortable and harsh as we generally tend to think. Not everybody died young, and although ‘creature comforts’ were not up to modern standards there is plenty of evidence that...
Everyday Life in a 17th Century English Village Episode 1
-
The Neo-Babylonian Empire (626-539 BC)
Podcast
The Neo-Babylonian Empire or Second Babylonian Empire, historically known as the Chaldean Empire, was the last polity ruled by monarchs native to Mesopotamia. Beginning with the coronation of Nabopolassar as the King of Babylon in 626 BC and being firmly established through the fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 612 BC, the Neo-Babylonian Empire was conquered by Cyrus and the Achaemenid Persian Empire in 539 BC,...
The Neo-Babylonian Empire (626-539 BC)
-
An Introduction to Late Medieval and Renaissance Poland & Lithuania
From the Baltic to the Black Sea
In this podcast, Professor Natalia Nowakowska (University of Oxford) discusses the history of late medieval Poland and Lithuania.
Beginning with the origins of the Polish-Lithuanian Union in 1385, Professor Nowakowska takes us on a journey that will see the Union become one of Europe's largest political and economic powers, ranging from the...
An Introduction to Late Medieval and Renaissance Poland & Lithuania
-
The Baltic Crusades
The Northern Crusades (1147-1410)
In this podcast, Gregory Leighton, provides an introduction to the Baltic Crusades (also known as the Northern Crusades).
The Baltic Crusades were campaigns undertaken by Catholic Christian military orders and kingdoms, primarily against the pagan Baltic, Finnic and West Slavic peoples around the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, and also against Orthodox Christian Slavs.
From the outset, Christian monarchs...
The Baltic Crusades
-
The Spice and Silk routes in the late medieval era
Podcast
The Silk Road was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the East and West.
The spice trade involved historical civilizations in Asia, Northeast Africa and Europe. Spices such as cinnamon, cassia, cardamom, ginger, pepper, nutmeg, star anise, clove, and turmeric were known and used...
The Spice and Silk routes in the late medieval era
-
Women and the Crusades in Europe and the Near East
Podcast
In 2023, Emerita Professor Helen J. Nicholson (Cardiff University), published her book Women and the Crusades. This book surveys women's involvement in medieval crusading between the second half of the eleventh century, when Pope Gregory VII first proposed a penitential military expedition to help the Christians of the East, and 1570,...
Women and the Crusades in Europe and the Near East
-
An Introduction to Cuneiform
Podcast
In this podcast Professor Jacob Dahl of Wolfson College, University of Oxford, provides an introduction to the origins and significance of cuneiform. Cuneiform is the earliest known writing system (dating from c. 3500 BC to c. 100 AD) and represents a transformational turning point in the development of human civilisation.
An...
An Introduction to Cuneiform
-
An Introduction to Early Mesopotamia (4000-2700 BC)
Podcast
Mesopotamia means 'Between the Rivers'. The oldest known occurrence of the name Mesopotamia dates to the 4th century BC, when it was used to designate the area between the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers. Later, the historical region included not only the area of present-day Iraq, but also parts of present-day Iran, Syria and Turkey....
An Introduction to Early Mesopotamia (4000-2700 BC)
-
The Akkadian Empire (2334–2154 BC)
Ancient World History
The Akkadian Empire was the first ancient empire of Mesopotamia after the long-lived civilization of Sumer. It was centred in the city of Akkad and its surrounding region. The empire united Akkadian and Sumerian speakers under one rule. The Akkadian Empire exercised influence across Mesopotamia, the Levant, and Anatolia, sending military expeditions as far south as Dilmun and Magan (modern Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Oman) in the Arabian Peninsula.
The Akkadian...
The Akkadian Empire (2334–2154 BC)
-
The End of the Vietnam War
Podcast
The Vietnam War was one of many conflicts born partly out of the tumultuous global shift of the end of European Empires for which the Second World War had acted as a catalyst. What marked the Vietnam War out from some of the other political changes in the Indo-Chinese and...
The End of the Vietnam War
-
Developments in firearms 1700 to WWI
Podcast
In this podcast Jonathan Ferguson of the Royal Armouries Museum discusses the development of firearms from the musket to the machine gun. This podcast looks at how the firearms developed through conflicts such as the American Revolutionary War, the Naploeonic Wars, The American Civil War and World War I.
Developments in firearms 1700 to WWI
-
Ancient Egypt – The Old Kingdom (2700-2200 BC)
Podcast
This podcast will appeal to anyone who wants to know more about this popular area of history and wants that information from one of the world’s leading academics on the subject.
Most of us have read an article, watched a documentary or visited a museum that has an ancient Egyptian artefact of...
Ancient Egypt – The Old Kingdom (2700-2200 BC)
-
Developments in Indochina after World War II
Podcast
French Indochina, officially known as the Indochinese Union, was a grouping of French colonial territories in Southeast Asia until its demise in 1954. It comprised Cambodia, Laos (from 1899), the Chinese territory of Guangzhouwan (from 1898 until 1945), and the Vietnamese regions of Tonkin in the north, Annam in the centre, and Cochinchina in the south. The capital for most of its history (1902–1945) was Hanoi; Saigon was the capital from...
Developments in Indochina after World War II
-
Vietnam and the Vietnam War (1954-1968)
Podcast
In July 1954, France and the Viet Minh signed the Geneva Peace Accord, which resulted in dividing Vietnam along the 17th parallel into a northern section, under the control of the communists, led by Ho Chi Minh, and a southern section, led by the Catholic anticommunist Ngô Đình Diệm who was backed...
Vietnam and the Vietnam War (1954-1968)
-
The Anarchy (1138-1153)
Podcast
The so-called Anarchy of the twelfth century, that is the conflict between two royal cousins – Empress Matilda, heiress to the English throne, and Stephen, Count of Blois, from 1135-1148 for the rulership of the Anglo-Norman realms – continues to fascinate historians. The term Anarchy, coined by historian Kate Norgate, has...
The Anarchy (1138-1153)
-
The Mongol Empire & the Near East: Consolidation and Division
1258-1353
In this podcast Dr Nicholas Morton of Nottingham Trent University examines how the Mongols consolidated their vast empire, the impact of their domination on the cultures of the conquered, their defeat to the Mamluks at the Battle of Ayn Jalut and how internal disputes led to the division and disintegration of...
The Mongol Empire & the Near East: Consolidation and Division
-
Medieval Sexualities: Richard I and Philip Augustus
Podcast
In this podcast, Dr Gabrielle Storey, discusses sexuality in the medieval world through an examination of the relationship of Richard I of England and Philip Augustus/Philip II of France. To what extent can we apply modern concepts of sexuality to the medieval period?
Medieval Sexualities: Richard I and Philip Augustus
