Fall of Civilizations Podcast

The kids from the Toki School of Music saying hi!

This episode, we were joined by children from the Toki School of Music and Arts on Easter Island, who were kind enough to record some traditional ancestral chants especially for the podcast. <...

One of the fortresses found on Rapa Iti

The  Morongo Uta fortress on Rapa Iti. This is mentioned in the episode as a counterpoint - that when violence occurs on a small island, it is usually easy to spot in the archaeological record...

A digital reconstruction of how Easter Island may have looked when humans first arrived

The closest relative of the tree that once dominated Easter Island

Paschalococos disperta (Rapa Nui palm or Easter Island palm), was the native cocoid palm species of Easter Island. It disappeared from the pollen record circa AD 1650.

It's thought that this ...

Lipo and Hunt's successful experiment to "walk" a Moai

Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo began their archeological work on Easter Island in 2001 expecting to do no more than add details to the standard morality tale of the collapse of the island’s ecology and...

A beautiful example of the Rongo-Rongo script

 This is rongorongo Tablet B, Aruku Kurenga. Two dozen wooden objects bearing rongorongo inscriptions, some heavily weathered, burned, or otherwise damaged, were collected in the late...

A closeup of the largest Moai ever carved, El Gigante

El Gigante is the largest moai ever carved, more than twice the size of the next largest, known as Paro. Experts believe that the islanders would not have been able to move and erect a statue of th...

A map showing the principal sites mentioned in the episode

The Rano Raraku Quarry

Rano Raraku is a volcanic crater formed of consolidated volcanic ash, or tuff, and located on the lower slopes of Terevaka in the Rapa Nui National Park on Easter Island in Chile. It was a quarry f...

Episode 6 of Fall of Civilizations is now live!

As always, I like to give my subscribers the first news of a new episode going live, and I'm so excited to announce that Episode 6 of Fall of Civilizations is now live on SoundCloud. You can go and...

New episode coming in the next few days!

Glad to announce that I've got a new episode coming to you by the end of the week! There's been a lot to organise for this one, involving lots of phone calls across various timezones, but I really ...

Suggestions Thread

I love to hear suggestions and requests from my subscribers.

If there's any civilization large and small that you'd like to see in an episode of Fall of Civilizations, post them here!

How Angkor may have looked in its glory days

I'm absolutely 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.  

Sourc...

Exclusive Subscriber Content

Ta Prohm Temple in Angkor, Cambodia. 

Built by Jayavarman VII in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, the temple's records show that it was home to more than 12,500 people. When ...

24 hours in the life of ancient Angkor, brought back to life in digital animation

This animation was created by Tom Chandler of Monash University, as part of the 'Visualising Angkor' project. 

You can see more about the project here:  2019-05-07 14:50:42 +0000 UTC View Post

Khmer armies marching to war, with generals riding elephants

Carving from the Bayon Temple in Angkor, Cambodia.

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Khmer armies marching to war, with generals riding elephants

Carving from the Bayon Temple in Angkor, Cambodia.

Bas relief carvings at the Bayon temple at Angkor, Cambodia

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. 

An aerial shot to show you the scale of just Angkor Wat alone

In the distance you can see the rectangular outline of the great reservoir of the West Baray, and the dark green square just visible on the right is one corner of Angkor Thom, the Great City built ...

Houses on stilts beside the great lake Tonle Sap, Cambodia

These houses are raised on 10m stilts, since the lake Tonle Sap varies so greatly in its depth when the monsoon rains come. When the lake is full, it reaches right up to the doors.

Reading List for Episode 5

I've had a few requests to post the list of books I drew on for each episode. I thought it would be a nice benefit for my subscribers in case they wanted to go further into the subject covered. So ...

Carving showing Suryavarman VII leading an army against the Viet people

A low relief carving in the Bayon Temple, showing Cham sailors fighting with the Khmer

Buddhist monks in front of the ruins of Angkor Wat

A statue of Jayavarman VII in the Musée Guimet

Map showing the complexity of Angkor's water system

A map of Angkor Wat that combines data from ground-sensing radar with aerial photographs and extensive fieldwork. It shows the intricate complexity of Angkor's water management system that would be...

Image of Angkor Wat from the air

An aerial photo of Angkor Wat, showing the vast scale of the construction. The rectangular reservoir in the top left is the West Baray, at a length of 8km.  The dark green square in the upper ...

Fall of Civilizations Episode 5 is now live!

Excited to announce the release of Episode 5 of Fall of Civilizations! 

As usual, I give my subscribers on Patreon an advance link that allows you to listen to it before it reaches all o...

The Lewis Chessmen, carved from walrus ivory brought to Europe by Vikings

The Lewis chessmen are a group of distinctive 12th-century chess pieces, most of which are carved from walrus ivory. Discovered in 1831 on Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, they may constitute...