May 24, 2015
This
potted history of the Middle East in the Bronze Age sets the
background for the episodes that follow. It traces the story of
Canaan as it was uncovered, and then reinterperted, by
archaeologists from the 1930s to the present day. I introduce
William Foxwell Albright, the most influential Middle Eastern
scholar of the 20th century. I also cover the greatest catastrophe
of antiquity, the Bronze Age Collapse, and how scholars construct
chronologies.