Skip to content

Life and Death in Ancient Babylon

October 1, 2026 · 55 min

Show notes

Babylon was one of the greatest cities of the ancient world. But what was life really like for the people who lived there? Behind its magnificent temples and royal palaces lay a city of crowded streets, disease, danger and everyday struggles.


Tristan Hughes is joined by friend of the show and Babylonian extraordinaire Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones to uncover the realities of life in Hammurabi's Babylon. Drawing on the remarkable texts left behind by its people, they explore everything from marriage and childbirth to taverns, rubbish-filled streets and the strange demons believed to haunt the home. What did it mean to walk the streets of Mesopotamia's most famous ancient city?


MORE

The Fall of Babylon

Listen on Apple

Listen on Spotify


The Tower of Babel

Listen on Apple

Listen on Spotify


Presented by Tristan Hughes. Audio editor is Tim Arstall. Producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds

The Ancients is a History Hit podcast.

History Hit is part of Little Dot Studios, a Certified B Corp™


Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week, PLUS early ad-free podcasts and exclusive subscriber-only episodes every fortnight. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

All episodes of The Ancients

Settings

Display

Language

Decides which stations you see first on the home page.

History

Recently played stations and episodes and your latest searches are only stored in this browser.

Notifications

A short notice when a podcast you follow has a new episode. Turn off single podcasts with the bell on their page.

Account

Save favorites – in the app and on the website.

Keyboard shortcuts

/
Open search
Space
Play or pause
← →
In the player: back 15 s, forward 30 s (episodes) · in a row: next tile
↑ ↓
In a row: target within the tile
Home / End
In a row: first or last tile
Esc
Close window or menu
?
This overview
Now playing

Go to station page

Play next

    Add episodes with “Play next” – they play after the current episode.