ALPHA · Alpha — these are Hathor's first documentaries, made on our own servers. She is still being trained, and the videos she makes next are expected to be much better and more accurate.

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Crafts and Makers: Babylon

A ten‑minute journey through the bustling workshops of ancient Babylon, revealing how metalworkers, potters, weavers and scribes created the city’s famed luxury goods.

Chapters

0:07 Workshops of Babylon
2:37 Metalworking Mastery
4:04 Weaving and Textiles
5:22 Scribes and Record Keeping

On-screen text

0:07 Workshops of Babylon
0:14 Workshops of Babylon
0:31 Ishtar Gate’s glazed brick reliefs. Historical record · Ishtar Gate, Berlin Museum
0:49 Hammurabi’s law on metalwork quality. Historical record · Code of Hammurabi, Louvre
1:07 Nebuchadnezzar’s tribute to craftsmen. Historical record · Nebuchadnezzar II inscription on Processional Way, British Museum
1:16 Palace ledger lists metalworkers’ wages. Historical record · Babylonian administrative tablet BM 124789, British Museum
1:34 Lost‑wax casting in Babylon. The Institute's interpretation · Copper statue of a deity, Louvre
1:52 Multi‑chamber pottery kilns. Historical record · Excavation report of pottery kilns at Tell al‑Rimah (1995)
2:10 Tablet tracking pottery production. Historical record · Nippur tablet K 1, British Museum
2:28 Temple guilds listed in inventory. Historical record · Marduk temple inventory tablet BM 124789, British Museum
2:37 Metalworking Mastery
2:44 Metalworking Mastery
3:01 Lost‑wax casting in Babylon. The Institute's interpretation · Copper statue of a deity, Louvre
3:19 Maker’s mark on bronze sickle. Historical record · Bronze sickle, Iraq Museum
3:28 Palace ledger lists metalworkers’ wages. Historical record · Babylonian administrative tablet BM 124789, British Museum
3:46 Hammurabi’s law on metalwork quality. Historical record · Code of Hammurabi, Louvre
4:04 Weaving and Textiles
4:11 Weaving and Textiles
4:19 Royal linen with red borders. Historical record · Royal Palace textile fragment, British Museum
4:37 Math problem for cloth measurement. Historical record · YBC 7289, Yale Babylonian Collection
4:55 Temple guilds listed in inventory. Historical record · Marduk temple inventory tablet BM 124789, British Museum
5:13 Multi‑chamber pottery kilns. Historical record · Excavation report of pottery kilns at Tell al‑Rimah (1995)
5:22 Scribes and Record Keeping
5:37 Nebuchadnezzar II credits skilled craftsmen Historical record · Nebuchadnezzar II inscription on Processional Way, British Museum
6:01 Weavers trained with geometry Historical record · YBC 7289, Yale Babylonian Collection
6:26 Pottery shipped down Euphrates The Institute's interpretation · M. Van De Mieroop, Economic Networks in Old Babylonian Period (2005)
6:40 How did they tally taxes?

Sources

Historical record: Ishtar Gate, Berlin Museum · Code of Hammurabi, Louvre · Nebuchadnezzar II inscription on Processional Way, British Museum · Babylonian administrative tablet BM 124789, British Museum · Excavation report of pottery kilns at Tell al‑Rimah (1995) · Nippur tablet K 1, British Museum · Marduk temple inventory tablet BM 124789, British Museum · Bronze sickle, Iraq Museum · Royal Palace textile fragment, British Museum · YBC 7289, Yale Babylonian Collection · VAT 10145, Vatican Library

The Institute's interpretation: Copper statue of a deity, Louvre · J. Charpin, Administration in Ancient Mesopotamia (1999) · M. Van De Mieroop, Economic Networks in Old Babylonian Period (2005)

Sound: synthesized ambient (wind, drone, water) (CC0 — made by SoapBox). Made in 168 s of CPU.

Scenes Hathor has no parts for yet (9) — the next things to make

A scribe writes numbers on a clay tablet while metalworkers sort ingots in a courtyard.
A scribe writes numbers on a clay tablet while metalworkers sort ingots in a courtyard.
Workers carve cuneiform into limestone blocks beside a bustling processional street.
A weaver operates a simple vertical loom, threading dyed yarns into a tight plain weave.
A bustling scribe school courtyard, rows of apprentices copying a hymn on tablets under a senior teacher's watchful eye.
The apprentice's stylus glides over the tablet, candlelight flickering, each sign forming a rhythmic pattern.
A scribe slides a freshly inscribed tablet into a wooden box stamped 'Tax Records', sealing it with a clay impression.
Nightfall on the Processional Way, torches blaze, silhouettes of scribes walking in orderly rows, their tablets glinting.
Extreme close-up of a clay tablet bearing cuneiform numbers and symbols, a tax ledger for barley rations.