{"version":"1.0.0","segments":[{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":14.61,"endTime":17.31,"body":"Welcome to the Thin"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":14.61,"endTime":17.31,"body":"End of the Wedge, the podcast"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":17.31,"endTime":20.04,"body":"where experts from around the"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":17.31,"endTime":20.04,"body":"world share new and interesting"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":20.04,"endTime":23.97,"body":"stories about life in the"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":20.04,"endTime":23.97,"body":"ancient Middle East. My name is"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":23.97,"endTime":27.66,"body":"Jon. Each episode I talk to"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":23.97,"endTime":27.66,"body":"friends and colleagues, and get"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":27.66,"endTime":30.87,"body":"them to explain their work in a"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":27.66,"endTime":30.87,"body":"way we can all understand."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":52.35,"endTime":93.06,"body":"To thank the donors, I produce"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":52.35,"endTime":93.06,"body":"short bonus episodes. These"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":93.06,"endTime":96.66,"body":"focus not so much on the guests"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":93.06,"endTime":96.66,"body":"work, but more on the guest"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":96.66,"endTime":101.49,"body":"themself. This episode is the"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":96.66,"endTime":101.49,"body":"first in a series where I share"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":101.49,"endTime":107.25,"body":"excerpts from those bonus"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":101.49,"endTime":107.25,"body":"interviews. My first question is"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":107.25,"endTime":110.19,"body":"always how the guest became"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":107.25,"endTime":110.19,"body":"interested in the ancient Middle"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":110.19,"endTime":116.13,"body":"East. Now, as a new generation"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":110.19,"endTime":116.13,"body":"of students encounters the"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":116.13,"endTime":119.67,"body":"wonder of the ancient Middle"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":116.13,"endTime":119.67,"body":"East, I hope these answers"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":119.73,"endTime":122.31,"body":"provide inspiration and"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":119.73,"endTime":122.31,"body":"encouragement."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":123.36,"endTime":127.05,"body":"So get yourself a cup of tea,"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":123.36,"endTime":127.05,"body":"make yourself comfortable, and"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":127.05,"endTime":128.79,"body":"let's listen to some stories."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":137.22,"endTime":140.94,"body":"It seems that very few of us"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":137.22,"endTime":140.94,"body":"active in the field started with"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":140.94,"endTime":145.05,"body":"childhood dreams to work on the"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":140.94,"endTime":145.05,"body":"ancient Middle East. Many of us"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":145.08,"endTime":149.61,"body":"had never even heard of it. But"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":145.08,"endTime":149.61,"body":"a lot depends on where you grew"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":149.61,"endTime":153.36,"body":"up. Colleagues from the Middle"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":149.61,"endTime":153.36,"body":"East usually have a different"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":153.36,"endTime":157.08,"body":"story to tell. This is Jaafar"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":153.36,"endTime":157.08,"body":"Jotheri."},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":158.5,"endTime":162.25,"body":"It started from"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":158.5,"endTime":162.25,"body":"when I was a child, because I"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":162.25,"endTime":166.84,"body":"was born in Babylon. In the"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":162.25,"endTime":166.84,"body":"nursery or even the primary"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":166.84,"endTime":171.85,"body":"school always we go to Babylon"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":166.84,"endTime":171.85,"body":"for a trip. And then you know,"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":171.85,"endTime":178.27,"body":"we saw the gods of Babylon, and"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":171.85,"endTime":178.27,"body":"the Ishtar Gate, temples. It's"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":178.27,"endTime":179.44,"body":"fascinating actually."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":180.8,"endTime":183.92,"body":"Mge"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":180.8,"endTime":183.92,"body":"Durusu-Tanrver was introduced"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":183.95,"endTime":185.9,"body":"to the ancient Middle East at"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":183.95,"endTime":185.9,"body":"school:"},{"speaker":"Mge Durusu-Tanrver","startTime":187.22,"endTime":189.86,"body":"While I"},{"speaker":"Mge Durusu-Tanrver","startTime":187.22,"endTime":189.86,"body":"live in Turkey, so the homeland"},{"speaker":"Mge Durusu-Tanrver","startTime":189.86,"endTime":193.73,"body":"of the Hittites, if you will,"},{"speaker":"Mge Durusu-Tanrver","startTime":189.86,"endTime":193.73,"body":"our curriculum when I was in,"},{"speaker":"Mge Durusu-Tanrver","startTime":193.94,"endTime":199.16,"body":"like K 12 education did not"},{"speaker":"Mge Durusu-Tanrver","startTime":193.94,"endTime":199.16,"body":"really cover that much beyond"},{"speaker":"Mge Durusu-Tanrver","startTime":199.49,"endTime":204.11,"body":"the Seljuk and the Ottoman"},{"speaker":"Mge Durusu-Tanrver","startTime":199.49,"endTime":204.11,"body":"cultures of Anatolia. We every"},{"speaker":"Mge Durusu-Tanrver","startTime":204.11,"endTime":208.79,"body":"now and then talked briefly"},{"speaker":"Mge Durusu-Tanrver","startTime":204.11,"endTime":208.79,"body":"about the previous people, the"},{"speaker":"Mge Durusu-Tanrver","startTime":208.79,"endTime":212.57,"body":"Lydians who invented money. And"},{"speaker":"Mge Durusu-Tanrver","startTime":208.79,"endTime":212.57,"body":"they would have these like more"},{"speaker":"Mge Durusu-Tanrver","startTime":212.57,"endTime":217.55,"body":"generic titles--the Phrygians"},{"speaker":"Mge Durusu-Tanrver","startTime":212.57,"endTime":217.55,"body":"and King Midas. I remember"},{"speaker":"Mge Durusu-Tanrver","startTime":217.55,"endTime":222.62,"body":"vividly that in 10th grade for"},{"speaker":"Mge Durusu-Tanrver","startTime":217.55,"endTime":222.62,"body":"just a week, we talked about the"},{"speaker":"Mge Durusu-Tanrver","startTime":222.62,"endTime":227.39,"body":"Hittites. And that week was so"},{"speaker":"Mge Durusu-Tanrver","startTime":222.62,"endTime":227.39,"body":"interesting for me that I ended"},{"speaker":"Mge Durusu-Tanrver","startTime":227.39,"endTime":231.74,"body":"up writing my term paper on"},{"speaker":"Mge Durusu-Tanrver","startTime":227.39,"endTime":231.74,"body":"them. And I never forgot the"},{"speaker":"Mge Durusu-Tanrver","startTime":231.74,"endTime":236.12,"body":"strange names that the kings"},{"speaker":"Mge Durusu-Tanrver","startTime":231.74,"endTime":236.12,"body":"have, like Shuppiluliuma, or"},{"speaker":"Mge Durusu-Tanrver","startTime":236.12,"endTime":240.86,"body":"Hattusili or queen Puduhepa. And"},{"speaker":"Mge Durusu-Tanrver","startTime":236.12,"endTime":240.86,"body":"I think I always continued to"},{"speaker":"Mge Durusu-Tanrver","startTime":240.86,"endTime":244.13,"body":"think about them. So that was my"},{"speaker":"Mge Durusu-Tanrver","startTime":240.86,"endTime":244.13,"body":"first encounter with the"},{"speaker":"Mge Durusu-Tanrver","startTime":244.13,"endTime":244.85,"body":"Hittites."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":245.96,"endTime":248.66,"body":"Licia Romano tells a"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":245.96,"endTime":248.66,"body":"similar story:"},{"speaker":"Licia Romano","startTime":249.379,"endTime":254.479,"body":"When I was 11"},{"speaker":"Licia Romano","startTime":249.379,"endTime":254.479,"body":"years old, I started studying at"},{"speaker":"Licia Romano","startTime":254.479,"endTime":259.879,"body":"school ancient Near Eastern art."},{"speaker":"Licia Romano","startTime":254.479,"endTime":259.879,"body":"It was just one or two lessons,"},{"speaker":"Licia Romano","startTime":259.909,"endTime":264.739,"body":"nothing more. But immediately I"},{"speaker":"Licia Romano","startTime":259.909,"endTime":264.739,"body":"fell in love with this so"},{"speaker":"Licia Romano","startTime":264.739,"endTime":271.759,"body":"strange and different cultures."},{"speaker":"Licia Romano","startTime":264.739,"endTime":271.759,"body":"And after that, I planned my ..."},{"speaker":"Licia Romano","startTime":272.509,"endTime":276.949,"body":"my ... my studies in order to"},{"speaker":"Licia Romano","startTime":272.509,"endTime":276.949,"body":"become an archaeologist. So I"},{"speaker":"Licia Romano","startTime":276.949,"endTime":280.579,"body":"had the opportunity to go to the"},{"speaker":"Licia Romano","startTime":276.949,"endTime":280.579,"body":"... what we call in Italian"},{"speaker":"Licia Romano","startTime":280.609,"endTime":285.049,"body":"\"classical high school\" that"},{"speaker":"Licia Romano","startTime":280.609,"endTime":285.049,"body":"includes the study of Latin and"},{"speaker":"Licia Romano","startTime":285.049,"endTime":291.319,"body":"Greek. That was the first step"},{"speaker":"Licia Romano","startTime":285.049,"endTime":291.319,"body":"before choosing the archaeology"},{"speaker":"Licia Romano","startTime":291.319,"endTime":292.549,"body":"at university."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":294.1,"endTime":296.86,"body":"A slightly different"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":294.1,"endTime":296.86,"body":"example of someone with a kind"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":296.86,"endTime":301.63,"body":"of career trajectory you might"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":296.86,"endTime":301.63,"body":"imagine is Ariane Thomas, whose"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":301.63,"endTime":305.56,"body":"story, both then and now,"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":301.63,"endTime":305.56,"body":"features a museum."},{"speaker":"Ariane Thomas","startTime":306.86,"endTime":311.39,"body":"I remember going"},{"speaker":"Ariane Thomas","startTime":306.86,"endTime":311.39,"body":"to the galleries in the Louvre."},{"speaker":"Ariane Thomas","startTime":312.08,"endTime":315.5,"body":"At that time, they were just all"},{"speaker":"Ariane Thomas","startTime":312.08,"endTime":315.5,"body":"new, you know, just after the"},{"speaker":"Ariane Thomas","startTime":315.5,"endTime":321.02,"body":"Grand Louvre reopened. And I"},{"speaker":"Ariane Thomas","startTime":315.5,"endTime":321.02,"body":"remember being extremely amazed"},{"speaker":"Ariane Thomas","startTime":321.02,"endTime":325.07,"body":"by this complete discovery."},{"speaker":"Ariane Thomas","startTime":321.02,"endTime":325.07,"body":"Because at that time too,"},{"speaker":"Ariane Thomas","startTime":325.07,"endTime":330.08,"body":"unfortunately, it wasn't taught"},{"speaker":"Ariane Thomas","startTime":325.07,"endTime":330.08,"body":"at all, at school for children."},{"speaker":"Ariane Thomas","startTime":330.35,"endTime":335.93,"body":"Now, it's a bit more not so"},{"speaker":"Ariane Thomas","startTime":330.35,"endTime":335.93,"body":"much, but at least give a bit of"},{"speaker":"Ariane Thomas","startTime":335.93,"endTime":340.67,"body":"keys. And yes, at least that is"},{"speaker":"Ariane Thomas","startTime":335.93,"endTime":340.67,"body":"how I do remember it was that I"},{"speaker":"Ariane Thomas","startTime":340.67,"endTime":346.58,"body":"was surprised and curious. And"},{"speaker":"Ariane Thomas","startTime":340.67,"endTime":346.58,"body":"then I asked to get the book"},{"speaker":"Ariane Thomas","startTime":347.03,"endTime":353.15,"body":"about Gilgamesh, and then it"},{"speaker":"Ariane Thomas","startTime":347.03,"endTime":353.15,"body":"went on. Because reading it, I"},{"speaker":"Ariane Thomas","startTime":353.15,"endTime":355.58,"body":"thought it was really"},{"speaker":"Ariane Thomas","startTime":353.15,"endTime":355.58,"body":"interesting. And then I read"},{"speaker":"Ariane Thomas","startTime":355.58,"endTime":361.49,"body":"another thing. And then and, and"},{"speaker":"Ariane Thomas","startTime":355.58,"endTime":361.49,"body":"again and again. I never stopped"},{"speaker":"Ariane Thomas","startTime":361.52,"endTime":362.72,"body":"reading books!"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":364.43,"endTime":367.64,"body":"Museums were also"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":364.43,"endTime":367.64,"body":"one source of inspiration for"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":367.64,"endTime":370.67,"body":"Aaron Tugendhaft, although in a"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":367.64,"endTime":370.67,"body":"more subtle way:"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":371.84,"endTime":374.93,"body":"I probably"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":371.84,"endTime":374.93,"body":"first encountered the ancient"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":374.93,"endTime":378.71,"body":"Middle East when I was going to"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":374.93,"endTime":378.71,"body":"the Metropolitan Museum of Art"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":378.71,"endTime":381.32,"body":"as a kid. I lived a couple of"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":378.71,"endTime":381.32,"body":"blocks away, and I would go"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":381.32,"endTime":384.65,"body":"there pretty often. But at the"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":381.32,"endTime":384.65,"body":"same time, I don't remember this"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":384.65,"endTime":388.7,"body":"particularly as the gallery that"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":384.65,"endTime":388.7,"body":"I was most interested in. Really"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":388.7,"endTime":392.72,"body":"what I was fascinated by was how"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":388.7,"endTime":392.72,"body":"the Met brought together so many"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":392.72,"endTime":396.02,"body":"different cultures and how I was"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":392.72,"endTime":396.02,"body":"able to think about that"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":396.02,"endTime":396.71,"body":"variety."},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":397.37,"endTime":402.59,"body":"My family on my mother's side is"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":397.37,"endTime":402.59,"body":"from Iraq. My grandfather was"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":402.59,"endTime":407.15,"body":"born in Baghdad, part of the"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":402.59,"endTime":407.15,"body":"Jewish community there from"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":407.48,"endTime":411.53,"body":"antiquity. But he left once"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":407.48,"endTime":411.53,"body":"things started getting bad for"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":411.53,"endTime":415.22,"body":"Jews in 1941, and eventually"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":411.53,"endTime":415.22,"body":"came to the states with his"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":415.22,"endTime":420.14,"body":"family. He died when I was"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":415.22,"endTime":420.14,"body":"really young. And I remember"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":420.47,"endTime":424.97,"body":"that my parents went down to"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":420.47,"endTime":424.97,"body":"Washington, DC--which is where"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":424.97,"endTime":427.91,"body":"he was living at the time--to"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":424.97,"endTime":427.91,"body":"clean out his apartment. Which"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":427.91,"endTime":433.88,"body":"meant bringing all of his books"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":427.91,"endTime":433.88,"body":"to our house in New York. And"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":433.91,"endTime":437.66,"body":"years later, when I started"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":433.91,"endTime":437.66,"body":"reading, I sort of discovered"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":437.69,"endTime":439.61,"body":"those books. Those were the"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":437.69,"endTime":439.61,"body":"first books that I started"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":439.61,"endTime":444.14,"body":"reading. And they were all about"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":439.61,"endTime":444.14,"body":"the Middle East. Not so much"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":444.14,"endTime":446.33,"body":"about the ancient Middle East,"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":444.14,"endTime":446.33,"body":"though, but about the modern"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":446.36,"endTime":450.02,"body":"Middle East. And so that"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":446.36,"endTime":450.02,"body":"produced some interest."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":451.7,"endTime":455.87,"body":"Chance plays a huge"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":451.7,"endTime":455.87,"body":"role in our journeys. Just about"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":455.87,"endTime":460.25,"body":"the only thing archaeologists or"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":455.87,"endTime":460.25,"body":"assyriologists stumble across"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":460.76,"endTime":466.31,"body":"is the field itself. Here Elisa"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":460.76,"endTime":466.31,"body":"Rossberger tells us how she"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":466.31,"endTime":468.5,"body":"worked out what to do after"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":466.31,"endTime":468.5,"body":"school:"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":470.75,"endTime":473.03,"body":"Becoming an"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":470.75,"endTime":473.03,"body":"archaeologist was not something"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":473.03,"endTime":477.86,"body":"that I always wanted since I was"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":473.03,"endTime":477.86,"body":"a child or so. I didn't know"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":477.86,"endTime":481.82,"body":"what I should do after school. I"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":477.86,"endTime":481.82,"body":"had finished school. I travelled"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":482.06,"endTime":485.78,"body":"extensively through Central"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":482.06,"endTime":485.78,"body":"America for a few months. And"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":485.81,"endTime":489.92,"body":"there I absolutely fell in love"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":485.81,"endTime":489.92,"body":"with Maya ruins and everything"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":489.92,"endTime":494.12,"body":"related with Mayans. And I"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":489.92,"endTime":494.12,"body":"returned back to Germany and I"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":494.15,"endTime":498.56,"body":"knew finally what I wanted to"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":494.15,"endTime":498.56,"body":"study--archaeology. But I had no"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":498.56,"endTime":502.04,"body":"clue which of the different"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":498.56,"endTime":502.04,"body":"fields in archaeology I should"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":502.04,"endTime":505.46,"body":"go to--European prehistory,"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":502.04,"endTime":505.46,"body":"Greek, Roman archaeology,"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":505.49,"endTime":506.39,"body":"Egyptology."},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":507.5,"endTime":511.04,"body":"German universities are rather"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":507.5,"endTime":511.04,"body":"narrow and specialised in regard"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":511.04,"endTime":514.25,"body":"to their subjects, at least back"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":511.04,"endTime":514.25,"body":"in the days when I wanted to"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":514.25,"endTime":519.68,"body":"enroll for my first semester. So"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":514.25,"endTime":519.68,"body":"I asked around, talked to people"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":519.68,"endTime":523.1,"body":"and quickly realized that"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":519.68,"endTime":523.1,"body":"prehistory or classics is not"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":523.1,"endTime":528.2,"body":"really my thing. And then I was"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":523.1,"endTime":528.2,"body":"lucky enough to run in to a Near"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":528.2,"endTime":533.48,"body":"Eastern archaeologist. And I"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":528.2,"endTime":533.48,"body":"figured out that this would be"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":533.48,"endTime":537.44,"body":"the best choice for the more"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":533.48,"endTime":537.44,"body":"adventurous, travel-minded"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":537.44,"endTime":542.72,"body":"people. I started with us in"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":537.44,"endTime":542.72,"body":"archaeology at Munich. And"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":542.75,"endTime":547.4,"body":"during my second semester, I was"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":542.75,"endTime":547.4,"body":"very lucky again, because I"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":547.4,"endTime":550.13,"body":"could join an excavation in"},{"speaker":"Elisa Rossberger","startTime":547.4,"endTime":550.13,"body":"Jordan."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":551.99,"endTime":554.42,"body":"Compare Gojko"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":551.99,"endTime":554.42,"body":"Barjamovics story:"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":555.47,"endTime":557.99,"body":"I was proudly"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":555.47,"endTime":557.99,"body":"serving my country as a"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":558.02,"endTime":562.04,"body":"conscientious objector at the"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":558.02,"endTime":562.04,"body":"National Museum in Copenhagen in"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":562.04,"endTime":566.48,"body":"Denmark. And there I got really"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":562.04,"endTime":566.48,"body":"interested in, I would say,"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":566.48,"endTime":569.84,"body":"ancient history. I had always"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":566.48,"endTime":569.84,"body":"liked history, but there my"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":569.87,"endTime":574.82,"body":"focus was really shifted towards"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":569.87,"endTime":574.82,"body":"the ancient. And why that in"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":574.82,"endTime":577.4,"body":"particular? Because of the"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":574.82,"endTime":577.4,"body":"dearth of sources and this"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":577.4,"endTime":581.0,"body":"conglomeration of evidence that"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":577.4,"endTime":581.0,"body":"you have to put together that I"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":581.0,"endTime":584.42,"body":"described earlier, becomes"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":581.0,"endTime":584.42,"body":"necessary. I found that"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":584.42,"endTime":585.53,"body":"intriguing and interesting."},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":585.86,"endTime":590.06,"body":"Then, honestly {LAUGHS}, you"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":585.86,"endTime":590.06,"body":"know, as one does when one is"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":590.09,"endTime":593.9,"body":"19, I kind of went through the"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":590.09,"endTime":593.9,"body":"catalogue of things that were"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":594.08,"endTime":597.92,"body":"represented at the university."},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":594.08,"endTime":597.92,"body":"And assyriology begins with an"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":597.95,"endTime":602.12,"body":"A. And its way up there. And"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":597.95,"endTime":602.12,"body":"since archaeology doesn't figure"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":602.12,"endTime":604.91,"body":"as an independent discipline in"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":602.12,"endTime":604.91,"body":"the catalogue--it's either Near"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":604.91,"endTime":608.24,"body":"Eastern archaeology of classical"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":604.91,"endTime":608.24,"body":"archaeology--they would all have"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":608.24,"endTime":610.85,"body":"come further down. So I went"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":608.24,"endTime":610.85,"body":"down and I said, Ah,"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":610.85,"endTime":615.14,"body":"Assyriology--sounds good. So I"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":610.85,"endTime":615.14,"body":"put in my application and said"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":615.14,"endTime":618.41,"body":"to myself, Let's try this out."},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":615.14,"endTime":618.41,"body":"And if it turns out that I don't"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":618.41,"endTime":621.5,"body":"like it, I can always shift to,"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":618.41,"endTime":621.5,"body":"you know, history or medieval"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":621.5,"endTime":624.89,"body":"history or something like that."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":624.89,"endTime":628.34,"body":"Shiyanthi Thavapalan"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":624.89,"endTime":628.34,"body":"made a fortunate mistake, and a"},{"speaker":"Shiyanthi Thavapalan","startTime":630.2,"endTime":632.48,"body":"So I was"},{"speaker":"Shiyanthi Thavapalan","startTime":630.2,"endTime":632.48,"body":"an undergraduate at York"},{"speaker":"Shiyanthi Thavapalan","startTime":632.48,"endTime":636.77,"body":"University in Toronto, in"},{"speaker":"Shiyanthi Thavapalan","startTime":632.48,"endTime":636.77,"body":"Canada. And I was in my very"},{"speaker":"Shiyanthi Thavapalan","startTime":636.77,"endTime":640.01,"body":"first semester. And I at that"},{"speaker":"Shiyanthi Thavapalan","startTime":636.77,"endTime":640.01,"body":"time, I was interested in"},{"speaker":"Shiyanthi Thavapalan","startTime":640.01,"endTime":643.82,"body":"philosophy. So I wanted to take"},{"speaker":"Shiyanthi Thavapalan","startTime":640.01,"endTime":643.82,"body":"a class on Asian philosophies."},{"speaker":"Shiyanthi Thavapalan","startTime":644.54,"endTime":648.26,"body":"First week of classes, first"},{"speaker":"Shiyanthi Thavapalan","startTime":644.54,"endTime":648.26,"body":"semester, I found the classroom."},{"speaker":"Shiyanthi Thavapalan","startTime":648.26,"endTime":652.31,"body":"Went and sat down. The lecture"},{"speaker":"Shiyanthi Thavapalan","startTime":648.26,"endTime":652.31,"body":"begins, and it's an introduction"},{"speaker":"Shiyanthi Thavapalan","startTime":652.31,"endTime":657.26,"body":"to the ancient Near East by"},{"speaker":"Shiyanthi Thavapalan","startTime":652.31,"endTime":657.26,"body":"Maynard Maidman. {LAUGHS} And uh"},{"speaker":"Shiyanthi Thavapalan","startTime":657.26,"endTime":661.28,"body":"but I was so petrified, I was"},{"speaker":"Shiyanthi Thavapalan","startTime":657.26,"endTime":661.28,"body":"too scared to leave. So I just,"},{"speaker":"Shiyanthi Thavapalan","startTime":661.64,"endTime":666.08,"body":"I just stayed. I did and it was"},{"speaker":"Shiyanthi Thavapalan","startTime":661.64,"endTime":666.08,"body":"interesting. And I stayed and"},{"speaker":"Shiyanthi Thavapalan","startTime":666.08,"endTime":668.09,"body":"stayed, and stayed and here I"},{"speaker":"Shiyanthi Thavapalan","startTime":666.08,"endTime":668.09,"body":"am."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":670.85,"endTime":673.22,"body":"Fabienne"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":670.85,"endTime":673.22,"body":"Huber-Vuillet had a chance"},{"speaker":"Fabienne Huber-Vuillet","startTime":674.84,"endTime":678.92,"body":"I was at"},{"speaker":"Fabienne Huber-Vuillet","startTime":674.84,"endTime":678.92,"body":"the university and looking for"},{"speaker":"Fabienne Huber-Vuillet","startTime":678.92,"endTime":685.49,"body":"doing some Russian studies,"},{"speaker":"Fabienne Huber-Vuillet","startTime":678.92,"endTime":685.49,"body":"maybe some Middle Ages painting"},{"speaker":"Fabienne Huber-Vuillet","startTime":685.52,"endTime":689.33,"body":"to do with. And then I had the"},{"speaker":"Fabienne Huber-Vuillet","startTime":685.52,"endTime":689.33,"body":"project to go away somewhere in"},{"speaker":"Fabienne Huber-Vuillet","startTime":689.33,"endTime":694.7,"body":"Russia to study painting."},{"speaker":"Fabienne Huber-Vuillet","startTime":689.33,"endTime":694.7,"body":"{LAUGHS} So that was there I"},{"speaker":"Fabienne Huber-Vuillet","startTime":695.12,"endTime":699.89,"body":"encountered Francoise"},{"speaker":"Fabienne Huber-Vuillet","startTime":695.12,"endTime":699.89,"body":"Bruschweiler, which was teaching"},{"speaker":"Fabienne Huber-Vuillet","startTime":699.89,"endTime":705.8,"body":"at this time. And she was all"},{"speaker":"Fabienne Huber-Vuillet","startTime":699.89,"endTime":705.8,"body":"alone in the library. That was"},{"speaker":"Fabienne Huber-Vuillet","startTime":705.8,"endTime":708.95,"body":"the open day for the new"},{"speaker":"Fabienne Huber-Vuillet","startTime":705.8,"endTime":708.95,"body":"students, you know. She was all"},{"speaker":"Fabienne Huber-Vuillet","startTime":708.95,"endTime":713.3,"body":"alone. And I came there and saw"},{"speaker":"Fabienne Huber-Vuillet","startTime":708.95,"endTime":713.3,"body":"her. And had a kind of pity"},{"speaker":"Fabienne Huber-Vuillet","startTime":713.54,"endTime":719.18,"body":"feeling for her. So I sat, and"},{"speaker":"Fabienne Huber-Vuillet","startTime":713.54,"endTime":719.18,"body":"we begin to discuss, and there"},{"speaker":"Fabienne Huber-Vuillet","startTime":719.18,"endTime":719.78,"body":"it is."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":722.12,"endTime":725.15,"body":"As a child, I was"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":722.12,"endTime":725.15,"body":"always really interested in"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":725.15,"endTime":728.36,"body":"history. I would hunt through"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":725.15,"endTime":728.36,"body":"bookshops for whatever I could"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":728.36,"endTime":732.92,"body":"find on the subject. One of"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":728.36,"endTime":732.92,"body":"those books introduced me to the"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":732.92,"endTime":739.31,"body":"Assyrians. It opened a new world"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":732.92,"endTime":739.31,"body":"for me. Other media also play a"},{"speaker":"Paul Collins","startTime":743.0,"endTime":746.27,"body":"I began certainly"},{"speaker":"Paul Collins","startTime":743.0,"endTime":746.27,"body":"as a boy, but I think I probably"},{"speaker":"Paul Collins","startTime":746.3,"endTime":751.25,"body":"started in Egypt, and moved out"},{"speaker":"Paul Collins","startTime":746.3,"endTime":751.25,"body":"from there. And it was very much"},{"speaker":"Paul Collins","startTime":751.55,"endTime":755.21,"body":"what would be described today is"},{"speaker":"Paul Collins","startTime":751.55,"endTime":755.21,"body":"an orientalist approach to the"},{"speaker":"Paul Collins","startTime":755.21,"endTime":758.93,"body":"ancient Middle East, which was"},{"speaker":"Paul Collins","startTime":755.21,"endTime":758.93,"body":"through Hollywood and Sinbad the"},{"speaker":"Paul Collins","startTime":758.93,"endTime":762.74,"body":"Sailor in the Arabian Nights."},{"speaker":"Paul Collins","startTime":758.93,"endTime":762.74,"body":"And it was really only when I"},{"speaker":"Paul Collins","startTime":762.74,"endTime":767.96,"body":"got to university and began to"},{"speaker":"Paul Collins","startTime":762.74,"endTime":767.96,"body":"be taught about the real ancient"},{"speaker":"Paul Collins","startTime":767.96,"endTime":771.47,"body":"Middle East, I began to get a"},{"speaker":"Paul Collins","startTime":767.96,"endTime":771.47,"body":"different appreciation of it."},{"speaker":"Paul Collins","startTime":771.47,"endTime":773.99,"body":"And actually much more"},{"speaker":"Paul Collins","startTime":771.47,"endTime":773.99,"body":"excitement about it."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":776.12,"endTime":779.69,"body":"There is a special"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":776.12,"endTime":779.69,"body":"thrill about seeing and working"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":779.69,"endTime":784.46,"body":"with actual ancient objects and"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":779.69,"endTime":784.46,"body":"places. Laith Hussein describes"},{"speaker":"Laith Hussein","startTime":787.85,"endTime":791.3,"body":"Well, it's a"},{"speaker":"Laith Hussein","startTime":787.85,"endTime":791.3,"body":"lovely story. In the 70s of the"},{"speaker":"Laith Hussein","startTime":791.3,"endTime":795.05,"body":"last century, my father took the"},{"speaker":"Laith Hussein","startTime":791.3,"endTime":795.05,"body":"family for a trip to the"},{"speaker":"Laith Hussein","startTime":795.05,"endTime":799.37,"body":"archaeological site in Babylon."},{"speaker":"Laith Hussein","startTime":795.05,"endTime":799.37,"body":"And I was there, I am a young"},{"speaker":"Laith Hussein","startTime":799.37,"endTime":803.75,"body":"boy, and I wandered around the"},{"speaker":"Laith Hussein","startTime":799.37,"endTime":803.75,"body":"site and looked with a great"},{"speaker":"Laith Hussein","startTime":803.81,"endTime":807.77,"body":"admiration at the bricks sealed"},{"speaker":"Laith Hussein","startTime":803.81,"endTime":807.77,"body":"with the seal of King"},{"speaker":"Laith Hussein","startTime":807.83,"endTime":813.11,"body":"Nebuchadnezzar. And from that"},{"speaker":"Laith Hussein","startTime":807.83,"endTime":813.11,"body":"moment, I grew in my imagination"},{"speaker":"Laith Hussein","startTime":813.11,"endTime":817.67,"body":"to be reader of this interesting"},{"speaker":"Laith Hussein","startTime":813.11,"endTime":817.67,"body":"writing. And I think it is a"},{"speaker":"Laith Hussein","startTime":817.67,"endTime":823.19,"body":"matter of deep love and passion"},{"speaker":"Laith Hussein","startTime":817.67,"endTime":823.19,"body":"for the cuneiform writing. And"},{"speaker":"Laith Hussein","startTime":823.19,"endTime":829.19,"body":"you must admire to be creative"},{"speaker":"Laith Hussein","startTime":823.19,"endTime":829.19,"body":"in this field. I think it's one"},{"speaker":"Laith Hussein","startTime":829.19,"endTime":832.94,"body":"of the important things--you"},{"speaker":"Laith Hussein","startTime":829.19,"endTime":832.94,"body":"must like it, and you can work"},{"speaker":"Laith Hussein","startTime":832.94,"endTime":833.39,"body":"on it."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":835.7,"endTime":838.43,"body":"I always loved"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":835.7,"endTime":838.43,"body":"visiting archaeological sites."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":838.97,"endTime":842.33,"body":"As a young boy, I remember being"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":838.97,"endTime":842.33,"body":"quite impressed with some"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":842.33,"endTime":846.59,"body":"well-preserved Roman toilets."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":842.33,"endTime":846.59,"body":"For me, it made the Romans more"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":846.59,"endTime":851.33,"body":"approachable; it was somehow"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":846.59,"endTime":851.33,"body":"more alive and real than statues"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":851.33,"endTime":856.88,"body":"of emperors. Elynn Gorris"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":851.33,"endTime":856.88,"body":"describes the impact on her of"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":856.88,"endTime":858.41,"body":"travelling the Mediterranean."},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":859.53,"endTime":862.53,"body":"My interest in"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":859.53,"endTime":862.53,"body":"Middle Eastern history goes way"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":862.53,"endTime":866.91,"body":"back. When I was young, I"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":862.53,"endTime":866.91,"body":"traveled with my parents in the"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":866.91,"endTime":871.05,"body":"eastern Mediterranean and"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":866.91,"endTime":871.05,"body":"Northern Africa. And got really"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":871.05,"endTime":875.16,"body":"interested in Middle Eastern"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":871.05,"endTime":875.16,"body":"history in particular. That's"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":875.16,"endTime":879.96,"body":"why I decided to study"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":875.16,"endTime":879.96,"body":"assyriology at university. And"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":879.99,"endTime":885.75,"body":"in my Master's, we had to choose"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":879.99,"endTime":885.75,"body":"one what they call peripheral"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":885.78,"endTime":890.88,"body":"region. So I did some reading"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":885.78,"endTime":890.88,"body":"and research and the Elamite"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":890.88,"endTime":894.54,"body":"civilisation caught my"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":890.88,"endTime":894.54,"body":"attention. As a small kingdom,"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":894.66,"endTime":897.63,"body":"you know, holding its ground"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":894.66,"endTime":897.63,"body":"between the great empires."},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":897.63,"endTime":901.65,"body":"{LAUGHS} Perhaps because of my"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":897.63,"endTime":901.65,"body":"Belgian background, I could"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":901.65,"endTime":907.29,"body":"identify myself with the brave"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":901.65,"endTime":907.29,"body":"little Elamites. {LAUGHS}  But I"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":907.29,"endTime":911.52,"body":"really think their underdog"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":907.29,"endTime":911.52,"body":"position in the history of the"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":911.52,"endTime":916.32,"body":"ancient Near East still keeps me"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":911.52,"endTime":916.32,"body":"interested. Because I'm"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":916.32,"endTime":921.96,"body":"convinced that in order for them"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":916.32,"endTime":921.96,"body":"to survive that long, they must"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":921.96,"endTime":924.45,"body":"have had an incredible"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":921.96,"endTime":924.45,"body":"political, diplomatic and"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":924.45,"endTime":929.46,"body":"military skills of which we are"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":924.45,"endTime":929.46,"body":"presently unaware of, and which"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":929.46,"endTime":933.39,"body":"gives us plenty of hypothesis to"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":929.46,"endTime":933.39,"body":"investigate in the forthcoming"},{"speaker":"Elynn Gorris","startTime":933.39,"endTime":933.93,"body":"years."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":936.54,"endTime":940.95,"body":"Childhood dreams are"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":936.54,"endTime":940.95,"body":"one thing. Making a living is"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":940.95,"endTime":945.36,"body":"quite another. Sooner or later,"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":940.95,"endTime":945.36,"body":"we all have to face the big"},{"speaker":"question","startTime":945.36,"endTime":950.91,"body":"is there a career in"},{"speaker":"question","startTime":945.36,"endTime":950.91,"body":"this? Selim Adali describes his"},{"speaker":"Selim Adali","startTime":952.56,"endTime":954.99,"body":"I lived in Egypt"},{"speaker":"Selim Adali","startTime":952.56,"endTime":954.99,"body":"for three years when I was a"},{"speaker":"Selim Adali","startTime":954.99,"endTime":959.94,"body":"child. And ancient civilization"},{"speaker":"Selim Adali","startTime":954.99,"endTime":959.94,"body":"really struck up on me. What I"},{"speaker":"Selim Adali","startTime":959.94,"endTime":963.48,"body":"thought, however, was that I"},{"speaker":"Selim Adali","startTime":959.94,"endTime":963.48,"body":"could not find a job in ancient"},{"speaker":"Selim Adali","startTime":963.48,"endTime":967.23,"body":"antiquity, like researching"},{"speaker":"Selim Adali","startTime":963.48,"endTime":967.23,"body":"ancient history. So I took"},{"speaker":"Selim Adali","startTime":967.23,"endTime":970.14,"body":"interest in other things, but I"},{"speaker":"Selim Adali","startTime":967.23,"endTime":970.14,"body":"couldn't resist. When I was an"},{"speaker":"Selim Adali","startTime":970.14,"endTime":973.62,"body":"undergrad in international"},{"speaker":"Selim Adali","startTime":970.14,"endTime":973.62,"body":"relations, I even wrote two"},{"speaker":"Selim Adali","startTime":973.62,"endTime":976.26,"body":"historical novels. One about the"},{"speaker":"Selim Adali","startTime":973.62,"endTime":976.26,"body":"Hittites and the other one about"},{"speaker":"Selim Adali","startTime":976.26,"endTime":980.16,"body":"the Sumerians, and so on. And"},{"speaker":"Selim Adali","startTime":976.26,"endTime":980.16,"body":"finally, I couldn't resist. For"},{"speaker":"Selim Adali","startTime":980.16,"endTime":983.94,"body":"postgraduate studies, I started"},{"speaker":"Selim Adali","startTime":980.16,"endTime":983.94,"body":"ancient Near Eastern history."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":985.73,"endTime":988.55,"body":"Xiaoli Ouyang"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":985.73,"endTime":988.55,"body":"originally signed up to study a"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":988.55,"endTime":992.69,"body":"subject with much clearer job"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":988.55,"endTime":992.69,"body":"prospects, before following her"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":994.65,"endTime":999.99,"body":"I went to college"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":994.65,"endTime":999.99,"body":"at Peking University, from 1994"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1000.02,"endTime":1005.87,"body":"to 1998. When I was a junior, I"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1000.02,"endTime":1005.87,"body":"took an introductory course on"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1005.9,"endTime":1012.56,"body":"ancient Mesopotamia, taught by"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1005.9,"endTime":1012.56,"body":"my Master's advisor. And I just"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1012.59,"endTime":1017.12,"body":"became interested in"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1012.59,"endTime":1017.12,"body":"assyriology. Later, when I had"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1017.12,"endTime":1021.68,"body":"the chance to pursue an MA"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1017.12,"endTime":1021.68,"body":"degree, I switched from"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1021.71,"endTime":1024.02,"body":"accounting to assyriology."},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1024.86,"endTime":1030.71,"body":"I think my story, my experience,"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1024.86,"endTime":1030.71,"body":"illustrates quite a bit the"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1030.71,"endTime":1035.24,"body":"profound changes that the"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1030.71,"endTime":1035.24,"body":"Chinese society has experienced"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1035.27,"endTime":1041.87,"body":"in the past few decades. I was"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1035.27,"endTime":1041.87,"body":"born in the late 70s. And I'm"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1041.87,"endTime":1047.33,"body":"the first one in my family to go"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1041.87,"endTime":1047.33,"body":"to college. And when it came to"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1047.33,"endTime":1052.1,"body":"what I should study in college,"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1047.33,"endTime":1052.1,"body":"my parents  I mean of course,"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1052.13,"endTime":1056.96,"body":"after discussing with me, helped"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1052.13,"endTime":1056.96,"body":"me pick the field of accounting,"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1057.41,"endTime":1062.21,"body":"in management school at the"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1057.41,"endTime":1062.21,"body":"Peking University. Because in"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1062.21,"endTime":1066.17,"body":"their opinion, if you do"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1062.21,"endTime":1066.17,"body":"accounting, you can find a job"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1066.83,"endTime":1071.3,"body":"anytime, anywhere in China."},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1066.83,"endTime":1071.3,"body":"{LAUGHS} So they had the"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1071.3,"endTime":1075.74,"body":"financial security on their mind"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1071.3,"endTime":1075.74,"body":"when they thought about my"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1075.74,"endTime":1081.74,"body":"future. But I was always"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1075.74,"endTime":1081.74,"body":"interested in history in high"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1081.74,"endTime":1086.42,"body":"school. So later on, when I had"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1081.74,"endTime":1086.42,"body":"the chance to switch, I just"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1086.42,"endTime":1088.94,"body":"went from accounting to"},{"speaker":"Xiaoli Ouyang","startTime":1086.42,"endTime":1088.94,"body":"assyriology."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1090.62,"endTime":1093.41,"body":"Many of us started"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1090.62,"endTime":1093.41,"body":"out with a different interest,"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1093.5,"endTime":1096.77,"body":"before changing our minds when"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1093.5,"endTime":1096.77,"body":"something even more fascinating"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1096.77,"endTime":1100.46,"body":"came along. Often our first"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1096.77,"endTime":1100.46,"body":"interest was in something"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1100.46,"endTime":1105.02,"body":"closely related, such as"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1100.46,"endTime":1105.02,"body":"Egyptologyas in the case of"},{"speaker":"Strahil Panayotov","startTime":1108.11,"endTime":1111.59,"body":"Yeah, it was"},{"speaker":"Strahil Panayotov","startTime":1108.11,"endTime":1111.59,"body":"not on a certain day for sure."},{"speaker":"Strahil Panayotov","startTime":1112.25,"endTime":1116.66,"body":"It took a while. I started"},{"speaker":"Strahil Panayotov","startTime":1112.25,"endTime":1116.66,"body":"studying Egyptology, first."},{"speaker":"Strahil Panayotov","startTime":1116.96,"endTime":1120.68,"body":"Egyptology and archaeology. I"},{"speaker":"Strahil Panayotov","startTime":1116.96,"endTime":1120.68,"body":"changed different subjects. I"},{"speaker":"Strahil Panayotov","startTime":1120.68,"endTime":1128.3,"body":"kept Egyptology to the end. But"},{"speaker":"Strahil Panayotov","startTime":1120.68,"endTime":1128.3,"body":"then as a second sub-subject, I"},{"speaker":"Strahil Panayotov","startTime":1128.36,"endTime":1133.28,"body":"chose assyriology when I was"},{"speaker":"Strahil Panayotov","startTime":1128.36,"endTime":1133.28,"body":"studying in Heidelberg. And"},{"speaker":"Strahil Panayotov","startTime":1133.28,"endTime":1137.24,"body":"later on, I moved to Canada. And"},{"speaker":"Strahil Panayotov","startTime":1133.28,"endTime":1137.24,"body":"I think there I got really"},{"speaker":"Strahil Panayotov","startTime":1137.24,"endTime":1139.22,"body":"interested in Assyriology."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1140.6,"endTime":1143.54,"body":"Aaron Tugendhaft"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1140.6,"endTime":1143.54,"body":"came from biblical studies:"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":1144.86,"endTime":1147.98,"body":"And I was"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":1144.86,"endTime":1147.98,"body":"doing a PhD in biblical studies,"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":1148.07,"endTime":1151.55,"body":"and not particularly liking"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":1148.07,"endTime":1151.55,"body":"Biblical Studies. To be honest."},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":1152.39,"endTime":1157.01,"body":"I got really interested in just"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":1152.39,"endTime":1157.01,"body":"studying the cultures around the"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":1157.01,"endTime":1160.91,"body":"languages that I was learning,"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":1157.01,"endTime":1160.91,"body":"supposedly, as supplement to the"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":1160.91,"endTime":1166.25,"body":"Bible. So specifically, Akkadian"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":1160.91,"endTime":1166.25,"body":"and Ugaritic. And that's really"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":1166.25,"endTime":1169.55,"body":"what got me into it from a"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":1166.25,"endTime":1169.55,"body":"scholarly perspective, I sort of"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":1169.55,"endTime":1173.12,"body":"abandoned biblical studies for"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":1169.55,"endTime":1173.12,"body":"the most part, and shifted over"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":1173.15,"endTime":1177.23,"body":"to assyriology. And the study of"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":1173.15,"endTime":1177.23,"body":"the history of the ancient Near"},{"speaker":"Aaron Tugendhaft","startTime":1177.23,"endTime":1177.53,"body":"East."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1179.72,"endTime":1183.62,"body":"For Jaafar Jotheri,"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1179.72,"endTime":1183.62,"body":"his interests combined. The"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1183.62,"endTime":1187.1,"body":"history was embedded in the"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1183.62,"endTime":1187.1,"body":"landscape of where he lived:"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1188.51,"endTime":1193.19,"body":"So the question"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1188.51,"endTime":1193.19,"body":"about the past is always in my"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1193.19,"endTime":1198.86,"body":"mind. Anyway, I went to the"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1193.19,"endTime":1198.86,"body":"science. I did geology, but"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1198.89,"endTime":1203.78,"body":"always I'm thinking about the"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1198.89,"endTime":1203.78,"body":"archaeology of Iraq. How did"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1203.9,"endTime":1208.82,"body":"the you know  they invent"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1203.9,"endTime":1208.82,"body":"writing? Why we have like this"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1208.88,"endTime":1214.16,"body":"number of sites. And why we have"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1208.88,"endTime":1214.16,"body":"lots of rich civilizations, I"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1214.16,"endTime":1219.23,"body":"mean, in Iraq. And why we have"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1214.16,"endTime":1219.23,"body":"lots of capitals? We have Ur, we"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1219.23,"endTime":1224.57,"body":"have Nippur, we have Babylon,"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1219.23,"endTime":1224.57,"body":"Baghdad, Samarra, and Kufa. Why"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1224.57,"endTime":1230.03,"body":"Iraq is so rich in these"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1224.57,"endTime":1230.03,"body":"capitals? Why lots of empires"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1230.12,"endTime":1235.67,"body":"made their capitals in Iraq? So"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1230.12,"endTime":1235.67,"body":"this is my question. Even if I"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1235.67,"endTime":1239.09,"body":"went to, let's say, science,"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1235.67,"endTime":1239.09,"body":"because geology is a science"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1239.27,"endTime":1244.16,"body":"here in Iraq. So, the question"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1239.27,"endTime":1244.16,"body":"actually has taken my  in my"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1244.16,"endTime":1249.59,"body":"mind. And then I went to the"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1244.16,"endTime":1249.59,"body":"geomorphology. Because, you"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1249.59,"endTime":1253.55,"body":"know, I live close to the river."},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1249.59,"endTime":1253.55,"body":"Im dealing with the river and"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1253.55,"endTime":1255.92,"body":"the marshes, and the farm every"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1253.55,"endTime":1255.92,"body":"time."},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1256.86,"endTime":1261.69,"body":"And then I switched to"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1256.86,"endTime":1261.69,"body":"geo-archaeology, because I"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1261.72,"endTime":1265.74,"body":"submitted my application and I"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1261.72,"endTime":1265.74,"body":"get a job in the faculty of"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1265.74,"endTime":1269.22,"body":"Archaeology, rather than Faculty"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1265.74,"endTime":1269.22,"body":"of, let's say, Earth Ssciences."},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1270.6,"endTime":1274.59,"body":"And then I met the late Tony"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1270.6,"endTime":1274.59,"body":"Wilkinson. So I became"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1274.62,"endTime":1278.52,"body":"interested in the Near East in a"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1274.62,"endTime":1278.52,"body":"whole, let's say. You know, the"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1278.52,"endTime":1281.28,"body":"irrigation system, of course,"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1278.52,"endTime":1281.28,"body":"connected with, you know, with"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1281.28,"endTime":1284.91,"body":"Syria, with Iran, with southern"},{"speaker":"Jaafar Jotheri","startTime":1281.28,"endTime":1284.91,"body":"Turkey."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1286.39,"endTime":1289.27,"body":"Often our first"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1286.39,"endTime":1289.27,"body":"interest can be something very"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1289.27,"endTime":1292.33,"body":"different though. Heres"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1289.27,"endTime":1292.33,"body":"Reinhard Pirngruber:"},{"speaker":"Reinhard Pirngruber","startTime":1293.59,"endTime":1295.48,"body":"Well, I"},{"speaker":"Reinhard Pirngruber","startTime":1293.59,"endTime":1295.48,"body":"actually stumbled into"},{"speaker":"Reinhard Pirngruber","startTime":1295.48,"endTime":1299.98,"body":"Assyriology. Because when I"},{"speaker":"Reinhard Pirngruber","startTime":1295.48,"endTime":1299.98,"body":"enrolled in university, I"},{"speaker":"Reinhard Pirngruber","startTime":1299.98,"endTime":1305.35,"body":"started with political science"},{"speaker":"Reinhard Pirngruber","startTime":1299.98,"endTime":1305.35,"body":"and history. However, it soon"},{"speaker":"Reinhard Pirngruber","startTime":1305.35,"endTime":1310.06,"body":"became clear to me that I was"},{"speaker":"Reinhard Pirngruber","startTime":1305.35,"endTime":1310.06,"body":"particularly interested in"},{"speaker":"Reinhard Pirngruber","startTime":1310.12,"endTime":1313.0,"body":"ancient history. The older, the"},{"speaker":"Reinhard Pirngruber","startTime":1310.12,"endTime":1313.0,"body":"better."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1315.31,"endTime":1318.34,"body":"Gina Konstantopoulos"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1315.31,"endTime":1318.34,"body":"came from another direction:"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1319.8,"endTime":1321.84,"body":"When I was"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1319.8,"endTime":1321.84,"body":"an undergraduate, I actually"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1321.84,"endTime":1325.71,"body":"studied East Asian history and"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1321.84,"endTime":1325.71,"body":"language. I focused on Japanese"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1325.71,"endTime":1329.67,"body":"and Japanese history. I wrote my"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1325.71,"endTime":1329.67,"body":"undergraduate honours thesis on"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1329.67,"endTime":1334.53,"body":"the kamikaze pilots of World War"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1329.67,"endTime":1334.53,"body":"Two, actually. Which I've had to"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1334.53,"endTime":1338.43,"body":"explain more than a few times"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1334.53,"endTime":1338.43,"body":"when moving about postdoctoral"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1338.43,"endTime":1342.84,"body":"positions. So I was always very"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1338.43,"endTime":1342.84,"body":"much interested in the use of"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1342.84,"endTime":1349.56,"body":"ideas and language, and history"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1342.84,"endTime":1349.56,"body":"as well. After undergraduate, I"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1349.65,"endTime":1352.2,"body":"spent a year in New York,"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1349.65,"endTime":1352.2,"body":"actually, teaching Middle"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1352.2,"endTime":1356.73,"body":"School. Different story. Spent a"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1352.2,"endTime":1356.73,"body":"lot of time in the Met. And"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1356.73,"endTime":1360.15,"body":"consequently spent an enormous"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1356.73,"endTime":1360.15,"body":"amount of time in the Neo"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1360.15,"endTime":1363.12,"body":"Assyrian reliefs of"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1360.15,"endTime":1363.12,"body":"Ashurnasirpal, the second room."},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1363.51,"endTime":1366.36,"body":"And my other big interest had"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1363.51,"endTime":1366.36,"body":"always in the ancient world,"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1366.39,"endTime":1369.84,"body":"particularly the ancient Near"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1366.39,"endTime":1369.84,"body":"East, and its connections with"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1369.84,"endTime":1373.44,"body":"other societies and other"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1369.84,"endTime":1373.44,"body":"cultures. And particularly, you"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1373.44,"endTime":1377.07,"body":"know, ancient religion and"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1373.44,"endTime":1377.07,"body":"ancient ritual--magic and demons"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1377.07,"endTime":1381.87,"body":"in point of fact. And moved"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1377.07,"endTime":1381.87,"body":"increasingly we can say to the"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1381.87,"endTime":1385.71,"body":"west, and back in time until I"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1381.87,"endTime":1385.71,"body":"ended up in Mesopotamia from"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1385.71,"endTime":1389.49,"body":"there. I like to think that I"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1385.71,"endTime":1389.49,"body":"tricked Michigan, which is where"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1389.49,"endTime":1393.27,"body":"I went to graduate school into"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1389.49,"endTime":1393.27,"body":"accepting me, because my writing"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1393.27,"endTime":1397.17,"body":"sample was from my undergraduate"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1393.27,"endTime":1397.17,"body":"honours thesis on the kamikaze"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1397.17,"endTime":1401.46,"body":"pilots to study the ancient Near"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1397.17,"endTime":1401.46,"body":"East. After I graduated, one of"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1401.46,"endTime":1405.24,"body":"my professors finally copped to"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1401.46,"endTime":1405.24,"body":"the fact that they basically got"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1405.24,"endTime":1408.27,"body":"my application and went, Well,"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1405.24,"endTime":1408.27,"body":"this might be interesting. Let's"},{"speaker":"Gina Konstantopoulos","startTime":1408.27,"endTime":1409.44,"body":"see what happens."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1411.27,"endTime":1414.66,"body":"Carlos Goncalves had"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1411.27,"endTime":1414.66,"body":"specialised further, before"},{"speaker":"finding his true passion","startTime":1414.66,"endTime":1416.82,"body":"had"},{"speaker":"finding his true passion","startTime":1414.66,"endTime":1416.82,"body":"specialized further, before"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1417.63,"endTime":1420.09,"body":"It was a"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1417.63,"endTime":1420.09,"body":"surprise for me. Because in my"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1420.09,"endTime":1424.8,"body":"doctoral thesis, I studied Greek"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1420.09,"endTime":1424.8,"body":"mathematics. I translated some"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1424.8,"endTime":1428.37,"body":"chapters of Euclids elements"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1424.8,"endTime":1428.37,"body":"into Portuguese. I never"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1428.37,"endTime":1432.54,"body":"published this translation. I"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1428.37,"endTime":1432.54,"body":"thought it was not really"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1432.6,"endTime":1437.4,"body":"adapted for the public. And I"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1432.6,"endTime":1437.4,"body":"was never really able to decide"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1437.4,"endTime":1438.9,"body":"in which direction to follow."},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1439.14,"endTime":1442.53,"body":"Yet, at that time, I was"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1439.14,"endTime":1442.53,"body":"constantly being invited in my"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1442.53,"endTime":1446.4,"body":"country to give talks on the"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1442.53,"endTime":1446.4,"body":"history of ancient mathematics"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1446.4,"endTime":1451.53,"body":"in general. Then, one of these"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1446.4,"endTime":1451.53,"body":"invitations came asking me to"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1451.56,"endTime":1455.07,"body":"teach a four hour crash course"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1451.56,"endTime":1455.07,"body":"on ancient Mesopotamian"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1455.07,"endTime":1459.51,"body":"mathematics. I took it really"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1455.07,"endTime":1459.51,"body":"seriously and read a lot at that"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1459.51,"endTime":1463.26,"body":"time. The result was I fell in"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1459.51,"endTime":1463.26,"body":"love with the subject and"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1463.26,"endTime":1467.67,"body":"decided to provide myself some"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1463.26,"endTime":1467.67,"body":"sort of training. So I started"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1467.67,"endTime":1473.22,"body":"studying Akkadian all by myself"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1467.67,"endTime":1473.22,"body":"at that moment. And in 2009, I"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1473.22,"endTime":1477.21,"body":"was able to spend some time in"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1473.22,"endTime":1477.21,"body":"Vienna at the Institut fuer"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1477.3,"endTime":1481.02,"body":"Orientalistik of the University"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1477.3,"endTime":1481.02,"body":"of Vienna. Where with the"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1481.02,"endTime":1485.1,"body":"generous guidance and help of"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1481.02,"endTime":1485.1,"body":"Professor Hermman Hunger, I"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1485.1,"endTime":1488.82,"body":"improved a lot and the plan of"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1485.1,"endTime":1488.82,"body":"my book on the Tell Harmal"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1488.85,"endTime":1490.95,"body":"mathematical tablets was"},{"speaker":"Carlos Goncalves","startTime":1488.85,"endTime":1490.95,"body":"conceived."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1492.33,"endTime":1494.79,"body":"Having found the"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1492.33,"endTime":1494.79,"body":"field, there is of course the"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1494.79,"endTime":1499.41,"body":"problem of which part of it to"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1494.79,"endTime":1499.41,"body":"specialise in. Were forced to"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1499.41,"endTime":1503.01,"body":"choose between archaeology and"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1499.41,"endTime":1503.01,"body":"cuneiform studies, for example."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1504.15,"endTime":1510.15,"body":"In my case, I was intrigued, but"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1504.15,"endTime":1510.15,"body":"also daunted, by cuneiform, so"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1510.24,"endTime":1514.53,"body":"veered towards archaeology."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1510.24,"endTime":1514.53,"body":"Eventually, I plucked up enough"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1514.53,"endTime":1518.85,"body":"courage to take the leap of"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1514.53,"endTime":1518.85,"body":"faith. Here's what happened to"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1520.71,"endTime":1523.56,"body":"I was always"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1520.71,"endTime":1523.56,"body":"interested in ancient things,"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1523.68,"endTime":1526.62,"body":"and then decided to become an"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1523.68,"endTime":1526.62,"body":"archaeologist at the age of 12."},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1527.37,"endTime":1530.43,"body":"And I did actually start"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1527.37,"endTime":1530.43,"body":"studying archaeology, but signed"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1530.43,"endTime":1534.75,"body":"up for Akkadian as a minor. And"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1530.43,"endTime":1534.75,"body":"within weeks, I was so hooked by"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1534.75,"endTime":1537.96,"body":"the cuneiform writing system and"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1534.75,"endTime":1537.96,"body":"the beauty of the Akkadian"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1537.96,"endTime":1541.74,"body":"language, that I switched to"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1537.96,"endTime":1541.74,"body":"assyriology. That was even"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1541.74,"endTime":1546.66,"body":"before I started Sumerian, then."},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1541.74,"endTime":1546.66,"body":"I think studying the languages"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1546.66,"endTime":1550.2,"body":"of ancient Iraq matched my"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1546.66,"endTime":1550.2,"body":"general interest in literature"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1550.2,"endTime":1552.57,"body":"more closely, because I like to"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1550.2,"endTime":1552.57,"body":"work with texts."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1553.86,"endTime":1556.23,"body":"This is Ilgi"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1553.86,"endTime":1556.23,"body":"Gercek's story:"},{"speaker":"Ilgi Gercek","startTime":1557.25,"endTime":1559.89,"body":"I studied"},{"speaker":"Ilgi Gercek","startTime":1557.25,"endTime":1559.89,"body":"archaeology as an undergraduate."},{"speaker":"Ilgi Gercek","startTime":1560.19,"endTime":1564.9,"body":"My two interests then were"},{"speaker":"Ilgi Gercek","startTime":1560.19,"endTime":1564.9,"body":"language and the ancient Near"},{"speaker":"Ilgi Gercek","startTime":1564.9,"endTime":1568.53,"body":"East. So my favourite classes"},{"speaker":"Ilgi Gercek","startTime":1564.9,"endTime":1568.53,"body":"were Hittite archaeology,"},{"speaker":"Ilgi Gercek","startTime":1568.53,"endTime":1571.89,"body":"Mesopotamian archaeology, and"},{"speaker":"Ilgi Gercek","startTime":1568.53,"endTime":1571.89,"body":"Latin--which I continue to"},{"speaker":"Ilgi Gercek","startTime":1571.89,"endTime":1576.12,"body":"teach. We didn't have Ancient"},{"speaker":"Ilgi Gercek","startTime":1571.89,"endTime":1576.12,"body":"Near Eastern languages in our"},{"speaker":"Ilgi Gercek","startTime":1576.12,"endTime":1579.81,"body":"curriculum then. So I applied"},{"speaker":"Ilgi Gercek","startTime":1576.12,"endTime":1579.81,"body":"for graduate school, to study"},{"speaker":"Ilgi Gercek","startTime":1579.81,"endTime":1583.32,"body":"Hittite and Mesopotamian"},{"speaker":"Ilgi Gercek","startTime":1579.81,"endTime":1583.32,"body":"language and history. So I"},{"speaker":"Ilgi Gercek","startTime":1583.32,"endTime":1587.31,"body":"discovered my love of the"},{"speaker":"Ilgi Gercek","startTime":1583.32,"endTime":1587.31,"body":"ancient Near East, through"},{"speaker":"Ilgi Gercek","startTime":1587.34,"endTime":1590.88,"body":"archaeology actually.{LAUGHS}"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1590.88,"endTime":1594.45,"body":"HB gives a lovely"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1590.88,"endTime":1594.45,"body":"example of how you can combine"},{"speaker":"Heather Baker","startTime":1597.6,"endTime":1600.06,"body":"Yes, well, this"},{"speaker":"Heather Baker","startTime":1597.6,"endTime":1600.06,"body":"is quite a long story, because I"},{"speaker":"Heather Baker","startTime":1600.06,"endTime":1603.42,"body":"actually first trained as an"},{"speaker":"Heather Baker","startTime":1600.06,"endTime":1603.42,"body":"archaeologist. And after"},{"speaker":"Heather Baker","startTime":1603.42,"endTime":1606.12,"body":"finishing my first degree in"},{"speaker":"Heather Baker","startTime":1603.42,"endTime":1606.12,"body":"archaeology, I worked on"},{"speaker":"Heather Baker","startTime":1606.12,"endTime":1609.99,"body":"excavations for several years,"},{"speaker":"Heather Baker","startTime":1606.12,"endTime":1609.99,"body":"both in the UK and abroad."},{"speaker":"Heather Baker","startTime":1609.99,"endTime":1614.1,"body":"Because I wanted to travel. So I"},{"speaker":"Heather Baker","startTime":1609.99,"endTime":1614.1,"body":"went to work on an excavation in"},{"speaker":"Heather Baker","startTime":1614.1,"endTime":1616.8,"body":"southern Iraq, and I got"},{"speaker":"Heather Baker","startTime":1614.1,"endTime":1616.8,"body":"completely hooked on the"},{"speaker":"Heather Baker","startTime":1616.8,"endTime":1621.51,"body":"archaeology of the region. And"},{"speaker":"Heather Baker","startTime":1616.8,"endTime":1621.51,"body":"so I spent quite a few seasons"},{"speaker":"Heather Baker","startTime":1621.63,"endTime":1625.41,"body":"working on different projects in"},{"speaker":"Heather Baker","startTime":1621.63,"endTime":1625.41,"body":"Iraq. And then I went back to"},{"speaker":"Heather Baker","startTime":1625.41,"endTime":1629.1,"body":"university to study cuneiform."},{"speaker":"Heather Baker","startTime":1625.41,"endTime":1629.1,"body":"And at the very same time,"},{"speaker":"Heather Baker","startTime":1629.13,"endTime":1633.6,"body":"political events made it"},{"speaker":"Heather Baker","startTime":1629.13,"endTime":1633.6,"body":"impossible to return to Iraq. So"},{"speaker":"Heather Baker","startTime":1633.6,"endTime":1636.93,"body":"basically, although I've been"},{"speaker":"Heather Baker","startTime":1633.6,"endTime":1636.93,"body":"studying assyriology ever since,"},{"speaker":"Heather Baker","startTime":1637.26,"endTime":1639.48,"body":"at least working on the"},{"speaker":"Heather Baker","startTime":1637.26,"endTime":1639.48,"body":"Babylonian cities, I've been"},{"speaker":"Heather Baker","startTime":1639.48,"endTime":1643.86,"body":"able to combine study of texts"},{"speaker":"Heather Baker","startTime":1639.48,"endTime":1643.86,"body":"with archaeology. Because the"},{"speaker":"Heather Baker","startTime":1643.86,"endTime":1647.28,"body":"study of urbanism is a subject"},{"speaker":"Heather Baker","startTime":1643.86,"endTime":1647.28,"body":"that is really ideal for"},{"speaker":"Heather Baker","startTime":1647.28,"endTime":1650.49,"body":"combining the two different"},{"speaker":"Heather Baker","startTime":1647.28,"endTime":1650.49,"body":"sources of evidence."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1652.5,"endTime":1655.2,"body":"So what is it the"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1652.5,"endTime":1655.2,"body":"sparks our interest in the"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1655.2,"endTime":1659.43,"body":"ancient Middle East in"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1655.2,"endTime":1659.43,"body":"particular? One attraction, in"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1659.43,"endTime":1663.24,"body":"the early days at least, is just"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1659.43,"endTime":1663.24,"body":"how long ago those cultures"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1663.24,"endTime":1667.95,"body":"lived. Sophus Helle recounts his"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1663.24,"endTime":1667.95,"body":"early fascination:"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1669.12,"endTime":1673.5,"body":"I remember very"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1669.12,"endTime":1673.5,"body":"vividly: I was 18. I was doing"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1673.5,"endTime":1677.34,"body":"my first semester at the"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1673.5,"endTime":1677.34,"body":"University of Copenhagen. And"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1677.49,"endTime":1680.73,"body":"during that first semester, one"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1677.49,"endTime":1680.73,"body":"has to pick between Egyptology,"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1680.76,"endTime":1683.91,"body":"Mesopotamian archaeology,"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1680.76,"endTime":1683.91,"body":"Egyptian archaeology, and"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1683.94,"endTime":1688.26,"body":"Assyriology. And I had just"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1683.94,"endTime":1688.26,"body":"settled on Assyriology, when I"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1688.26,"endTime":1691.29,"body":"was invited to have a"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1688.26,"endTime":1691.29,"body":"conversation with my bank"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1691.32,"endTime":1694.59,"body":"counselor, because I just moved"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1691.32,"endTime":1694.59,"body":"out of my parents apartment, and"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1694.59,"endTime":1699.18,"body":"that's routine. So I went down"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1694.59,"endTime":1699.18,"body":"to the bank. And, you know, they"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1699.18,"endTime":1702.12,"body":"asked various questions to"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1699.18,"endTime":1702.12,"body":"figure out what kind of customer"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1702.12,"endTime":1705.66,"body":"I was going to be. And they"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1702.12,"endTime":1705.66,"body":"asked what I was studying. I"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1705.66,"endTime":1708.3,"body":"said, Well, I've just decided"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1705.66,"endTime":1708.3,"body":"that I want to study"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1709.05,"endTime":1712.44,"body":"Assyriology. And that was the"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1709.05,"endTime":1712.44,"body":"I think, the first--definitely"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1713.58,"endTime":1717.39,"body":"not the last, but the"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1713.58,"endTime":1717.39,"body":"first--time I was asked, in this"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1717.42,"endTime":1722.91,"body":"perplexed tone, Why ever that?"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1717.42,"endTime":1722.91,"body":"{LAUGHS} And I just remember,"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1723.6,"endTime":1728.4,"body":"yeah, as an 18 year old"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1723.6,"endTime":1728.4,"body":"launching on this tirade about"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1728.4,"endTime":1733.41,"body":"how I wanted to get back to the"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1728.4,"endTime":1733.41,"body":"beginning of history, and see"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1733.41,"endTime":1736.38,"body":"what humanity was like in the"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1733.41,"endTime":1736.38,"body":"earliest preserved sources."},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1736.77,"endTime":1740.67,"body":"Of course, now, I think that's"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1736.77,"endTime":1740.67,"body":"silly. I don't think that"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1741.42,"endTime":1744.75,"body":"assyriology can give us the"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1741.42,"endTime":1744.75,"body":"origins of culture or anything"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1744.75,"endTime":1748.86,"body":"like that. I just think that,"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1744.75,"endTime":1748.86,"body":"you know, in my attempt to go as"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1748.86,"endTime":1753.69,"body":"far back in time as I could, I"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1748.86,"endTime":1753.69,"body":"kind of got stuck on Babylonian"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1753.69,"endTime":1757.62,"body":"culture and fell in love with"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1753.69,"endTime":1757.62,"body":"it. I'm not drawn very much to"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1757.62,"endTime":1761.85,"body":"the idea of going as far back as"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1757.62,"endTime":1761.85,"body":"I can anymore, because I've just"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1761.88,"endTime":1763.95,"body":"become fascinated with"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1761.88,"endTime":1763.95,"body":"Babylonian culture and"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1763.95,"endTime":1767.88,"body":"Babylonian poetry. But that was"},{"speaker":"Sophus Helle","startTime":1763.95,"endTime":1767.88,"body":"the instinct that led me there."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1770.55,"endTime":1774.21,"body":"Another attraction"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1770.55,"endTime":1774.21,"body":"is much detail we can find out"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1774.3,"endTime":1777.93,"body":"about the lives of these ancient"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1774.3,"endTime":1777.93,"body":"people, as Dahlia Shehata"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1780.09,"endTime":1782.64,"body":"Well, this"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1780.09,"endTime":1782.64,"body":"happened actually quite early. I"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1782.64,"endTime":1788.01,"body":"was about nine or 10 years old,"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1782.64,"endTime":1788.01,"body":"and I lived back then in Kuwait."},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1788.79,"endTime":1794.64,"body":"And I got interested in  well"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1788.79,"endTime":1794.64,"body":"in the secrets of mankind's"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1794.64,"endTime":1798.78,"body":"first civilisation. And even"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1794.64,"endTime":1798.78,"body":"though I was half Egyptian, and"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1798.81,"endTime":1804.18,"body":"I already knew about Pharaonic"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1798.81,"endTime":1804.18,"body":"times, and all these great"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1804.21,"endTime":1808.32,"body":"pyramids and so on, I still had"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1804.21,"endTime":1808.32,"body":"the feeling that there was more"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1808.41,"endTime":1813.09,"body":"to know about. And there were"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1808.41,"endTime":1813.09,"body":"even older civilisations. And so"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1813.09,"endTime":1816.0,"body":"I came and discovered the"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1813.09,"endTime":1816.0,"body":"ancient Near East, and"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1816.0,"endTime":1820.41,"body":"especially Mesopotamia. And then"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1816.0,"endTime":1820.41,"body":"I realised that this must be the"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1820.41,"endTime":1825.33,"body":"real cradle of civilisation. And"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1820.41,"endTime":1825.33,"body":"then I gained interest in"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1825.33,"endTime":1829.29,"body":"studying this area and these"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1825.33,"endTime":1829.29,"body":"early civilisations of Iraq and"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1829.29,"endTime":1829.71,"body":"Syria."},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1830.4,"endTime":1833.22,"body":"But of course, in the beginning,"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1830.4,"endTime":1833.22,"body":"I always wanted to become an"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1833.22,"endTime":1837.78,"body":"archaeologist and to dig in"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1833.22,"endTime":1837.78,"body":"ancient Iraq or Syria. But then"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1837.78,"endTime":1841.95,"body":"later, when I started to study"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1837.78,"endTime":1841.95,"body":"at the University of Hamburg, I"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1841.95,"endTime":1845.4,"body":"realised that learning the"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1841.95,"endTime":1845.4,"body":"languages might be even more"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1845.4,"endTime":1850.08,"body":"exciting, because then you get"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1845.4,"endTime":1850.08,"body":"to know about the people and the"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1850.08,"endTime":1855.18,"body":"culture in more detail. And this"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1850.08,"endTime":1855.18,"body":"is something I really liked a"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1855.18,"endTime":1859.23,"body":"lot. During my study, I read a"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1855.18,"endTime":1859.23,"body":"lot of texts, and I read"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1859.23,"endTime":1864.63,"body":"letters. And it was fascinating"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1859.23,"endTime":1864.63,"body":"to read about these people with"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1864.63,"endTime":1868.17,"body":"their names, you know, to hear"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1864.63,"endTime":1868.17,"body":"that there was a mother, and"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1868.17,"endTime":1872.19,"body":"here was some person or some"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1868.17,"endTime":1872.19,"body":"husband taking care of his wife,"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1872.19,"endTime":1874.74,"body":"or whatever, you know. And these"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1872.19,"endTime":1874.74,"body":"letters, they're very personal."},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1874.74,"endTime":1879.27,"body":"And you really have the feeling"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1874.74,"endTime":1879.27,"body":"that you get into a time machine"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1879.27,"endTime":1882.33,"body":"and turn back then and get to"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1879.27,"endTime":1882.33,"body":"know these people quite well,"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1882.36,"endTime":1886.32,"body":"even though they have lived"},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1882.36,"endTime":1886.32,"body":"about 4- or 5-000 years ago."},{"speaker":"Dahlia Shehata","startTime":1886.32,"endTime":1886.35,"body":"{LAUGHS}"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1888.82,"endTime":1890.68,"body":"Here's Gojko"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1888.82,"endTime":1890.68,"body":"Barjamovic:"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":1892.24,"endTime":1894.91,"body":"And I went to"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":1892.24,"endTime":1894.91,"body":"a few lectures, I was completely"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":1894.91,"endTime":1900.43,"body":"sold. I had no idea how dense"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":1894.91,"endTime":1900.43,"body":"this Mesopotamian material is."},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":1900.43,"endTime":1904.36,"body":"That you have there this oddity"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":1900.43,"endTime":1904.36,"body":"that is linked to clay. It means"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":1904.36,"endTime":1907.6,"body":"that we can understand describe"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":1904.36,"endTime":1907.6,"body":"and write about and think about"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":1907.6,"endTime":1911.86,"body":"history that happened 4000 and"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":1907.6,"endTime":1911.86,"body":"3000 years ago, in ways that we"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":1911.86,"endTime":1914.98,"body":"can't really hope to do again"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":1911.86,"endTime":1914.98,"body":"before we get into the early"},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":1914.98,"endTime":1919.63,"body":"modern period. So I was stuck."},{"speaker":"Gojko Barjamovic","startTime":1914.98,"endTime":1919.63,"body":"So I was stuck."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1919.75,"endTime":1921.88,"body":"And Strahil"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1919.75,"endTime":1921.88,"body":"Panayotov:"},{"speaker":"Strahil Panayotov","startTime":1921.88,"endTime":1924.67,"body":"I just found"},{"speaker":"Strahil Panayotov","startTime":1921.88,"endTime":1924.67,"body":"the stuff really interesting,"},{"speaker":"Strahil Panayotov","startTime":1924.82,"endTime":1929.53,"body":"and especially the huge amount"},{"speaker":"Strahil Panayotov","startTime":1924.82,"endTime":1929.53,"body":"of texts. I think this was the"},{"speaker":"thing","startTime":1929.59,"endTime":1932.68,"body":"that there was so much"},{"speaker":"thing","startTime":1929.59,"endTime":1932.68,"body":"writing in assyriology."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1935.57,"endTime":1938.12,"body":"There is the thrill"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1935.57,"endTime":1938.12,"body":"of discovery, and the love of a"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1938.12,"endTime":1942.8,"body":"challenge to overcome or a"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1938.12,"endTime":1942.8,"body":"puzzle to solve: In Jana"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1945.23,"endTime":1948.38,"body":"What attracted me"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1945.23,"endTime":1948.38,"body":"to archaeology as a teenager was"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1948.38,"endTime":1951.89,"body":"the romantic notion of"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1948.38,"endTime":1951.89,"body":"discovering things in the"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1951.89,"endTime":1955.58,"body":"desert. And I still like"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1951.89,"endTime":1955.58,"body":"discovering things. But now it's"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1955.58,"endTime":1959.99,"body":"more hitherto unknown literary"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1955.58,"endTime":1959.99,"body":"compositions hiding in some"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1959.99,"endTime":1964.64,"body":"museum instead. It's a different"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1959.99,"endTime":1964.64,"body":"thrill. But I personally love"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1964.64,"endTime":1968.21,"body":"resurrecting texts from broken"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1964.64,"endTime":1968.21,"body":"bits and pieces, knowing that"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1968.21,"endTime":1973.31,"body":"I'm essentially the first person"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1968.21,"endTime":1973.31,"body":"in 4000 years to read them. They"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1973.31,"endTime":1976.43,"body":"offer fascinating glimpses into"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1973.31,"endTime":1976.43,"body":"a long lost civilisation, which"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1976.43,"endTime":1981.26,"body":"is obviously remote in time and"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1976.43,"endTime":1981.26,"body":"space, but it's still relatable."},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1981.77,"endTime":1985.43,"body":"The modes of literary expression"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1981.77,"endTime":1985.43,"body":"may have changed. But the"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1985.43,"endTime":1988.58,"body":"sentiments expressed in these"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1985.43,"endTime":1988.58,"body":"texts, they remain essentially"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1988.58,"endTime":1992.54,"body":"the same. It's great to be"},{"speaker":"Jana Matuszak","startTime":1988.58,"endTime":1992.54,"body":"reading such ancient texts."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1994.64,"endTime":1997.4,"body":"And of course, you"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":1994.64,"endTime":1997.4,"body":"can make a clear contribution."},{"speaker":"Reinhard Pirngruber","startTime":2001.51,"endTime":2003.25,"body":"And what"},{"speaker":"Reinhard Pirngruber","startTime":2001.51,"endTime":2003.25,"body":"appealed most to me about"},{"speaker":"Reinhard Pirngruber","startTime":2003.25,"endTime":2008.95,"body":"assyriology was the fragmentary"},{"speaker":"Reinhard Pirngruber","startTime":2003.25,"endTime":2008.95,"body":"state of our data. So it gives"},{"speaker":"Reinhard Pirngruber","startTime":2008.95,"endTime":2013.15,"body":"you lots of possibilities for"},{"speaker":"Reinhard Pirngruber","startTime":2008.95,"endTime":2013.15,"body":"you to create your own"},{"speaker":"Reinhard Pirngruber","startTime":2013.15,"endTime":2017.44,"body":"narratives on how things may"},{"speaker":"Reinhard Pirngruber","startTime":2013.15,"endTime":2017.44,"body":"have happened. This is a very"},{"speaker":"Reinhard Pirngruber","startTime":2017.44,"endTime":2018.82,"body":"fun challenge for me."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":2020.32,"endTime":2023.17,"body":"Many of us grow up"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":2020.32,"endTime":2023.17,"body":"near heritage sites of some"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":2023.17,"endTime":2026.59,"body":"sort. That can foster an"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":2023.17,"endTime":2026.59,"body":"interest in history and"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":2026.59,"endTime":2030.76,"body":"heritage. Then, when you"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":2026.59,"endTime":2030.76,"body":"encounter the ancient Middle"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":2030.76,"endTime":2035.95,"body":"East, you find your goal. Heres"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":2030.76,"endTime":2035.95,"body":"Stefania Ermidoro:"},{"speaker":"Stefania Ermidoro","startTime":2038.24,"endTime":2040.97,"body":"So I was born"},{"speaker":"Stefania Ermidoro","startTime":2038.24,"endTime":2040.97,"body":"in Rome. So I think the idea of"},{"speaker":"Stefania Ermidoro","startTime":2040.97,"endTime":2044.57,"body":"studying archaeology and ancient"},{"speaker":"Stefania Ermidoro","startTime":2040.97,"endTime":2044.57,"body":"history was always present ever"},{"speaker":"Stefania Ermidoro","startTime":2044.57,"endTime":2048.44,"body":"since I was a child. I think the"},{"speaker":"Stefania Ermidoro","startTime":2044.57,"endTime":2048.44,"body":"moment in which I decided to"},{"speaker":"Stefania Ermidoro","startTime":2048.44,"endTime":2052.01,"body":"study the ancient Near East was"},{"speaker":"Stefania Ermidoro","startTime":2048.44,"endTime":2052.01,"body":"during my very first class of"},{"speaker":"Stefania Ermidoro","startTime":2052.04,"endTime":2055.97,"body":"ancient Near Eastern history."},{"speaker":"Stefania Ermidoro","startTime":2052.04,"endTime":2055.97,"body":"Because I sat down in the"},{"speaker":"Stefania Ermidoro","startTime":2055.97,"endTime":2060.02,"body":"classroom and I heard about this"},{"speaker":"Stefania Ermidoro","startTime":2055.97,"endTime":2060.02,"body":"world, which was quite unknown"},{"speaker":"Stefania Ermidoro","startTime":2060.02,"endTime":2062.42,"body":"to me. Because in Italy, we do"},{"speaker":"Stefania Ermidoro","startTime":2060.02,"endTime":2062.42,"body":"not really study ancient"},{"speaker":"Stefania Ermidoro","startTime":2062.42,"endTime":2067.04,"body":"Mesopotamia in the normal school"},{"speaker":"Stefania Ermidoro","startTime":2062.42,"endTime":2067.04,"body":"curriculum. And I simply fell in"},{"speaker":"Stefania Ermidoro","startTime":2067.04,"endTime":2071.15,"body":"love with what I was hearing. So"},{"speaker":"Stefania Ermidoro","startTime":2067.04,"endTime":2071.15,"body":"that was the moment in which I"},{"speaker":"Stefania Ermidoro","startTime":2071.15,"endTime":2075.29,"body":"decided that instead of"},{"speaker":"Stefania Ermidoro","startTime":2071.15,"endTime":2075.29,"body":"classics, or Roman archaeology,"},{"speaker":"Stefania Ermidoro","startTime":2075.32,"endTime":2078.35,"body":"I was going to study Ancient"},{"speaker":"Stefania Ermidoro","startTime":2075.32,"endTime":2078.35,"body":"Near Eastern archaeology and"},{"speaker":"Stefania Ermidoro","startTime":2078.35,"endTime":2083.18,"body":"history. So definitely, my very"},{"speaker":"Stefania Ermidoro","startTime":2078.35,"endTime":2083.18,"body":"first class of ancient Near"},{"speaker":"Stefania Ermidoro","startTime":2083.18,"endTime":2085.61,"body":"Eastern history was the moment"},{"speaker":"Stefania Ermidoro","startTime":2083.18,"endTime":2085.61,"body":"for me. {LAUGHS}"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":2087.56,"endTime":2090.14,"body":"But of course its"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":2087.56,"endTime":2090.14,"body":"only those in the Middle East"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":2090.2,"endTime":2093.65,"body":"who grow up with Hittites,"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":2090.2,"endTime":2093.65,"body":"Sumerians, Assyrians, and"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":2093.65,"endTime":2098.33,"body":"Babylonians as local history."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":2093.65,"endTime":2098.33,"body":"And this history holds a special"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":2098.33,"endTime":2102.2,"body":"appeal, and a deeper"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":2098.33,"endTime":2102.2,"body":"significance. As Jacob Jawdat"},{"speaker":"Jacob Jawdat","startTime":2104.21,"endTime":2109.01,"body":"Because I'm living"},{"speaker":"Jacob Jawdat","startTime":2104.21,"endTime":2109.01,"body":"in Mesopotamia, I like this"},{"speaker":"Jacob Jawdat","startTime":2109.01,"endTime":2115.76,"body":"field of archaeology. From the"},{"speaker":"Jacob Jawdat","startTime":2109.01,"endTime":2115.76,"body":"second year of my study in BA, I"},{"speaker":"Jacob Jawdat","startTime":2115.79,"endTime":2120.95,"body":"try to develop my knowledge of"},{"speaker":"Jacob Jawdat","startTime":2115.79,"endTime":2120.95,"body":"this field. This was by reading"},{"speaker":"Jacob Jawdat","startTime":2120.98,"endTime":2125.93,"body":"and working with my professors."},{"speaker":"Jacob Jawdat","startTime":2120.98,"endTime":2125.93,"body":"But it is come from our"},{"speaker":"Jacob Jawdat","startTime":2126.02,"endTime":2129.41,"body":"heritage, because it's our"},{"speaker":"Jacob Jawdat","startTime":2126.02,"endTime":2129.41,"body":"heritage. This a main reason to"},{"speaker":"Jacob Jawdat","startTime":2129.41,"endTime":2132.95,"body":"be assyriologist or"},{"speaker":"Jacob Jawdat","startTime":2129.41,"endTime":2132.95,"body":"archaeologist for me."},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":2134.69,"endTime":2137.87,"body":"I hope you enjoyed"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":2134.69,"endTime":2137.87,"body":"this special episode. I'd like"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":2137.87,"endTime":2141.41,"body":"to thank all our guests for"},{"speaker":"Jon Taylor","startTime":2137.87,"endTime":2141.41,"body":"sharing their stories. Id also"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2141.41,"endTime":2146.21,"body":"Tyler"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2141.41,"endTime":2146.21,"body":"Russell, Enrique Jimenez, Jana"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2146.21,"endTime":2152.09,"body":"Matuszak, Nancy Highcock, Jay C,"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2146.21,"endTime":2152.09,"body":"Rune Rattenborg, Woodthrush,"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2152.66,"endTime":2158.03,"body":"Elisa Rossberger, Mark Weeden,"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2152.66,"endTime":2158.03,"body":"Jordi Mon Companys, Thomas"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2158.03,"endTime":2164.12,"body":"Bolin, Joan Porter MacIver, John"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2158.03,"endTime":2164.12,"body":"MacGinnis, Andrew George, Yelena"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2164.12,"endTime":2170.39,"body":"Rakic, Michael Katsevman, Mend"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2164.12,"endTime":2170.39,"body":"Mariwany, Kathryn Topper, Zach"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2170.39,"endTime":2176.75,"body":"Rubin, Sabina Franke, Sophus"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2170.39,"endTime":2176.75,"body":"Helle, Shai Gordin, Aaron Macks,"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2177.08,"endTime":2182.63,"body":"Jonathan Stkl, Maarja Seire,"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2177.08,"endTime":2182.63,"body":"Jaafar Jotheri, Morgan Hite,"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2183.02,"endTime":2187.1,"body":"Chikako Watanabe, Mark"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2183.02,"endTime":2187.1,"body":"McElwaine, Heather Baker,"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2187.43,"endTime":2188.87,"body":"Sukanya Ramanujan, Laura"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2187.43,"endTime":2188.87,"body":"Battini, Jonathan Blanchard"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2188.87,"endTime":2191.33,"body":"Smith, Vanessa Richards, as well"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2188.87,"endTime":2191.33,"body":"as those who prefer to remain"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2191.33,"endTime":2192.05,"body":"anonymous."},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2192.84,"endTime":2195.45,"body":"I really appreciate your"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2192.84,"endTime":2195.45,"body":"support. It makes a big"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2195.45,"endTime":2199.98,"body":"difference. Every penny received"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2195.45,"endTime":2199.98,"body":"has contributed towards"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2199.98,"endTime":2203.43,"body":"translations. Thanks of course"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2199.98,"endTime":2203.43,"body":"to the lovely people who have"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2203.43,"endTime":2206.85,"body":"worked on the translations on a"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2203.43,"endTime":2206.85,"body":"voluntary basis or for well"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2206.85,"endTime":2211.08,"body":"below the market rate. For"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2206.85,"endTime":2211.08,"body":"Arabic, thanks in particular to"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2211.08,"endTime":2215.79,"body":"Zainab Mizyidawi, as well as"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2211.08,"endTime":2215.79,"body":"Lina Meerchyad and May Al-Aseel."},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2216.6,"endTime":2223.17,"body":"For Turkish, thank you to Pinar"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2216.6,"endTime":2223.17,"body":"Durgun and Nesrin Akan. TEW is"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2223.17,"endTime":2226.68,"body":"still young, but I want to reach"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2223.17,"endTime":2226.68,"body":"a sustainable level, where"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2226.68,"endTime":2229.86,"body":"translators are given proper"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2226.68,"endTime":2229.86,"body":"compensation for their hard"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2229.86,"endTime":2230.31,"body":"work."},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2232.58,"endTime":2235.85,"body":"And thank you for listening to"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2232.58,"endTime":2235.85,"body":"Thin End of the Wedge. If you"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2235.85,"endTime":2239.12,"body":"enjoy what we do, and you would"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2235.85,"endTime":2239.12,"body":"like to help make these podcasts"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2239.12,"endTime":2242.21,"body":"available in Middle Eastern"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2239.12,"endTime":2242.21,"body":"languages, please consider"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2242.21,"endTime":2246.05,"body":"joining our Patreon family. You"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2242.21,"endTime":2246.05,"body":"can find us at"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2246.08,"endTime":2252.44,"body":"patreon.com/wedgepod. You can"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2246.08,"endTime":2252.44,"body":"also support us in other ways:"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2253.07,"endTime":2256.94,"body":"simply subscribe to the podcast;"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2253.07,"endTime":2256.94,"body":"leave us a five star review on"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2256.94,"endTime":2260.21,"body":"iTunes or your podcatcher of"},{"speaker":"like to thank our patrons","startTime":2256.94,"endTime":2260.21,"body":"choice; recommend us to your"},{"speaker":"friends; follow us on Twitter","startTime":2260.21,"endTime":2266.39,"body":"@wedge_pod. If you want the"},{"speaker":"friends; follow us on Twitter","startTime":2266.39,"endTime":2269.96,"body":"latest podcast news, you can"},{"speaker":"friends; follow us on Twitter","startTime":2266.39,"endTime":2269.96,"body":"sign up for our newsletter. You"},{"speaker":"friends; follow us on Twitter","startTime":2269.96,"endTime":2273.77,"body":"can find all the links in the"},{"speaker":"friends; follow us on Twitter","startTime":2269.96,"endTime":2273.77,"body":"show notes and on our website at"},{"speaker":"friends; follow us on Twitter","startTime":2274.04,"endTime":2282.68,"body":"wedgepod.org. Thanks, and I hope"},{"speaker":"friends; follow us on Twitter","startTime":2274.04,"endTime":2282.68,"body":"youll join us next time."}]}