Hey Morrow, welcome back.

Btw, the Hittite laws are funny as all heck.

Quote199. If anyone have intercourse with a pig or a dog, he shall die. If a man have intercourse with a horse or a mule, there is no punishment. But he shall not approach the king, and shall not become a priest. If an ox spring upon a man for intercourse, the ox shall die but the man shall not die. One sheep shall be fetched as a substitute for the man, and they shall kill it. If a pig spring upon a man for intercourse, there is no punishment. If any man have intercourse with a foreign woman and pick up this one, now that one, there is no punishment.

FYI, the Bronze Age Shang could be a decent model for a bad-guy society, especially if they are dialed up to 11:

"The Shang embraced ancestor veneration-a hierarchical kinship that was a central to royal divination and underscored a spiritual alliance that bridged the worlds of living and dead. The ancestor cult required that the living king nourish his ancestors with millet-wine libations, grain offerings, and animal and human sacrifices (Lopez 1996:42). Many of the oracle inscriptions were questions regarding the number of cattle, sheep or humans to be sacrificed. These bribes honoured and appeased the ancestors, giving them strength to mediate on the king's behalf with the celestial powers, bestowing insight and influence to affect the Shang world (Keightly 1978:213). This not only created a strict ritualistic process stressing the importance of right conduct to the right ancestor on the right day-which was critical for the successful outcome of the Shang king's prognostication-but also reinforced the idea that the world was discoverable and manageable if approached in negotiable, quantifiable, contractual terms with one's ancestors (Keightly 1978:216)."

...and...

"Human sacrifice was not unusual during the Shang Dynasty. Most medium/large size tombs, from this time period, have human sacrifices. Thousands of them have been found at Yinxu’s royal cemetery."

"Archaeologists cannot yet say for sure who the sacrificial victims at Huanbei were. Professor Jing said that more scientific analysis needs to be done on them. But based on oracle bone inscriptions found at other Shang sites, he does have a working idea."

"“According to oracle bones inscriptions the victims for the ritual killings (were) likely the captives of the war the Shang engaged with neighbours,” said Jing. “Definitely by the end of the dynasty the war captives were the primary source of human victims.”"

The Mesopotamians developed writing for accounting purposes while the Shang developed writing to negotiate with the supernatural.  

But my favorite model for an ancient bad-guy society remains the Moche from Peru.  Torture, human sacrifices, blood drinking, human skeletons strung together like puppets, kinky pornographic pottery, and a deity that archaeologists call "The Decapitator".  They are like something straight out of sword and sorcery or pulp central casting for villains.

For those interested in Egypt, I picked up this sweet little book recently: Ancient Egypt as it was: Exploring the city of Thebes in 1200 BC, by Charlotte Booth.

It's basically a travel guide to Thebes and it's surrounds. It's written in the present tense, as if the present was 1200 BC, and contains all kinds of useful information for travellers - including sights, culture, wildlife, prices, customs, phrases, etc.

I love the attention to detail/ It's got lots if little flavourful things like:
"If there's a donkey available when you are on the west bank, why not travel south past the mortuary temple of Horemheb...."
"...the ancient temple of Medamud (known locally as Madu), is situated 9,433 cubits northeast of Karnak temple."
"If while in Thebes you decide to have a copy of the Spells for Going Forth by Day commissioned for your own burial, then there are numerous options depending on time and finance."

Great, flavourful stuff for a New Kingdom campaign.

Thanks for the great images and links John!

Yes, awesome images.

RPGPundit

Quote from: John Morrow;465055

For me Thera is the Atlantis of the legend.
Imagine a Bronze Age Manhattan built on the island in the centre of that caldera that forms the rest of the island, looking like the first picture above that I quoted.
A centre of commerce and trade set at a major crossroads in the Mediterranean, a shipping centre. Minoan Crete is to the South with the rest of the Greek islands and mainland to the North where the fledgling city states are growing. Further North is the entrance to the Black Sea and the civilisations there. South East is Egypt and the Levant, entry to the large land based empires of the Fertile Crescent. Anatolia and Cyprus are to the North east.

Thera has a huge natural harbour that can shelter ships and with a single entrance that can be guarded against any naval attack. I imagine that the island had mainly docklands and warehouses around the edge of the island and the multi-story houses and buildings in the centre of the island. From the study of Akrotiri, a town buried by the volcano much like Pompeii, it shows they had running water [both hot & cold], flush toilets, fountains, and a proper sewage system. Quite advanced at the time.

Quote from: Darran;465316For me Thera is the Atlantis of the legend.
Imagine a Bronze Age Manhattan built on the island in the centre of that caldera that forms the rest of the island, looking like the first picture above that I quoted.

That's exactly why I posted those two images in that order.  The first image, from Akrotiri, is now widely thought to be a depiction of what was on the island in the middle.  While I think Hong Kong is, in many ways, a better analogy than Manhattan, either way, there is fantastic role-playing potential in a Bronze Age cosmopolitan trading hub.  Too bad that they built it right on top of a huge volcano, but some speculate that that's how they had things like running hot water and heat.

I have been slammed at work this week and haven't had a chance to much more than check in on this thread, but people have been putting forward some awesome and interesting variations on the Bronze Age fantasy idea.

And awesome collection of links and images, John!

More thoughts to come shortly...


-TGA

Quote from: John Morrow;465055This is pretty close to my take on it.  Not a mythic reality but closer to the gritty reality, focused on the Aegean but spanning the whole Bronze Age world and not simply confined to Mesopotamia or Egypt.  What I would add is some sort of Minoan Thera as a sort of quasi-Atlantis acting as a sort of (as one person put it) Hong Kong of the Bronze Age.  Basically, an international trading hub.

I am still wedded to a more Mesopotamian-themed campaign idea for now, but between your vision of a Bronze Age Hong Kong and Cole's general ability to put awesomeness into words I am sorely tempted to pitch an Aegean flavored campaign.

Or a New Kingdom Egypt one, for that matter...

Fuck. Too little time, too many cool ideas.


-TGA

Quote from: Thalaba;465182For those interested in Egypt, I picked up this sweet little book recently: Ancient Egypt as it was: Exploring the city of Thebes in 1200 BC, by Charlotte Booth.

Nice find!  Thanks for the recommendation.  I am picking it up.


-TGA

Quote from: The Good Assyrian;465509I am still wedded to a more Mesopotamian-themed campaign idea for now, but between your vision of a Bronze Age Hong Kong and Cole's general ability to put awesomeness into words I am sorely tempted to pitch an Aegean flavored campaign.

Or a New Kingdom Egypt one, for that matter...

The nice thing about the Bronze Age is that trade stretched from the central Europe to at least the Indus Valley, which traded with Mesopotamia.  Depending on how strictly historical you want to be, or whether you want to create a non-historical fantasy Bronze Age or mash periods ahistorically together, you could easily have a fairly cosmopolitan group that travels through different flavored areas in search of trading opportunities, such as the trading expedition part of Between the Rivers, which, based on the titles (e.g., "wanax", "lawegetas"), was a trip to Mycenaean Greece.  So your PCs could be Mesopotamian but travel to the Hattusa, Troy, Mycenae, Thebes, the Nile, the Indus Valley, the "Pillars of Hercules", or even beyond (Shang China, Britain) as part of a exploratory trading mission or diplomatic mission (e.g., transporting a princess for a diplomatic wedding).  Or perhaps as part of the army of a premature Alexander the Great, leading an conquering army across the Bronze Age world.

A bunch of stock photos from National Geographic here, including:



















(The Theran eruption is inaccurate according to the latest theories, since it shows a mountain erupting, but it's an interesting painting.)

More images:



















Large Image of Troy (without recently discovered lower city)

Large Image of harbor at Ur

Osprey has quite a few titles that cover the Bronze Age now:












Two more are "The Mycenaeans c.1650–1100 BC" and "Qadesh 1300 BC".

A few more images: