A clay prism says kingship came down from heaven. A royal grave at Ur holds seventy-four bodies around a missing ruler. An Assyrian king hands his throne to a stand-in to survive an eclipse. Gods in the Dust investigates the archaeology behind ancient history's strangest claims, beginning in Mesopotamia with Sumer, Babylon, Akkad and Assyria. Hosts Mariana Eaker and Tyson Lukowski give ancient aliens and lost civilizations a fair hearing, test them against the evidence, and ask who needed people to believe the story. Every episode cites its sources. New episodes every Tuesday. This podcast contains synthetic voices.