Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of I Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the Artifact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind, focusing on particular objects, ideas, and moments in time. As any Dungeons and Dragons player can tell you, there are magical weapons, and then there are weapons that can talk, and these are often among the most powerful and dangerous artifacts your character can possibly attune.
To the well of human mythology, which Dungeons and Dragons certainly draws on, contains many such speaking and singing weapons. Fictional black Razor is equalled or exceeded by the magical broadsword of Collervo in Finnish traditions or various speaking swords in Irish legend, but one of the oldest and most fantastic examples of the speaking weapon can be found in
the mythology of ancient Sumer. The wielder is none other than Ninurta, god of spring, thunder, showers, and protector of agriculture. Ninurta's weapon is the mace Shahur, the smasher of thousands. Why a mace, you might ask, well as Gabriel at all point out in from sumer to Rome. The mace was one of the most important weapon technologies of the ancient world. While certainly an evolution of the simple club, the mace was absolutely devastating against the unarmored skulls of
your enemies. The authors point out that the ancient Egyptians kept the mace is a symbol of authority and power until seventeen hundred b C. As their armies only fought enemies that boasted neither armor nor helmets, the mace dominated the battlefield. In fact, the helmet emerged as a technological
response to the crushing power of the mace. According to Gabriel at All, the third millennium b CE Steel of Vultures presents us with the earliest evidence of spearmen wearing helmets, and this is backed up by the bodies of soldiers found in the death pits of er from around d b c E. But the son mace reigned supreme as the most commonly used melee weapon from roughly four thousand to hundred b C. So it is the ideal weapon
for an ancient Sumerian god to wield. There was simply no compelling reason to abandon it if one's enemies lacked metal helmets, but Sharu was no typical mace. The weapon spoke, It could fly across vast distances and even take on the form of a winged lion. Is ibraheim Men points out in the Monster Hunter's Handbook, the weapon was capable of smashing enemies, either on its own or in the
hands of Ninurta. It also rained fire and venom down on its enemies and allowed the hero god to slay the terrifying demon Azag and its army of rock demons. In the Sumerian poem Ninurta's Exploits, the hero is said to pound a Zag's body with the mace as if a Zog were mirror barley, and such is the power of Shure that the condition of the slain demon's body is compared to that of a ship wrecked by a tidal wave. Tune into additional editions of the artifact each week.
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