John Green covers the early civilizations of the Fertile Crescent, opening with the city of Uruk and the invention of writing before moving to the Code of Hammurabi, the world's first written law code. He spends real time on the Neo-Assyrian Empire, describing torture tactics like impalement and flaying that the Assyrians used to keep conquered territories in line, and touches on the practice of sacred marriage between a high priestess and a king. Animated maps and illustrations from the Thought Bubble team carry the visual side while Green narrates straight through the rise of territorial kingdoms and empires across the region. The episode closes by asking what actually happened to the Assyrians once their empire collapsed. As with the rest of the Crash Course World History series, the pace is fast and the tone is casual, including a brief aside about Green's own undergraduate love life before the credits roll.