[Infrastructure] After being mistaken for a god

Yi Nan came out from the depths of the house and said, "Okay!"

The young man had been turning his back and squatting in the corner of the room earlier, when he heard Yi Nan's voice, he turned his head and looked up and down Yi Nan in the dim light of the oil lamp, with a look of surprise and admiration on his face.

Now Yi Nan put on a gown worn by a shepherd, and tied his long hair into a bun behind his head.She dressed herself up as a young man, and she could finally say goodbye to the "covered in sand" stalk temporarily.

The shepherd's tunic, of linen, had been worn for some time, and the cuffs, elbows, and hems were frayed and patched.But also because this is not a new dress, the robe feels soft and skin-friendly when worn on the body.In addition, the robe is very clean, it can be seen that although the owner of this robe is not rich, he lives a serious life.

Yi Nan bowed to the other party and thanked him.

The owner of the robe, the young shepherd, sat cross-legged across from Yinan at this moment, and said with a smile, "You're welcome. I'm glad I can help you."

The light from the oil lamp was very dim, but Yi Nan's face was covered with a soft and faint halo.The shepherd stared blankly for a while, and then said: "But I still want to say, you are so beautiful, others will know that you are a beautiful girl."

Yinan: ... Men's clothing failed.

"So you must not show your face in front of people recently, lest you be selected again to represent Goddess Inanna in the Holy Marriage Ceremony."

There seemed to be a "buzz" in Yinan's mind, and she finally thought of some special sacrificial customs in ancient civilizations: "Could it be that you are talking about...'holy marriage'?"

In some civilizations, a holy marriage is dedicated to the god of love and reproduction. The saint who "represents" the goddess, also called the "priestess", selects a young man from the people and has a marriage with him. Hold a grand wedding together to offer sacrifices to the gods, and ask the gods to bless human beings to enjoy unspeakable joy while multiplying their descendants.

When he first learned about these weird ancient customs, Yinan probably still had a bit of curiosity, but as soon as he thought that one of them actually represented himself...it was outrageous!

The shepherd stared at Yinan with bright eyes, as if asking: Isn't that why you escaped?

But he replied honestly: "Yes, it is a holy marriage—"

"The high-ranking priests of Uruk came to the villages in this area to look for beautiful girls and handsome boys. Luke, attend the Holy Marriage of Inanna on New Year's Day."

"The whole village rushed to the next village overnight, preparing to visit the priest tomorrow. I am a shepherd, so I stayed to take care of the livestock." The young man spread his hands.

Yi Nan remembered the movement outside just now.

"Those people just now are also priests?"

Those people seemed to come to the village to check and make sure that all the villagers rushed to visit the priest.

"You don't know them?" The shepherd shrank his neck, "I thought they were all here to catch you."

Inan shook his head blankly.

The young shepherd sighed: "Well, I thought you were the girl who was chosen as a saint, but you escaped because you didn't want to. I was wondering earlier, girls in this world, everyone It is an honor to be the saint of the goddess Inanna, why is there really someone who is unwilling..."

"But if it were me, I wouldn't want to either!" Seeing that Yi Nan, who was thinking deeply, had no intention of answering, the shepherd continued talking on his own.

"This world is full of the will of witches. Whatever witches say is what they say. Gods will definitely like what witches say God likes. Ordinary people must dedicate to gods what witches say God wants..."

Yi Nan couldn't help raising his head, and looked at the other party seriously.Can he say such insightful words, is the other party really just an ordinary shepherd?

The next second, the young shepherd spread his hands again: "But what can I do, I'm just a shepherd."

His petite appearance is so cute that Yi Nan couldn't help laughing.

"Let's take the Holy Marriage Ceremony during the New Year as an example—the witch says which day the New Year is, and that day is the New Year."

Yi Nan was surprised: "The witch can decide which day is the new year? What is your calendar like?"

The shepherd finally realized that there was a loophole in his words: "The beginning of a year... Ordinarily, it should be the day of the vernal equinox, the moment Venus rises. It is said that this is the calendar created by the world's greatest witch, Wizard Dan."

Yi Nan lowered her head to hide the excitement in her heart.

Sure enough, it was Dan, indeed it was Dan——Dan created a complete calendar for this civilization.

"...But, who doesn't know when the vernal equinox will be?" The young shepherd replied scratching his head.

Yinan thought: This is also normal.After all, the day of the vernal equinox is obtained through astronomical observation and calculation.Even in modern times, it is difficult for the average person to tell when the vernal equinox is without being allowed to consult a calendar or mobile phone.

"Only Wu can calculate when the new year will come—they will notify every village ten days before the new year."

"What?" Yi Nan was finally surprised: wouldn't the calendar be announced to the public? "Then when did the farmers plow the fields and when did they sow the seeds? Was it also informed by the witch?"

The shepherd nodded at Yinan: "No way! The witches will calculate the days in advance and send the news to every village."

"This is what it should be!" Yi Nan thought about it, "This is the duty of a witch."

Another advantage of god worship is that it can eliminate cognitive differences.When all the people agree that the gods need them to farm at this time, they will start farming together-this is a method of widely cohesive manpower. This cohesion is especially important when the production efficiency is relatively low and manpower needs to be piled up.

Unexpectedly, the corners of the young shepherd's mouth turned up: "Yes, but the witches have gained a lot of benefits!"

"Take our village as an example. Every year, we have to hand in twenty sheep, fifteen jars of honey, and a lot of wheat to the witch." The shepherd counted for Yinan with his fingers. Go to Uruk with the girl to serve the witches and priests."

"According to the big men, I have raised twenty pairs of sheep here, and each pair of sheep will give birth to a lamb every year, that is, twenty; the ewes among the lambs will also grow One lamb will be born... Calculated in this way, my flock will multiply several times in the next ten years and become a large flock of sheep. I hand over only twenty sheep every year, young man, do you have any questions?"

The young man even imitated the tone of the priest, with a straight face and a wave of his hand.As soon as the priest spoke, the poor shepherd had to hand over twenty sheep.

"This one……"

Yi Nan was also speechless for a while.

She intuited that the priests were really good at mathematics—the concept of "compound interest" was already coming out of the shepherd's description②.

But using such good math skills to exploit and enslave ordinary villagers... It seems that something is wrong.

Yi Nan also imitated the appearance of the young man across from him, sitting cross-legged, resting his chin in one hand, and scratching casually on the ground paved with clay tiles in the room with the other hand, making quick calculations in his mind.

She finally understood what Daniel meant by that sentence—god worship is a double-edged sword for the development of civilization.

Although Inanna's "divinity" can help the local people build a consensus, it also causes the "witch" group to monopolize knowledge and technology.

This will hinder the continued evolution of civilization to a certain extent.

She once again felt that the burden on her shoulders was too heavy: after all, the admiration for Inanna was caused by herself to a certain extent, and she did not expect that it would have such an impact after a thousand years.

But after thinking about it, Yi Nan felt that there was nothing to be afraid of?

Back then, she was able to plant the seeds of civilization with her own hands, allowing it to take root and flourish. Today, she can also help this civilization break through barriers and move forward——

After all, what the witches and priests control now is what she left over from playing back then.

Thinking of this, Yi Nan had already made up his mind and knew what he should do.

"Young man who helped me, I don't know your name yet."

It was then that Yi Nan remembered that he hadn't asked the young man's name yet, so he hurriedly asked, after all, he couldn't call him Shepherd's contemptuously like the priests.

"My name is Amausumgarana!" The young shepherd smiled all over his face.

Yi Nan stretched out her hand and slapped her forehead: she misses those times when names were only monosyllabic.

"You can also call me 'Du'." Du smirked, obviously guessing Yinan's reaction long ago.

"What's your name?" He looked at Yinan sincerely with bright amber eyes.This pair of eyes actually made Yi Nan shake again - she thought of Dan again.

Speaking of which, this young shepherd has no temperament similar to that of young Dan.

But for some reason, the words Dan said when she left always echoed in Yinan's ears:

"Please wait for me, the next time you see me, I will definitely grow up, I will grow up..."

Yi Nan lost his mind, quickly shook his head, put back all the memories about the boy Dan for the time being, and replied decisively: "My name is 'Nan'."

Sure enough, I'm a little bit south - she thought.

Yi Nan then asked the young man opposite: "I plan to go to the village where the priests are tomorrow, and I have some important matters to discuss with them face to face. Would you...would you go with me?"

Du opened his mouth in surprise, and pointed at himself for a long time before saying: "Really? You want me to accompany you, I... just a shepherd?"

Yinan sighed inwardly: he dispelled any association with the young Dan—although Dan is only a young boy, he is naturally brave and confident, and his temperament is really different from the young shepherd in front of him.

Unexpectedly, when Yi Nan nodded, Du straightened his back and solemnly nodded to Yi Nan: "Dear Nan, I am very happy to serve you."

Yi Nan finally smiled: "Come with me this trip, I promise, you will never suffer."

The author has something to say: ①The Sumerian calendar is the lunar calendar, that is, the lunar calendar. They set the time between Emei month and the next Emei month as "one month", and introduced the concept of "leap month" to adjust Difference between lunar and solar calendars. The introduction of the concept of "leap month" took the Sumerians about 1000 years.

②One of the contributions of the Sumerians in mathematics was the calculation of compound interest, that is, the calculation of interest and principal—the Sumerians could use exponential tables and interpolation methods to calculate compound interest problems.For example, if the principal is 1 and the annual interest rate is 20%, how long can the interest be equal to the principal.The Sumerians were quick to come up with an answer like 3.79 years.

In addition, "Amausumgarana" is indeed a real name (transliteration) that appeared on clay tablets, and it was not made up by the author.

Now, these two are actually wearing a small vest in front of each other.