[Infrastructure] After being mistaken for a god

The innkeeper vividly interpreted "You are beautiful, you can do whatever you want", so Yi Nan had to give him a bright and lovely smile.

She looked at these shells carefully: six or seven shells are equivalent to a sheep... The meaning of these shells is closer to currency in the modern sense, that is, a contract based on the mutual trust of both parties.

The appearance of shell coins shows that the exchange of materials in Uruk area has been quite frequent, and the physical exchange method of barter cannot meet the needs of exchanges.

Also, where did these shellfish come from?

Yinan asked the innkeeper for confirmation.The other party replied without hesitation: "You said this, the shell coins come from Eridu downstream. They are near the sea, so they have this."

O Eridu! ——Inan thought.She has studied the history of Western Asia in detail, so she is also familiar with this small city-state located downstream.Eridu rose almost at the same time as Uruk, and they were two competing city-states.

Sure enough, the innkeeper added: "In the place of Eridu, everything is good, but not at all. The people there don't believe in the goddess Inanna, they only believe in a god named Enki."

Yi Nan: "Oh, Enki! I've heard of him."

Enki is another god in the Sumerian mythology system. His main city is Eridu near the wetland at the mouth of the Euphrates River.Naturally enough shells can be obtained from there to use as shell coins.

However, Yinan was a little wary when he heard that the innkeeper regarded the shellfish as so important: after all, a few shellfish are equivalent to a sheep, and this exchange rate seems a bit exaggerated.

There are many kinds of tokens, and the disorder of currency value is about the chaos that appeared before the emergence of the real "money order".

Eridu and Uruk should be in a competitive relationship in the city-state stage.The other party is holding shell coins, which is actually a big hidden danger to Uruk.

As soon as he thought of this, Gu Da came to find Yinan.He knew that Yi Nan was the backbone of the entire tour group and could make all decisions on behalf of the group of young people, so he came over and asked nervously in a low voice:

"Dear Miss Nan, you have arrived in Uruk, would you like to tell me what I can do for you?"

Inan replied with a smile: "Surely this matter is not difficult for a priest of your level - I hope you can help arrange for these young people to attend the holy wedding ceremony of the goddess Inanna during the New Year, as long as they attend. "

The muscles on Guda's face were tense all the time. After hearing Yinan's request clearly, he breathed a sigh of relief: This request is really not high. "Code Bridegroom", and did not volunteer to become a "Holy Maiden".

With Gu Da's current status, this is indeed possible.

But the question is, what happens after this group of young people flock to the Holy Wedding Ceremony?Can they stay at the ceremony honestly?Will Yinan "do things" like he did in Tibila Village again?

"There are still a few days before the arrival of the new year, so I hope my request will not be too hasty to make you unable to arrange."

Yinan opened his mouth and blocked Gu Da's retreat.

Besides, she still held Guda's jade dagger in her hand, which he only owned as a middle priest.

"This... Of course it can be arranged." Gu Da thought for a long time before stammering his answer.

"But the way to enter the venue is very complicated, and I can't get out to greet you on New Year's Day, so I have to take you to familiarize yourself with the route in advance." Finally, Gu Da made such a request, "I implore everyone to come with me tomorrow afternoon. Walk around the Temple of Inanna."

That's it? ——Of course there is no problem with Yi Nan, he resolutely agreed.So the next afternoon, the tour group from other places stood in front of the Inanna Temple together.

"Wow--"

The young people who came out of the small villages all showed their "bumpkin" side.

The temple in front of me was built on a foundation much higher than the flat ground.From the streets of Uruk, you need to climb up many steps to reach the main entrance of the temple, touch the straight and tall pillars, and kiss the threshold that is much higher than the ground.

The young people who have lived on the plains for many years have never seen such a tall building, and they all looked up at this moment.Little Hamti opened his mouth wide, and it took him a long time to hold back a sentence: "Can I climb up in one go?"

However, Yi Nan stepped forward, stretched out his hand to caress the bricks on the steps, and immediately understood how the foundation of the temple came from.

The Mesopotamian Plain lacks tall and hard trees, and Sumerian buildings are all made of clay bricks.However, there is a lack of adhesives such as cement between terracotta bricks and terracotta bricks, coupled with long-term weathering.Every once in a while (decades), the building collapses.

The Sumerian approach was to level the original buildings, demolish them, and rebuild them on the spot.Over the years, the ground under the temple has become higher and higher, which is why such a high foundation has been piled up.

Yinan scratched his head: In short, the construction technology can be further improved.

Just when a group of young people were shocked and planned to climb up the steps in front of the temple with the most pious attitude, Guda wearing priestly robes appeared.

He was holding a stack of linen robes in his hand, the original color, looking very old.

Guda distributed these robes to everyone one by one: "Put them on and follow me."

Yi Nan nodded, and the young people followed suit, each of them thinking in their hearts, do they have to change their clothes when they dare to enter the temple?

Unexpectedly, Gu Da didn't take them into the temple at all, but chose a path beside the temple, bypassed the tall and solemn buildings, and walked into the block surrounded by a group of low bungalows.

The young people soon knew why Guda had asked them to put on their robes beforehand.The people who came and went in this block wore the same style of primary color robes as themselves.

Everyone is in a hurry, and there seems to be endless work to do.

But when everyone saw Guda wearing a royal blue robe, they would stop and bow to Guda with full respect.

No one dared to ask who the team behind Gu Da was.

Occasionally, when someone sees Yi Nan behind Gu Da, they will be shocked by her appearance, and they will stay where they are for a while, and when they wake up, they often show remorse, as if this moment has delayed their important work, and they hurry up Passing by the young man in a hurry, he ran deeper into the alley.

"These apprentice priests will also have the opportunity to watch the ceremony on the day of the ceremony. You will dress up as apprentice priests, and it will be easier to approach the back door of the temple from this road."

After finally getting to a place where no one is around, Gu Da explained to Yinan and the others.

"Apprentice priest?" Yinan was curious.

Gu Da was embarrassed for a while: "It's the labor that the villages that can't hand over the sacrifices offer here."

Yinan couldn't help but put his hands on his forehead: he had such a nice name as trainee priest, but to put it bluntly, he was a group of people whose labor was squeezed out.If they were deprived of their freedom to leave Uruk, then this group of people called "priests" were in fact a group of slaves.

"Every year they have a chance to choose to go back to their hometown," Guda saw Yinan's thoughts and tried his best to make up for it. "But they all love life in Uruk and would rather stay here than go back to their hometown."

"Here at least they can eat enough, wear warm clothes, and have a comfortable house to live in, which may not be available in their hometown."

Yi Nan glared at Gu Da: "But they don't get the corresponding compensation for the labor they sell, which is a kind of injustice in itself."

But...it is too early to discuss the fairness of the whole society at this stage of history—Yinan felt that even if she explained it to Guda for three days and three nights, the other party would not understand what this kind of fairness meant, and How to achieve.

She decided to be patient and observe the lives of these "apprentice priests" carefully.

Yi Nan moved his eyes away, and obviously heard Gu Da heaving a sigh of relief.

Walking along the alley to the end, you can see a bright courtyard as soon as you push the door.Rows of neat houses are built on three sides of the courtyard. Just like the outside, among these houses, you can see trainee priests hurrying back and forth from time to time.

Gu Da explained to everyone: "Before the ceremony starts, all the trainee priests will gather in this courtyard and wait. You don't have to say anything to others, just wait here. When the time comes, follow the crowd and enter the temple through the back door together." , you can watch the whole process of the 'Holy Wedding Ceremony'."

Yi Nan looked back at the boys and girls who came with her—the reactions of these young people were beyond her expectations, not only did they not feel that there was anything wrong with sneaking in through the back door to watch the ceremony, on the contrary, they all had excitement on their faces.

To be able to sneak in to watch the ceremony like this - so exciting!

Dumuzi, who had been following Yi Nan, sniffed the air, "It seems that there is a sheep pen nearby."

Gu Da nodded: "Indeed."

He pointed to the three houses and explained one by one: "Here leads to the cattle pens and sheepfolds where the temple raises cattle and sheep. Behind this direction is the temple's warehouse for storing wheat and barley. This is where other goods are stored. Storehouses, chiefly flax, honey, dates, various herbs and spices, and some obsidian and alabaster for decoration."

"These bungalows are where the accountants live and where they work."

"accountant?"

Yi Nan had heard about this position from Dumuzi, and was quite curious about it: "Are they only responsible for counting goods? Or will they record the entry and exit of goods?"

"If recorded, how did they do it?"

It seems that Gu Da is not familiar with this field, he immediately turned around and greeted a young and thin accountant: "Cushin, come here, and explain to this beautiful... trainee priest."

Gu Da almost slipped the tongue, and only remembered at the last moment that Yi Nan was now dressed as a trainee priest.

The accountant named Ku Xin hurried over, saw Gu Da bowed deeply, and said, "Dear Priest, what do you need me to explain?"

Guda turned to Yinan.When Kuxin saw Yinan's appearance, he also showed great surprise. The surprise was written on his face, and gradually turned into admiration and reverence.

Yi Nan didn't care what the young man in front of him was thinking, and asked directly, "Excuse me, what kind of goods are you in charge of?"

"Wheat...wheat, barley and wheat!"

Excited, Kuxin immediately changed to a professional and responsible attitude, and answered Yinan's question seriously.

"So, how do you count and record it?"

Cousin replied: "When someone sends wheat into the warehouse, I watch them measure the wheat in 'syrah'. Then I will record how many 'syrah' wheat they sent in total, and how much is the wheat. Who sent it. Then the wheat was sent into the warehouse according to the year and condition."

"Syrah" is a kind of measuring instrument. Yi Nan saw it in Tibila Village and thought it was similar to the modern "standard liter".

However, the veterans in the village have said that the "Syrah" in their village is not the most accurate, and the most accurate measuring instruments are all in Uruk.Yinan thought to himself: I guess Kuxin is the most accurate "Sheila" here, right?

"When the priest's bakery comes to pick up the wheat, I'll pass the wheat through 'Syrah' again and let them take it away."

"As for how it was recorded..." Kuxin stretched out his hand and scratched his head.

Yi Nan and Du Muzi looked at each other, and they both remembered the scene of sitting together to record "Fighting Dad".

But at that time, it was only about forty sheep, but here in Kuxin of Uruk, the amount of wheat coming in and out every day was at least hundreds or even thousands of levels, even people with good memories and vivid pictures would not be able to remember. ah.

"Well, what should I say..." Ku Xin was tongue-tied, blushing for a while, and suddenly said, "You...you wait here!"

He turned around and ran, rushing towards the warehouse where he came, and after a while, he ran out with a huge yellow clay tablet in his hands.

The clay tablet is huge. Yinan checked it visually, it was one meter wide and half a meter long.The clay tablets are uneven, with uneven surfaces.The color of the clay tablet is very dark, and those who are familiar with the clay soil in this area probably know that not only has this clay tablet not been baked into pottery, but it has not been completely dried.

The clay tablet was heavy, and Kusin was short in stature, so he couldn't hold it when he was holding it. He carefully placed the clay tablet on the ground, and then took out a thin and long reed stalk from the coarse cloth pocket sewn on the robe , whispered: "I will use this..."

This reed stalk has been completely dried. Although the other end still has a long and soft fringe, the tip is slender and hard, which can easily scratch marks in the clay.But every stroke will form the effect of thick at one end and thin at the other end, and each scratch is like a small wedge.

Yi Nan and the others leaned up to look at the clay tablet, and sure enough, they saw various symbols on the clay tablet—but unfortunately, these symbols were almost bible to Yi Nan and the others.

Only Dumuzi saved a little face for the whole team, he recognized the number in the symbol: "One thousand and 53?... Is this the number?"

Gu Da and Ku Xin looked at Dumuzi with admiration at the same time: "You know how to count?"

Dumuzi touched the back of his head with his hand, and said very humbly, "When priests from the village came over, I asked them for advice."

Yi Nan followed Dumuzi's finger to look at the digits expressed in sexagesimal, and found that the Sumerian mathematical system used only two digits, which meant that later generations had to use four digits to express the complete amount of wheat.

The sexagesimal system created by young Dan has indeed been used to this day.

However, among all the people present, only Guda (the middle priest), Kuxin (the accountant) and Dumuzi know how to count? — Here is the same problem: knowledge is in the hands of the few, in the hands of the priests and those who serve them.

As for Dumuzi, it might just be a clever exception.

She carefully looked at the symbols on the clay tablet and asked, "Is this barley? Is this wheat?"

Both symbols are extremely vivid shapes of ears of wheat, and the only difference between the two crops is the obvious difference in the length of the ears of wheat.

Kuxin nodded: "Yes. You are right."

What are the other symbols? ——Yi Nan looked at them one by one. The shapes were square and round, which were different from those drawn by Ku Xin, whose strokes were like wedge-shaped symbols.

Ku Xin was kind enough to explain to her: "These are the seals of the store. Some people brought wheat over, and I asked them to stamp the clay tablets. The bakery was ordered by the priest to carry the wheat. I also asked They stamped it."

He looked at the sky and said, "When it gets dark and the warehouse is closed, I will calculate a total on this clay board: how much was collected today, how much was withdrawn, and the amount of wheat in the warehouse is offset by two miles. It’s more or less. Finally, count it again, and then you can rest.”

This job seems to be quite hard.

In particular, Kuxin had to hold such a heavy clay tablet to record the grain coming in and out of the warehouse.

At this time, a low-ranking priest wearing a light blue robe entered the yard, just in time to see Ku Xin "chatting" with someone, and shouted on the spot: "Ku Xin! Why are you not working!"

Ku Xin trembled, he seemed terrified of the low-ranking priest, picked up the clay tablet in his hand, turned around and ran away.

Unexpectedly, the low-ranking priest was not willing to let go, he caught up and held Ku Xin's shoulder, and pushed him hard.

Kuxin immediately fell to the ground, and the heavy clay tablet in his hand fell to the ground and cracked into several pieces.The low-level priest stepped forward and stepped on it.

"And you guys, what are you doing here to be lazy?" The low-ranking priest looked around and found that the group of "apprentice priests" in front of him had changed from their usual obedient and humble appearance. up.

"Are you... trying to offend the great god?" The low-ranking priest was frightened by this battle, and quickly pulled out the name of the god as a cover, "Where did you... come from? Why don't you go back quickly?" Work?"

"In front of me, I'm afraid you don't have the right to accuse these apprentice priests at will!"

Seeing that the situation was not good, Gu Da hurriedly stepped forward.If he doesn't come out and say a word, this group of lawless "apprentice priests" will be exposed.

Sure enough, the first rank of officials crushed people to death. When this low-ranking priest saw Gu Da, his attitude and tone immediately changed, and he said in a low voice: "It turns out that Mr. Gu Da is here to teach them—villain, how dare the villain bother you? Just quit, just quit."

Before he slipped away, he didn't forget to teach Kuxin a lesson: "Don't forget to clean up this place when you turn around... It's your honor for such a humble little accountant to let you count the wheat in the temple warehouse. Don't think about those terribly complicated things...you are the only one who keeps accounts."

The corner of the low-ranking priest's lips turned down, and he gave Ku Xin an ugly crying face. As soon as his eyes turned to Gu Da, they immediately turned into a flattering smile.

Yi Nan didn't care about this guy. She turned her head to look at Ku Xin, stretched out her hand to pull him up, and asked in amazement, "This...you came up with it yourself? You want to do it yourself?"

Ku Xin rubbed his waist in pain, and nodded with difficulty: "It will be clearer this way...all belong to the goddess's wheat."

Yinan couldn't help but put her hands on her chest: this was what she saw with her own eyes. Because of her trust and devotion to the gods, she inadvertently inspired this humble trainee priest to adopt such a strict and precise recording method, and Used, reed pen and clay tablet.

It is possible to register the amount of wheat entering and exiting the warehouse every day, and then compare it with the existing inventory - this is a very complete inventory record method, which not only can leave evidence for all the entering and exiting the warehouse, but also can be checked with each other Avoid mistakes.

Moreover, this method directly doubled Cousin's daily workload.Yi Nan could almost imagine that Ku Xin got up early and worked late every day, but it wasn't just to satisfy the priests' demands.

Cousins' motivation comes from within him.

This is the strength that faith brings to him.

Ku Xin rubbed his waist for a long time, finally felt better, and nodded to Gu Da and Yi Nan to express his gratitude: "Thank you, sir, thank you... It's just a pity, this clay tablet..."

The clay tablet lying on the ground was broken to pieces, and was stepped on by a low-ranking priest. The marks on it were all crushed by that foot and disappeared.

Ku Xin lowered his eyes and slowly picked up the clay tablets from the ground. "I still remember some, I will copy it again later."

Yi Nan pursed her lips, and saw that the young people around her were all looking at Ku Xin with great concern, as if they admired his persistence and persistence.

So Yinan said: "Do you think there is any way to help Kuxin, so that his clay tablet is not so fragile, and the records on it can be properly preserved?"

The young people immediately discussed in one go: "Let me see!"

"Hey, isn't it clay that is used to make this clay tablet?"

"I remember that my family used to burn pottery cups. When the pottery was just rubbed out, it was so soft that it shattered when it hit the ground."

"Then burn it? Burn it into a ceramic plate?"

"But the pottery plate is still brittle, and it will break if it hits the ground! Will your pottery cup break if you smash it?"

"What did you smash my pottery cup for..."

These young people became louder and louder, Yi Nan just listened from the sidelines.

She knew that this group of young people had come up with a brilliant idea to keep the records on the clay tablets properly, even after hundreds of thousands of years, these records still existed.

It was Dumuzi who reacted first.The young shepherd said happily: "It's a good idea to burn the pottery board. Kuxin can wait for his records to be completed and make changes that should be made, and then send it to the kiln for firing. No one will change the clay board." And people who want to look for records in the future can also find them.”

"Yes!" Gu Da slapped his thigh vigorously, his face flushed with excitement, and suddenly said: "Everyone, I want to excuse you for a moment. You can go out from here later, and just go back the same way. I...I really Excuse me."

After finishing speaking, the middle priest raised his robe and left in a hurry.

Seeing his excited look, Yinan naturally knew what he would report to the high priests when he returned.

Burning clay tablets and keeping accounting records is indeed a wonderful way.

Of course, what's even more amazing is that this method was not "instructed" by her Yi Nan to tell the world, but the group of young people in front of them figured it out by themselves.