the alphabet;
dye;
glass;
deities that will become Greek -
- but not yet:
coinage;
numbers for years;
standing at attention.
However, their system of exchange seems to be at a stage intermediate between barter and coins. Everard carries beads and ingots of bronze. Sawing pieces off ingots is one acceptable means of trade. Clearly, standardized slices of metal will become coins.
Gisgo the sailor is well on his way to numbering years:
"'...what I could do was mark whatever special things happened each year, and keep those happenings in order and count back over them when I needed to. So this was the year in between a venture to the Red Cliff Shores and the year I caught the Babylonian disease -'" (p. 317)
Overhearing visitors who are in fact time travelers insisting on a particular date of departure for a sea voyage, Gisgo thinks "'...what gains might lie in that kind of remembering...'" (ibid.) so he starts to keep track of the years for himself.
Perhaps the armies of Rome were to invent standing at attention?
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And, of course, one way of numbering and recording years is by dating events by the regnal years of the reigning king. We see that method used in the Bible, in both the OT and NT. An OT example how it was used in the Books of Kings.
And, in fact, for some official purposes, that method is still used in the UK and Japan. That is, some things being dated by the regnal years of your Queen and the Japanese Emperor. I think any Acts passed by Parliament this year would be dated by how this is now the 64th year of the reign of Elizabeth II.
Sean
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