Thursday, 21 July 2022

In Tyre

"Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks."

In 950 BC:

"...Everard displayed some small ingots of bronze. Coinage would not be invented for several centuries, but the metal could be swapped for whatever he wanted." (p. 235)

"Nobody here kept journals or saved letters, nor did anybody number years in the manner of later civilizations." (p. 289)

Coins, written records and year dates are things that we take for granted when thinking about civilization. If writing a narrative to be set in 950 BC, I would not have known that none of these things had existed back then. When Everard asks King Hiram about events in his father's reign, it is difficult to find anyone still alive who remembers details.

Another difference was that people only snacked in the evenings because the dimness of lamps made it difficult to prepare a meal. It is hard to imagine how different life was back then but Time Patrolmen are used to adjusting to different eras.

1 comment:

S.M. Stirling said...

They didn't in Tyre; the Egyptians, Babylonians and Assyrians most assuredly did keep chronicles, files of letters (even on clay tablets!) and write journals.