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When I began to write these stories, I somehow
had the notion that we could easily define
the “Ancient World”. It was, I
thought, everything that happened in the Old
World before about 525 AD.
Then I learned that I really should have said “525 CE”, since “CE” (for “Common Era”) is more correct today. Correctness, like rats and diseases, evolves.
Worse, I learned also that what is
“ancient” is different in the New
World as compared to the Old. The New
World’s “ancient” times are
now often thought to be basically the years
before Christopher Columbus arrived and
started the largest theft in history.
So I have tried to think up a good definition
for “ancient”. My current version
is that the term “ancient” ought
to be applied to cultures and events that
took place in times far enough removed from
our own that we can no longer understand the
main features of the culture without having
an expert explain things to us.
This obviously is no better than any other definition. But It’s the best I can do at the moment.
And here is one story from perhaps a couple of centuries less than four thousand years ago.
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