by Watson, Tom
Ember of a New World
Tom Watson
Published by Tom Watson
2014
Copyright © 2014 by Thomas Watson
Copyright © 2014 by Thomas Watson
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.
This work is purely and entirely fiction. Names, characters, events, and places, other than major geographical regions, e.g. Germany, portrayed within are imaginary. Any resemblance to actual persons, living, dead, events or places, or previous fictional works is entirely coincidental.
First Printing: 2014
ISBN: 978-1-312-75881-0
Thomas Watson
Fredericksburg, VA 22408
www.EmberofaNewWorld.com
Dedication
To my lovely wife, my friends, and to my family. Thank you for supporting my science and fantasy musings. This book is also dedicated to the pursuit of critical thinking, Intellectualism, Science, and the spirit of humanity.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my wife for putting up with my Neolithic musings. Thank you to Davidt B., Dave K., and Renate K. for helping me proof read my manuscript, as well as their many years of encouragement.
Introduction
During the decade spent studying and researching the setting for this book, many facts have changed as new science has come forward. With such a volatile field, it is likely something in this book may be disproved or simply disagreed upon; perhaps the use of alcohol or the depiction of religion. While significant academic knowledge exists, there will likely always be some mystery and debate over what occurred in these ancient times. New excavations reveal new artifacts and our diagnostic approaches change. As a result, the cultures and practices in this book have been gleaned from existing cultures, such as the Navajo of the western United States or the Himba of Namibia, to learn how they live and function to derive an idea of how to bring this ancient period alive. Please read with a grain of salt and an open mind. The goal of this book is to bring the early Neolithic period to life for the reader who is not necessarily a historian. In an effort to bring the early Neolithic period alive, every attempt at authenticity has been made, while maintaining a flowing story and plot. The author has journeyed to Europe, studied microliths, fletched arrows, eaten a Neolithic diet, flint knapped with flint and obsidian cores, and performed nearly every act in the book, aside from killing animals.
Terminology
Some of the words you will find in this book may seem odd at first glance, such as leather thong, which is actually a long thin strip of leather, much like a shoelace. You might consider keeping an eye out for such words and look them up here.
B.C.E. – The modern convention is to use B.C.E., Before the Common Era. This describes any date before the year one C.E. (the same as A.D.). Therefore, 5500 B.C.E. equals 5500 B.C.
C.E. – The modern convention is to use C.E., Common Era, to denote year one and every year thereafter. C.E. is equivalent to A.D.
Harvests – Both the picking of farmed crops and a unit of measurement for the people of this book. A harvest is a period of time, typically analogous to a season in modern language, e.g. spring. When used in reference to a coming harvest, it may denote an entire year.
Leather Thong – A leather cord. More specifically, a long thin strip of leather used in the same way as thick twine. This should not be confused with the modern undergarment of the same name.
Mesolithic – Greek for “Middle Stone”. Refers to a period of time in between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic periods. The Mesolithic period saw the end of cave dwelling and the start of skilled hunting and gathering. Leather clothing and simple worked stone tools were hallmarks of the period. The Mesolithic period generally ends with the start of farming.
Neolithic – Greek for New Stone. A period in history marked by the invention of farming, the domestication of animals, and an explosion of new cultures and trade. The Neolithic period existed at different times for different places. This book occurs during the early Neolithic period of Northern Europe, about 5500 B.C.E, or 7500 years ago.
Nock of an Arrow – The forked back end of an arrow, where the bow string meets the arrow, is called a Nock. To set an arrow against the bow string in preparation to fire is called Nocking.
“The Pains” – A reference to premenstrual pains as well as a general reference to the menstruation cycle.
Paleolithic – Greek for “Old Stone”. The Paleolithic period predates the Mesolithic period and constitutes the most ancient days of humanity. The Paleolithic period saw the first humanoids stand erect, the first controlled fire, and the first tools.
“River People” – A term used by characters in this book to describe tribes living by the rivers Rhine and Danube. This term is unsubstantiated by any historical data. It seems likely that such a term may have been used, based on the human need to categorize and group.
Tuber – A turnip-like part of a plant called a Rampion, which generally grows underground. They may be cooked or eaten raw and provided plenty of needed nutrients and calories. They serve a role in diet later filled by potatoes, bread, and other high-calorie, starchy, foods.
Units of Measure
The Modern era has established units of measure, such as Le Système International d'Unités Meter or the English Foot. In ancient times, it is a reasonable assumption that measures were roughly standardized to the apparent mean-lengths of arms, legs, and the distances a person could walk given an average period of time, or by the seasons. The entire book is detailed in measures which correspond to this hypothesis. The choice to use these natural units, such as the length of a hand, is designed to bring the reader into the Neolithic world and to help the reader understand the wonder that is standardized measure, one of our modern era's most overlooked achievements. Below are conversions for those who really wish to know about what is meant by, “three harvests passed”.
Time
Moment – A few seconds to perhaps a minute.
Short time – Perhaps a few minutes to as much as an hour.
Little or good while – One hour to perhaps five or six hours.
Ten-day – Literally ten days. One day for each finger of the human hands. Ten is a natural counting number for humans, though not all cultures have actually used ten as a counting base.
Season – There are four seasons in Ember's world: Cold Season, Thawing Season, Warm Season, and Harvest Season. These correspond to Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall, respectively.
Harvest – Harvests occur in stages, generally the most important being in mid fall, but the term Harvest, when used as a unit of time, will typically refer to the cycle of a year.
Length
Finger, hand, arm, leg – These are literally the measures of these limbs, given an adult person generally, but they are open to interpretation. A woman might consider her arm's length before approximating a man, and vice versa.
The length of a man – The length a man of average height would occupy, from head to foot if he were measured. This was shorter than now, being perhaps five foot even, in Ember's time. A woman would normally be shorter. Ember is considered tall for a woman, probably five foot even.
A day's Travel – The distance an average group of people could travel in a day, perhaps twenty miles, taking into account resting and the differences in rates of walking. A strong hunter could possibly double that number, moving faster and for longer while a family with children would perhaps halve that number.
Weight
Weights were heavily approximated having nearly no s
tandard unit of any sort, other than to compare to a mutually agreeable object, effectively becoming a localized standard weight, such as the weight of a grown man or the weight of a new born, or perhaps a rock the size of a hand. Weights might have been measured using fixed rocks or, more likely, instead by volume, such as a handful or pot full.
Chapter 1: Sunrise
Neolithic houses were quite sophisticated structures for their time. Far from the caves which many, unfortunately and incorrectly, associate with ancient peoples, Neolithic houses often had wooden walls, thatched roofs, and even stables for livestock in the latter half of the period. Though basic in construction, Neolithic houses could be found on stilts near the waters or even buried partially into the ground or sides of hills to aid in climate control. Some Neolithic houses were long and rectangular, such as Ember's Longhouse, and some were circular. The layout of Neolithic houses was especially important given the harsh environments some peoples lived in. Our story takes place before some of these innovations, but not before all of them.
The houses of Ember's village were sturdy wooden structures designed for the harsh winters of Europe and the occasional floods from the rivers that people so often lived near, as they still do today. The sides of the houses were caked in mud to keep out rodents and insects, and the dirt floors were covered with dried mud and old worn out animal hides. The roofs could be propped open in the warmer summers to let heat out, and covered with extra mud and thatching during the cold winters. Our story starts in one such longhouse where a young woman, still a girl in her village's eyes, is sleeping happily on a set of green-dyed woven reed mats and large warm red-deer skins. Her dreams were interrupted by the sudden and uncommon sound of quiet...
As she awoke, Ember immediately knew something was wrong. The usual sounds of cooking and the smell of reheated dried pork strips and beans were replaced with an eerie quiet. Ember breathed in the warm earthy smell of the longhouse and its accompanying mats and skins. As Ember sat up, she began to understand her situation; the sleep leaving her. This was the morning before the Great Lunar Festival, a festival of epic proportions, which kept most of the tribe occupied with preparatory crafts. This was a time to give thanks to the Gods for the bounties of the world, blessings for good hunting, and for a good harvest before the cold season.
Some tribes prayed to the sun during this time, but Ember's tribe worshiped the Moon Goddess more strongly than the Sun God. Everyone knew that a woman could change any man's mind, and the Moon Goddess was the wife of the Sun God. Ember had heard of other tribes who worshiped different Gods, but never of a tribe that did not plea to their Gods to aid in their harvests. A full and rich harvest would see a lucky tribe through the cold season, but only if the Gods saw fit to fertilize the ground with their life giving blessings. As a result, the entire tribe had awakened early for much had to be done.
Blowing the long red strands of hair from her face, Ember sat upright. She had slept late, again, and missed whatever food had been prepared. With a touch of embarrassment, Ember pulled herself out of her bed, reed mats covered with warm red-deer furs, and started her morning with a yawn. Ember always slept on deer furs with her head pointed towards the place where the deer's head had been. This kept her from getting “fur burn” when her soft skin rubbed against course fur the wrong way. As she stretched, Ember's hand brushed against the side of the longhouse, and she withdrew it, mid-yawn, in surprise. Ember had never bumped into the wall before while practicing her morning stretches. This was a first, and it reminded her that she was no longer a girl, but a young woman. Her arms now extended farther than her memories of the room's width. She took note to adjust her body before yawning and stretching again.
Ember pulled the deer furs off and fumbled for her clothing, which she had placed beside her sleeping mat the night before. Ember picked up a loosely woven knee-length plant fiber skirt made from the fibers of a bluish-white flowering plant called flax, which was brought by traders, though several of the seeds had taken root near the village. Old lady Oak Wood, a woman known for her fantastic predictions, had sworn that she would grow fields of flax within a few harvests. Ember wasn't sure that would come to pass, but she wished old Oak Wood the best with her endeavor.
The skirt was not of the highest quality flax but strong enough for working in. The skirt was fastened by a simple leather thong, a thin cord of leather, made from the same sort of deer hide Ember used when she slept, but without fur. Ember looked around to make sure no one was looking. Her cousins and family were nowhere to be seen. The longhouse was indeed empty, so Ember quickly slipped off her undergarment, a thin, soft, and fur-less mink-skin breechcloth, which hugged tightly to her body. The breechcloth looped over a soft leather waist cord with a hand's length of extra leather hanging in front and back. Clothing, costly of time and skill to make, could become damaged while sleeping and was often not worn during sleep in a longhouse. It was, however, proper to wear something covering your private areas when you slept. What if the hides fell aside? Ember wouldn't want to spend all night showing off to the whole longhouse.
She applied a new breechcloth to wear under her skirt and tossed the used skin on a pile of similar skins she would clean later. Ember's mother often yelled at her for leaving clutter about the longhouse. Ember wrapped the flax skirt around her and fastened its leather thong around her waist tightly. She took a moment to reflect upon the emptiness of the longhouse, a rare event indeed!
The air was slightly musty from the morning dew, though the longhouse felt cool and comfortable. A rich smell of wood, earth, and leather filled her nose. Ember stood beside her woven mat bed and took in her familiar surroundings. The room was nearly 15 lengths of a man’s arm in length and a third of that distance in width and height. The walls were made of wooden beams bound by fibrous cord or sinew and caked with dried mud and grass. The mud and grass held-fast the heat of the hearth in the cold season, and repelled the glaring sun in the warm seasons making a highly effective insulator.
The roof was made of delimbed and tightly lashed tree branches, with reed mats firmly attached to their outer surface with fiber cord. Ember wondered how other tribes dealt without reeds. Traders from other tribes told of lands far from water were leather was a primary material for clothing, and where roofs were thatched with tall dried plants.
How strange other people can be, she thought. Reeds were a staple construction material for her tribe, the People of the Great River. The reeds used to make the mats covering the roof ran vertically to allow the water to glide down their lengths and not into the room. This had the effect of creating a water resistant roof, a necessity as rain occurred quite often, especially in the thawing season. During the cold seasons, mud was caked onto the roof and allowed to dry creating a very warm cap over the house. As the thawing season's showers rained hard, the mud would run and fill in holes made by the snow. In this way, the roof was somewhat ablative and self-repairing, to a measure. All too often someone would have to climb onto the roof during a storm to lash down stray roofing materials. Luckily lashing down the roof was considered a “man's job”.
They can keep it, she thought. The dichotomy between male and female chores was strict, but sometimes Ember favored these rules.
The longhouse featured three center log poles, each separated by about four lengths of a man's arm, which helped support the roof. The interior walls were adorned with various trappings of Ember’s family, including the cooking mats, several decorated clay pots with beautiful indented line artwork, and several colorful reed baskets. Near the rear of the longhouse, where Ember's bed was, small animals had been carved into the walls during the long boring cold season. Ember had been yelled at for the damage, but soon other images had been carved elsewhere as the cold seasons tended to be long and very boring. Many fresh herbs, dyed imported flax cord, and freshly cut leather thongs hung from the center pole, which ran the length of the dwelling. Here and there, the inside had been decorated with colorful paintings of various designs
, many of Ember's own doing.
The entire structure set atop a slight hill no more than two arm lengths above the normal height of the surrounding land. The dirt was additionally pushed up nearly an arm’s length around the perimeter of the house. This had the effect of keeping out animals, smaller unwanted house guests, the cold season drafts, and surging river water. The dirt barrier required constant maintenance as rain would erode the dirt.
Ember advanced to a reed cooking mat and knelt before the clay pots and reed baskets which held the family's ready food supply. Strawberries, softened cabbage, dried barley cakes, various tubers, and lentils were kept for many days. Meat had to be dried or eaten within a day or two to be safe. Ember had heard of a man who had died from old meat, when she was very young. Though she had hardly met the man and remembered little of him, she had learned a valuable lesson. Such stories were either passed from tribe to tribe through visitors or taught verbally by Elders. Many were not true in story but were true in fact, helping keep people safe by imparting important lessons. Humans are story tellers, learning from verbally shared experience.
With that, and several other random thoughts, Ember opened each container and examined its contents knowing that one contained “the perfect breakfast”. With a quick sniff, Ember located the clay pot which contained small strips of dried and salted pork. Her mouth became wet at the thought of all of the salt, her favorite food.
Salt was a massively important commodity. Every season, traders came and traded the precious substance for other finery. Without salt, a person would soon get the sweats, and eventually they could die. Salt was used sparingly as a preservative, because of its value. Luckily, the previous season’s traders had come with many large pots and sacks of salt. After a few moments, Ember had selected several pieces of the dried pork and a small clay pot full of lightly salted peas.