Suddenly, Rurik, who was still staying in the warm priest's longhouse, warming himself around the charcoal pile, and shining the light on the wooden board while he was busy calculating, immediately stopped what he was doing.
He suddenly looked at Priest Vilia, who was wearing deerskin and sitting peacefully cross-legged in a meditative posture, and asked loudly: "Grandma!"
"Huh? Are you hungry? My child?" Vilia suddenly opened her eyes.
"One thing! I want to know which day this year is the real winter!" Suddenly, Rurik felt that his words were not rigorous, and then asked: "This year our Hanukkah day. Calendar What day is it?”
“You ask this? Have you calculated the result?”
“Yes! If you can tell me the exact date of Hanukkah? , I will quickly calculate the result I want, and I won’t have to measure the shadow tomorrow.”
“It’s December 28th, my child.”
Vilia quickly cheered up. She had indeed been a quiet observer these days. She had witnessed Rurik display many amazing behaviors.
What shocked Vilia the most was that she saw the child actually using an oriental number system on the wooden board!
According to Villa's understanding, it was a type of number invented by people living in a hot and desolate world in the far east. It was very different from the Roman number system. It is undeniable that the ancestors of the Rus' people once encountered other people with special clothing. They were traders from afar, claiming to be from the great country in the far east.
They claimed to have done a lot of trade with the Romans and were willing to open up new commercial routes to the northern ice and snow lands.
Those strange people did exist, but they never appeared again after they exchanged silver for some deerskin and sealskin from the Ross tribe a long time ago.
But at least they left something behind. When he was young, Villa was lucky enough to learn about another number system and the strange rumors of those weirdos,
Ah! Villa couldn't help but think of her youth.
At that time, she was really unique in the tribe. She did not have a huge desire for marriage. It seemed that she was a person who worshiped Odin and was the successor to the future Valkyrie, so she must maintain it forever. pure.
Vilia believed very much in the myths told by her parents. Now her parents have passed away and she has become the eldest person in the tribe.
Vilia’s studious spirit made her a strange person in the tribe. Thanks to this studiousness, she knew the most knowledge and eventually became the head priest.
Seeing the studious Rurik, Villa couldn't help but think of his own youth.
She could not have imagined that Rurik had shown so many things in front of her during these days. She could not give a reasonable explanation. She really could only believe that Rurik was clearly showing a miracle.
Of course, this miracle is not about infinite strength or invulnerability, but about innate and huge knowledge..
As the head of the priests, Vilia always behaves calmly. Only when she truly witnessed Rurik's talent did she lose her temper many times.
I told Rurik the specific date, and the child I saw wiped a few wooden boards with a coarse cloth and started a new calculation. Yes, the whole calculation uses those "Oriental numerals" and some other symbols that are incomprehensible, and there is also a vague Roman vocabulary mixed in.
Finally, numerous problems weighed on Vilia’s mind, and she couldn’t hold it in any longer.
"Rurik, my child. Do you understand the Eastern numerals you are using now?"
Suddenly, the digits held in Rurik's young right hand were cut into The pen-shaped piece of charcoal fell down, and he was shocked and didn't know how to respond.
"Don't be nervous, there is nothing to be nervous about. You are a child blessed by Odin, and you are full of miracles."
What else can Rurik say? He was shocked In fact, it was not that Villa doubted the "Arabic numerals" he used at all, but that Villa knew that these were numbers and were named "Oriental numerals".
This fully shows that Vilia knows what he is writing! In other words, among the Rus tribe living in Scandinavia, there are actually people who know this kind of numbers invented by ancient Indians tens of thousands of kilometers away!
Vilia could only describe Rurik's surprise as a miracle, and she was very happy to share her past.
She came up with a very reasonable explanation, but Rurik could only claim that knowledge was innate.
So, the Vikings of this era have had quite close exchanges with people in Asia? Rurik was curious.
I’m afraid this is not the case. Two extremely distant ethnic groups have indeed had exchanges, and they obviously did not have a larger impact on each other.
Rurik was very excited. He felt as if the Ross tribe had forgotten another way forward. It is said that since the tribe can advance all the way to Novgorod, it is logical to enter the upper reaches of the Volga River, land directly on the coastal areas of the Caucasus Mountains after entering the Black Sea, and eventually come into contact with the desert peoples of Asia.
Theoretically it is feasible, but the reality is before our eyes. Only the old Vilia priest in the entire Ross tribe has a certain concept of the powerful desert people.
For example, Villa specifically claimed that they were some men in black with yellow skin, and they were completely different from the black Romans they had encountered. Those yellow-skinned men in black always wear huge turbans and have huge black beards, just like the big beards that men in the Ross tribe like to wear.
They were just businessmen looking to exchange some pelts for some strange and wonderful things said to come from further lands.
Based on these fragmentary descriptions, Rurik immediately thought that what Vilia was talking about was the big food in black.
Rurik understood the basic context of historical development. In 828 AD,The Black Food is in its prime!
The influence of a country's strength will be in many aspects, for example, business and trade will become developed. Since the Dashi in history were happy to trade with the Tang Dynasty via the Silk Road, they would naturally try to go north to trade with the Vikings in the far north.
Since it is trade, the number system used by Black Clothes and Dashi will naturally collide and communicate with the Roman numeral system.
Objectively speaking, the numerical system born in India, because the writing logic is easy to clean and the numerical symbols are simple to label, it eventually became a global numerical system. I am afraid it has this potential from the beginning.
Rurik simply wrote all the modern numerical symbols from 0 to 9 in charcoal on a wooden board. He also enumerated larger numbers, counting them in pure decimal superposition, clearly reflected in the simplicity and clarity of this number system.
It has to be said that this modern number system is more advanced than the one inherent in the Vikings. Villa is a discerning person. She not only understands this, but also realizes that it is better than that of the Romans. One set is more advanced.
"My child, are people in the far East using this kind of numbers?" Villa asked in surprise.
"It's true, at least that's what the yellow-faced men in black you encountered are like."
When the words reached this level, Rurik could no longer control himself. In his own mood, he wished he could show all the basic mathematics he knew in front of his "friend all year round", Vilia.
Rurik even pointed out the use of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division signs. In case Vilia couldn’t hear clearly, he also deliberately made up some arithmetic problems that seemed childish but were actually very realistic to prove his skills. The superiority of "the basic tools of modern mathematics in the 21st century".
Everything was as Rurik expected. Villya's heart was strongly shocked, and his old body began to tremble with excitement.
Because Rurik used the method that the people of the Ross tribe knew very well, that is, he brought "new mathematical calculation tools" into the case of commodity trading.
For example, he drew the shape of a sheep's head on a wooden board and added the number "6" in front of it, then drew a plus sign, and then drew an antler with the number "2". When he added the equal sign, he finally wrote the number "10". That is, a simple and clear explanation, six sheepskins plus two reindeer skins are equal to ten silver coins.
Rurik listed three examples in a row. Not only did Vilia understand them completely, she also had to further admire the mathematical ability of the child in front of her.
Because in a sense, the merchants of the Viking tribe were born with mathematical talents.
Rurik already understands this, and also understands the very complicated goods price system in the tribe. He also understands that no one has ever interfered with the economic development of the tribe. Everything is a spontaneous trade behavior of many merchants. , resulting in the current relatively stable prices - the so-called "invisible hand".
In the barbaric era,People in the far north world are full of barbaric habits. They go back to plunder the wealth of other hostile tribes, and put prices on various things they control, even...
Until the turmoil of the Enlightenment, Europe A small group of talents were the first to awaken. They got their own insights from the Bible and came to the conclusion that human life is priceless, and actively advocated it. Eventually, the whole world finally reached this consensus.