Something that came up a lot during my research for ‘The Far Edges of the Known World’ was just how important seemingly unimportant things are to our understanding of history.
I did my dissertation research in Turkey and one summer got to know a local shepherd. He was tasked with shepherding the whole (very small) village’s flock for the summer. He hated it; he was utterly bored. Got me to thinking about shepherding in the past. Probably boring then, but they were better at being bored.
Makes me think of the highly literate Hesiod.
Yes! I had often wondered what ancient shepherds got up to all day.
I did my dissertation research in Turkey and one summer got to know a local shepherd. He was tasked with shepherding the whole (very small) village’s flock for the summer. He hated it; he was utterly bored. Got me to thinking about shepherding in the past. Probably boring then, but they were better at being bored.