Chapter 42
October – 3,390 BC
Earth: Village of Assur
JAMIN
He felt like a man being led to his own execution. His father had ordered he would marry Shahla at the late-autumn harvest festival, when they harvested the last remaining stalks of emmer, einkorn and barley before the winter rains deluged the fields. Today, Ninsianna's father would perform a shamanic ceremony to cut the last sheath of grain, fashion it into a wreath, and then crown a prince to march outside the city to reside in an Akitu house for five days. At the end of those five days, the 'Akitu Prince' would be marched back into the village in an elaborate procession and ceremonially marry the Grain Goddess, a symbol of fertility for the coming year. Only this year, since she was already proven fertile, Shahla would be t
