Achaemenid Empire Aramaic written lingua franca

One written language crossed a vast empire

The Achaemenid Empire used Aramaic for writing across regions where people spoke different languages. Scholars think this shared written language helped hold the far-flung empire together. Aramaic script and words also remained in the Pahlavi writing system.

The same harvest once would have needed almost four times as much land

Nearly 4× As Much Land

With the average crop yields of 1900, producing the amount of food harvested in 2000 would have required almost four times as much land. It would have taken nearly half of Earth's ice-free land instead of less than 15%. Synthetic nitrogen fertilizer was a major reason yields rose.

The money in your bank account legally belongs to the bank

When you deposit money in an ordinary bank account, you generally become a creditor of the bank rather than the owner of particular notes stored for safekeeping. The bank owes you the account balance and can use deposited funds within banking rules. Your balance is a claim against the bank, not a labeled pile of cash waiting in a vault.

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Achaemenid Empire Aramaic written lingua franca

One written language crossed a vast empire

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