Percy:  The 3-Wheel sets the parameters of the trade circuit that anchors us in reality as we explore the abstract energy spinning off it.  From it we build our first 3D tool.  The Trade Grid.  Here is Screen B's up on the Big Screen.

Red:  A Quadrant anchored in a grid?  I recognize many of those places...all part of the trade lanes?

Percy:  The Grid contains the trade lanes that connect the coordinates of our 3-Wheel: the infrastructure anchor, the Empire HQ and the mine/money supply.  The Grid shows that in 3D Abstract Space you move along three axes...x, y and z. 

Red:  The numbers represent when a node was conquered by the Persians? 

Percy:  Yep.

Red:  And how do you determine which nodes to mark?  I assume without grammar?

Percy:  Remember that catchy maxim about trade infrastructure?

Red:  It does not lie!

Percy:  The Abe Lincoln of commerce.  We can determine trade infrastructure from geographical maps of trade lanes and a little Wiki confirmation.  Ultimately I hope to have GIS base layers we can slide in and out.  But the mapping is fairly easy.  Just look for the next node in each direction from your anchor point.  Then the major crossroads after that, until you hit either the HQ or the mine.  As you can see, the eastern side ends at Susa, HQ of the Persian Empire.  The western side ends at the mines of Sardis, source of the medium of money.

Red:  And the Nile Delta?

Percy:  The Nile wetlands have two essential commodities.  Surplus food from irrigated agriculture and papyrus, the writing surface made from the stem of an aquatic reed.  No papyrus, no message.  No messages....

Red:  Wait, wait... no messages...no Empire! 

Percy:  For want of a message, an empire is lost...

Red:  Huh?

Percy:  You know, for want of a nail, a horseshoe...never mind, just a silly take on a proverb about chains of causality leading to military calamity...anyway, the Nile Delta completes the loop because it also connects to Sardis by sea via Cyprus. 

Red:  So what are the Intake Valves on three of the four sides? 

Percy:  They are the points where commodities enter or exit the trade network.  The location of those valves structure the system.  This is easier to grasp with a map.   Here's one for Screen B.   See Sidebar: the Trade Circuit Map

Red:  Yeah.  I see why we need the map, essential...but how does the Jezreel Valley fit into the Trade Circuit?  What does it provide in terms of goods and services?

Percy:  It's an obstacle.  The unavoidable constriction point in the overland artery between the Nile Delta supply depot and the Europe-to-Asia metal trade.  To its northwest is the port of Acre, which connects to the sea lanes just below the Lebanon Massif.  The water cascading off the southern flanks of these mountains fills a large natural reservoir to the Valley's northeast, the Sea of Galilee,

Red:  That's it?  A fertile crossroads between a port and lake?

Percy:  Pretty much.  But what a crossroads.  The only viable overland connection between the first two components of the farm, and adjacent to the trade lane that pumps money into the system.  The Levant back then was like a manifold in the Resource Exploitation Machine's engine... And that machine has metastasized -- in only a hundred generations -- to domesticate the entire human race.  I think this creates an interesting dialectic for testing our hypothesis.  Don't you?

Red:  Um...I guess.

Percy:  So now that we've identified the last of a generation-long chain of events linked to the Jezreel Valley -- the Persian seizure of the Nile -- we can adjust Screen B to 525 BC.  This should place us squarely -- so to speak -- at the start of a new imperial cycle. 

Red:  Right.  I get that...the inevitability of entropy, from destruction to creation...

Percy:  This leads to our final Perimeter Mapping tool, a synthesis of the Trade Grid, 3-Wheel and everything else we've built so far.  Here it is on the Big Screen.

Red:  A Potter's Wheel?  No...a Plotter's Wheel.  Really?

Percy:  Yeah!  Damn fine Concept/Object match, don't you think so?  We are, after all, plotting coordinates with what looks suspiciously like a wheel and axle.  Your all-purpose perception perimeter mapping tool.  The Plotter's Wheel.  See Sidebar: the Potter's Wheel

Red:  So the axle is the Quadrant?  And the black shaft, it's now red? 

Percy:  Signals a full abstract energy charge -- meaning a change in all components of the Dome above the trade node.

Red:  So who manages the Jezreel Valley for the Persians?

Percy:  Don't know.  We are outside, and must stay outside, the Dome.  We just know that the name of the administrative structure changed.  It is now called the Achaemenid Province of Eber-Nari. 

Red:  But, I am sure you can find obscure academic journals...oh, shit, never mind...don't say anything.  That was writing speaking...

Percy:  A good reminder though...in perimeter mapping it is really important you don't go inside a Dome -- that is, searching for info about internal machinations of a state.  The writing will draw you down rabbit holes and distort later plotting with the Tessera...

Red:  Got it...so how do you determine what appears on the Wheel?

Percy:  Very important, but not hard.  Every trade lane is part of a loop, or circuit.  The Grid has already established the trade lanes that connect the Jezreel Valley to the mine and HQ.  Now we parse it down to just the most important crossroads within the circuit and its connection to the mine.

Red:  Why the mine? 

Percy:  That's the commodity we are tracking...

Red:  But not the HQ?  I don't see it on the Wheel.
Percy:  If the HQ directly connects to our anchor, we use it.  But always remember that an administrative HQ can change locations...a mine cannot. 

Red:  I guess I see that...See Sidebar: Plotting the Wheel

Percy:  This should become clearer in subsequent Screens.  What's important here is that we have identified five key components in the Jezreel trade circuit and given them generic names. 

Red:   I see...Western Mines.  Sea Traders.  Asian Gateway.  Supply Depot.  Constriction Point.  But why the generic names?

Percy:  To test them on the rest of the Screens as we bounce back to the future.  The coordinate's conceptual name -- its location and time in reality -- may change, but does the generic concept stay constant?  This is a fundamental part of the dialectical engine...so Red, do you agree that we've identified a trade circuit from the beginning of alphabetic imperialism connected to today's Screen through the Bible? 

Red:  I suppose so...alphabetic imperialism...that's funny.  Like a Victorian Sesame Street.  One more quick question.  How is the Valley at the center and outside of the wheel?

Percy:  Place any node in the center and view the circuit from that perspective.  In fact, you must do this...compare and contrast.  How we establish connections in the energy waves across space and time.  We will try a little spinning of the Wheel on this journey.  But first we need to determine if the Propaganda Portal -- the cap on our Quadrant -- contains a propaganda story that meets our criteria for building a Tessera.

Red:  Why are we doing that now?  Isn't that later?

Percy:  Yeah.  But we need to determine if we should return to the portal for mapping inside a Dome.

Red:  And how do we determine that? 

Percy:  Pretty basic.  First, look for primary sources about the event in Wikipedia.  And apparently the only source is our guiding propaganda concept.  The Bible.  So let's find mentions of key characters we came across in our plotting.  Like Cyrus.  I put his name into Biblehub.com's search engine: 27 times in four books: Chronicles, Daniel, Isiah and especially Ezra.  And Wikipedia tells us the imperial transition in the Levant has a Biblical story name...the End of the Babylonian Exile.

Red:  Right.  I've heard of that.  The Jews had been deported by, what's his name?  Saddam Hussein compared himself to...

Percy:  Nebuchadnezzer.  Bible says he destroyed their temple, deported Jewish elites to Babylon.  Cyrus ended their captivity with an edict -- a written law -- in 538 BC. 

Red:  I see.  One year after the Persian conquest of Babylon.  So we can use this story to build a Tessera?

Percy:  Only if it meets the criteria.  To start, did it appear on the Screen during the event?  A quick Wiki check tells us it was probably written decades after. See Sidebar: Why Live Propaganda?

Red:  So we can't plot inside the Dome?  We've wasted our time?

Percy:  Not at all.  We have found a crucible -- if not the crucible -- of today's Abstract Space. 

Red:  Yeah.  Of course.  The Bible.

Percy:  Propagating the faith since the 6th Century BC.  And even though it didn't impact the events it describes, those stories -- as you noted -- turned into powerful propaganda that has impacted Screens ever since.  This is why the Bible is our North Star.  And it has opened our initial gateway into Abstract Space, one stretching from the birth of the imperial alphabet through to today.  Here it is on the Big Screen. (see below)

Red:  Whoa...

Percy:  The Armageddon Gateway. Our fixed entry point into The Armageddon Torus, where we will use our mapping tools to plot the initial parameters of Abstract Space.  This is an approximation of a 4D perspective on a 2D surface, but essentially we are peering down that big Past Event Cone to the oldest celestial body visible in today's Abstract Space.  The Bible.   It contains the mapping concepts and tools we covered up to this point.  The external circuit -- numbered 1 to 12 -- contains the main mapping concepts.  The next ring, in red, represents the Trade Circuit that we will ride back to the future.  And the black one just inside it contains the imperial transitions at the Jezreel Valley Constriction Point. 

Red:  Our lettered Screens...kinda looks like an optical calibration tool.  Do those rings rotate?

Percy:  Just like reality itself.  We initiate a mapping sequence by aligning a lettered Screen with a Roman numeral from the Trade Circuit.  Cross the Screen and immediately drop to that point in the spacetime fabric of Abstract Space. 

Red:  This is a trip, Percy.

Percy:  And it's just beginning...let's pop back out and take a look at our next Torus, which opens up The Circuit of the Setting.