Courier List
A viewset for viewing and editing Couriers.
GET /api/sc/couriers/?format=api&page=6
{ "count": 410, "next": "https://seshat-db.com/api/sc/couriers/?format=api&page=7", "previous": "https://seshat-db.com/api/sc/couriers/?format=api&page=5", "results": [ { "id": 252, "polity": { "id": 133, "name": "pk_sind_abbasid_fatimid", "long_name": "Sind - Abbasid-Fatimid Period", "start_year": 854, "end_year": 1193 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": "A postal service seems to have existed under the Abbasids, but, judging from the literature consulted, it remains unclear whether such a system was present in Sind as well at this time.\r\n\r\n \"As long-distance trade grew, so, too, did the institutions supporting it. Investment patterns, for example. shifted from mostly land based in the late eighth century to a variety of commercial applications, including ships, horses, and shops in the ninth century. A private express courier service augmented the official Abbasid courier system.\" (Gutelius 2015, 2) §REF§(Pomeranz, K., Northrup, C.C., Bentley, J.H., Topik, S., Eckes Jr, A.E. and Manning, P., 2015. Encyclopedia of World Trade: From Ancient Times to the Present: From Ancient Times to the Present. Routledge.)§REF§" }, { "id": 253, "polity": { "id": 121, "name": "pk_kachi_urban_1", "long_name": "Kachi Plain - Urban Period I", "start_year": -2500, "end_year": -2100 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Probably to facilitate trade and diplomatic relations§REF§(Ceccarelli, pers. comm. to E. Cioni, Feb 2017)§REF§." }, { "id": 254, "polity": { "id": 122, "name": "pk_kachi_urban_2", "long_name": "Kachi Plain - Urban Period II", "start_year": -2100, "end_year": -1800 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Probably to facilitate trade and diplomatic relations§REF§(Ceccarelli, pers. comm. to E. Cioni, Feb 2017)§REF§." }, { "id": 255, "polity": { "id": 194, "name": "ru_sakha_early", "long_name": "Sakha - Early", "start_year": 1400, "end_year": 1632 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " Sieroszewski -writing in the Russian period- mentions couriers, but their status as professionals is unclear: 'I spent the autumn of 1884 in the Kolymsk Ulus, at Engzha, in the home of the old man Ivan Sleptsov, who had just been chosen prince of the Second Kangalas Nasleg. Once, in the middle of October, a courier was sent to us from the valley of Ungdzha, with an invitation to a wedding. The clansmen invited their prince, and I was invited to come along. We had to travel approximately seventy versts on horse-back; we spent one night on the road and arrived at the home of the Yakut Dmitrii, who was holding the wedding, at daybreak on the next day. He was giving away his daughter in marriage, and the forthcoming festivity was the first and most important of the marriage ceremonies. Approaching the homestead we constantly outrode groups of mounted Yakut, while near the house we encountered a group of women leading a cow. These all were people belonging to the clan of the bride: they were hurrying to the wedding. The bridal train of the bridegroom, it turned out, was riding behind us. It consisted of the father of the bridegroom, his uncle, the match-maker - some distant relative, and an elder cousin of the bridegroom. All of them were dressed in their best costumes, and rode on their best horses along the road in single file, one behind the other. At the very end of the procession rode the young bridegroom and led behind him a pair of horses, loaded with meat. The match-maker also led a pair of pack horses.' §REF§Sieroszewski, Wacław 1993. “Yakut: An Experiment In Ethnographic Research”, 842§REF§ We have assumed that prior to Russian rule, messengers were community members rather than professionals." }, { "id": 256, "polity": { "id": 195, "name": "ru_sakha_late", "long_name": "Sakha - Late", "start_year": 1632, "end_year": 1900 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Sieroszewski mentions couriers, but their status as professionals is unclear: 'I spent the autumn of 1884 in the Kolymsk Ulus, at Engzha, in the home of the old man Ivan Sleptsov, who had just been chosen prince of the Second Kangalas Nasleg. Once, in the middle of October, a courier was sent to us from the valley of Ungdzha, with an invitation to a wedding. The clansmen invited their prince, and I was invited to come along. We had to travel approximately seventy versts on horse-back; we spent one night on the road and arrived at the home of the Yakut Dmitrii, who was holding the wedding, at daybreak on the next day. He was giving away his daughter in marriage, and the forthcoming festivity was the first and most important of the marriage ceremonies. Approaching the homestead we constantly outrode groups of mounted Yakut, while near the house we encountered a group of women leading a cow. These all were people belonging to the clan of the bride: they were hurrying to the wedding. The bridal trainof the bridegroom, it turned out, was riding behind us. It consisted of the father of the bridegroom, his uncle, the match-maker - some distant relative, and an elder cousin of the bridegroom. All of them were dressed in their best costumes, and rode on their best horses along the road in single file, one behind the other. At the very end of the procession rode the young bridegroom and led behind him a pair of horses, loaded with meat. The match-maker also led a pair of pack horses.' §REF§Sieroszewski, Wacław 1993. “Yakut: An Experiment In Ethnographic Research”, 842§REF§ On the other hand, the material on the growing postal system (see below) seems to support this." }, { "id": 257, "polity": { "id": 521, "name": "eg_kushite", "long_name": "Egypt - Kushite Period", "start_year": -747, "end_year": -656 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "present", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 258, "polity": { "id": 131, "name": "sy_umayyad_cal", "long_name": "Umayyad Caliphate", "start_year": 661, "end_year": 750 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "present", "comment": null, "description": " §REF§(Silverstein 2007)§REF§" }, { "id": 259, "polity": { "id": 462, "name": "tj_sarasm", "long_name": "Sarazm", "start_year": -3500, "end_year": -2000 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 260, "polity": { "id": 221, "name": "tn_fatimid_cal", "long_name": "Fatimid Caliphate", "start_year": 909, "end_year": 1171 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "present", "comment": null, "description": " a 'ḥamā'mi' referred to those who trained \"despatcher of carrier pigeons and letters from one town to another\" in Iraq, Egypt and Syria: 9th, 10th 11th CE. §REF§(Shatzmiller 1993, 140) Shatzmiller, Maya. 1994. Labour in the Medieval Islamic World. E. J. BRILL. Leiden.§REF§. “In the tenth century a commercial network came to exist alongside this state-run system, or at least its emergence is documented for the tenth century and especially for the Fatimid period, when merchants came to play an organized role in transmitting messages…Subsumed under this discussion is an examination of the postal systems in the parallel dynasties such as the tenth- and eleventh-century Fatimids in Egypt—who raised the use of pigeons to a whole new level” §REF§(Matthee 2011, 366) Matthee, Rudi., 2011. Review of Postal Systems in the Pre-Modern Islamic World. Journal of World History 22(2). <a class=\"external free\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/2S554ZK2/item-list\" rel=\"nofollow\">https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/2S554ZK2/item-list</a>§REF§." }, { "id": 261, "polity": { "id": 163, "name": "tr_konya_lba", "long_name": "Konya Plain - Late Bronze Age II", "start_year": -1500, "end_year": -1400 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Hittite rulers had correspondence with rulers of the neighbouring countries. They needed an efficient system of couriers.§REF§Hoffner H. A. (2009) <i>Letters from the Hittite Kingdom</i>, Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature§REF§ letters \"dispatched by the king to his local officials\" §REF§(Bryce 2002, 17)§REF§" }, { "id": 262, "polity": { "id": 161, "name": "tr_central_anatolia_mba", "long_name": "Middle Bronze Age in Central Anatolia", "start_year": -2000, "end_year": -1700 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Had bureaucrats. Full-time messengers would have been useful." }, { "id": 263, "polity": { "id": 73, "name": "tr_byzantine_emp_1", "long_name": "Byzantine Empire I", "start_year": 632, "end_year": 866 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "present", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 264, "polity": { "id": 75, "name": "tr_byzantine_emp_2", "long_name": "Byzantine Empire II", "start_year": 867, "end_year": 1072 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Preiser-Kapeller says present.§REF§(Preiser-Kapeller 2015) Institute for Medieval Research, Division of Byzantine Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences)§REF§" }, { "id": 265, "polity": { "id": 76, "name": "tr_byzantine_emp_3", "long_name": "Byzantine Empire III", "start_year": 1073, "end_year": 1204 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Preiser-Kapeller says present.§REF§(Preiser-Kapeller 2015) Institute for Medieval Research, Division of Byzantine Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences)§REF§" }, { "id": 266, "polity": { "id": 170, "name": "tr_cappadocia_2", "long_name": "Late Cappadocia", "start_year": -330, "end_year": 16 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 267, "polity": { "id": 158, "name": "tr_konya_eca", "long_name": "Konya Plain - Early Chalcolithic", "start_year": -6000, "end_year": -5500 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "absent", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 268, "polity": { "id": 159, "name": "tr_konya_lca", "long_name": "Konya Plain - Late Chalcolithic", "start_year": -5500, "end_year": -3000 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "absent", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 269, "polity": { "id": 72, "name": "tr_east_roman_emp", "long_name": "East Roman Empire", "start_year": 395, "end_year": 631 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "present", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 270, "polity": { "id": 164, "name": "tr_hatti_new_k", "long_name": "Hatti - New Kingdom", "start_year": -1400, "end_year": -1180 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Hittite rulers had correspondence with rulers of the neighbouring countries. They needed an efficient system of couriers.§REF§Hoffner H. A. (2009) <i>Letters from the Hittite Kingdom</i>, Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature§REF§ Letters were \"dispatched by the king to his local officials\" §REF§(Bryce 2002, 17)§REF§" }, { "id": 271, "polity": { "id": 162, "name": "tr_hatti_old_k", "long_name": "Hatti - Old Kingdom", "start_year": -1650, "end_year": -1500 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Hittite rulers had correspondence with rulers of the neighbouring countries. They needed an efficient system of couriers.§REF§Hoffner H. A. (2009) <i>Letters from the Hittite Kingdom</i>, Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature§REF§ letters \"dispatched by the king to his local officials\" §REF§(Bryce 2002, 17)§REF§" }, { "id": 272, "polity": { "id": 168, "name": "tr_lydia_k", "long_name": "Kingdom of Lydia", "start_year": -670, "end_year": -546 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 273, "polity": { "id": 169, "name": "tr_lysimachus_k", "long_name": "Lysimachus Kingdom", "start_year": -323, "end_year": -281 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "present", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 274, "polity": { "id": 157, "name": "tr_konya_lnl", "long_name": "Konya Plain - Late Neolithic", "start_year": -6600, "end_year": -6000 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " No evidence for writing or other record-keeping devices." }, { "id": 275, "polity": { "id": 173, "name": "tr_ottoman_emirate", "long_name": "Ottoman Emirate", "start_year": 1299, "end_year": 1402 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "present", "comment": null, "description": "§REF§Personal communication. Johannes Preiser-Kapeller. 2016. Institute for Medieval Research. Division of Byzantine Research. Austrian Academy of Sciences.§REF§" }, { "id": 276, "polity": { "id": 174, "name": "tr_ottoman_emp_1", "long_name": "Ottoman Empire I", "start_year": 1402, "end_year": 1517 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Postal system called ulak. System of postal stations was similar to the Mongol yam. §REF§(Karman and Kunevi 2013, 59)§REF§" }, { "id": 277, "polity": { "id": 175, "name": "tr_ottoman_emp_2", "long_name": "Ottoman Empire II", "start_year": 1517, "end_year": 1683 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "present", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 278, "polity": { "id": 176, "name": "tr_ottoman_emp_3", "long_name": "Ottoman Empire III", "start_year": 1683, "end_year": 1839 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "present", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 279, "polity": { "id": 166, "name": "tr_phrygian_k", "long_name": "Phrygian Kingdom", "start_year": -900, "end_year": -695 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 280, "polity": { "id": 71, "name": "tr_roman_dominate", "long_name": "Roman Empire - Dominate", "start_year": 285, "end_year": 394 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "present", "comment": null, "description": " \"Before Augustus, Romans wanting to post a letter had to find a courier wherever they could, and work out the arrangements for delivery ad hoc. But by Cicero's day [i.e. c100 BCE] there had evolved a number of fairly regular means by which one could send a letter.\" This included \"a private system of letter carriers maintained by the publicani, whose business of collecting taxes in the provinces necessitated a reliable means of communication over long distances... a private individual could arrange for these couriers, called tabellarri, to carry personal letters along with the business correspondence of their companies.\"§REF§(Nicholson 1994)§REF§" }, { "id": 281, "polity": { "id": 171, "name": "tr_rum_sultanate", "long_name": "Rum Sultanate", "start_year": 1077, "end_year": 1307 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "present", "comment": null, "description": "Postal system mentioned in the following quote.\r\n\r\n“Most of the dated caravanserais are from the period before the disturbances of the year 659/1261. One group clusters around the Phrygian hills near the source of the Sangarios, between modern Afyonkarahisar and Seyitgazi, and two more survive in the Maeander region, near the town of Denizli. Unfortunately, the inscriptions from the northern set of caravanserais have not survived, although that at Deve Han near Seyitgazi was apparently constructed in 1207–1208, and Egret Han perhaps in 1260. Slightly further from the frontier lies an earlier caravanserai, the Çardak Han, built in 627/1230. As we shall see, there is also literary evidence of other caravanserais in the area that have not survived. The caravanserais, traditionally thought to have been used as rest places for itinerant caravans, suggest cross-border trade, linking the western peripheries of the Seljuk state and the Nicaean Empire to the major economic centres in central Anatolia, Konya and Kayseri, and to Seljuk emporia on the Mediterranean. However, there are few such buildings on the Nicaean side of the border, and it has been suggested that commerce was just one function of caravanserais. They also projected and symbolised the power of the Seljuk state and its officials who built them, and served a variety of purposes to facilitate state administration, among them accommodation for itinerant officials or even sultans, as part of the postal and intelligence system, and supporting tax collection and military manoeuvres.”§REF§(Peacock 2014, 278) A.C.S. Peacock (2014) The Seljuk Sultanate of Rūm and the Turkmen of the Byzantine frontier, 1206–1279*, Al-Masāq, 26:3, 267-287, DOI: 10.1080/09503110.2014.956476. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/DE43VD2V/library§REF§" }, { "id": 282, "polity": { "id": 167, "name": "tr_tabal_k", "long_name": "Tabal Kingdoms", "start_year": -900, "end_year": -730 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "present", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 283, "polity": { "id": 32, "name": "us_cahokia_1", "long_name": "Cahokia - Lohman-Stirling", "start_year": 1050, "end_year": 1199 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": " No direct evidence for messengers but may be inferred present due to the scale of the integration and hierarchy." }, { "id": 284, "polity": { "id": 33, "name": "us_cahokia_2", "long_name": "Cahokia - Moorehead", "start_year": 1200, "end_year": 1275 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": " No direct evidence for messengers but may be inferred present due to the scale of the integration and hierarchy." }, { "id": 285, "polity": { "id": 101, "name": "us_haudenosaunee_1", "long_name": "Haudenosaunee Confederacy - Early", "start_year": 1566, "end_year": 1713 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Messages were transmitted by 'runners' or couriers: 'A brief reference to Indian runners will not be in appropriate in this connection. To convey intelligence from nation to nation, and to spread information throughout the Confederacy, as in summoning councils upon public exigencies, trained runners were employed. But three days were necessary, it is said, to convey intelligence from Buffalo to Albany. Swiftness of foot was an acquirement, among the Iroquois, which brought the individual into high repute. A trained runner would traverse a hundred miles per day. With relays, which were sometimes resorted to, the length of the day's journey could be considerably increased. It is said that the runners of Montezuma conveyed intelligence to him of the movements of Cortes, at the rate of two hundred miles per day; but this must be regarded as extravagant. During the last war, a runner left Tonawanda at daylight in the summer season, for Avon, a distance of forty miles upon the trail. He delivered his message, and reached Tonawanda again about noon. In the night their runners were guided by the stars, from which they learned to keep their direction, and regain it, if perchance they lost their way. During the fall and winter, they determined their course by the Pleiades, or Seven Stars. This group in the neck of Taurus, they called Got-gwär[unknown] -där. In the spring and summer they ran by another group, which they named Gwe-o-gä[unknown] -ah, or the Loon, four stars at the angles of a rhombus. In preparing to carry messages they denuded themselves entirely, with the exception of the Gä-kä[unknown] -ah, or breech cloth, and a belt. They were usually sent out in pairs, and took their way through the forest, one behind the other, in perfect silence.' §REF§Morgan, Lewis Henry, and Herbert M. Lloyd. 1901. “League Of The Ho-De’-No-Sau-Nee Or Iroquois. Vol. Ii”, 105§REF§ 'If the envoy of a foreign people desired to submit a proposition to the sachems of the League, and applied to the Senecas for that purpose, the sachems of that nation would first determine whether the question was of sufficient importance to authorize a council. If they arrived at an affirmative conclusion, they immediately sent out runners to the Cayugas, the nation nearest in position, with a belt of wampum. This belt announced that, on a certain day thereafter, at such a place, and for such and such purposes, mentioning them, a council of the League would assemble. The Cayugas then notified the Onondagas, they the Oneidas, and these the Mohawks. Each nation, within its own confines, spread the information far and wide; and thus, in a space of time astonishingly brief, intelligence of the council was heralded from one extremity of their country to the other. It produced a stir among the people in proportion to the magnitude and importance of the business to be transacted. If the subject was calculated to arouse a deep feeling of interest, one common impulse from the Hudson to the Niagara, and from the St. Lawrence to the Susquehanna, drew them towards the council-fire. Sachems, chiefs and warriors, women, and even children, deserted their hunting grounds and woodland seclusions, and taking the trail, literally flocked to the place of council. When the day arrived, a multitude had gathered together, from the most remote and toilsome distances, but yet animated by an unyielding spirit of hardihood and endurance.' §REF§Morgan, Lewis Henry, and Herbert M. Lloyd 1901. “League Of The Ho-De’-No-Sau-Nee Or Iroquois. Vol. I”, 104§REF§ 'Upon the death of a sachem the nation in which the loss had occurred had power to summon a council, and designate the day and place. If the Oneidas, for example, had lost a ruler, they sent out runners at the earliest convenient day, with “belts of invitation” to the sachems of the League, and to the people at large, to assemble around their national council-fire at Gä-no-a-lo[unknown] -häle. The invitation was circulated in the same manner, and with the same celerity as in convoking a civil council. These belts or the strings of wampum, sent out on such occasions, conveyed a laconic inessage: “the name” of the deceased “calls for a council.” It also announced the place and the time.' §REF§Morgan, Lewis Henry, and Herbert M. Lloyd 1901. “League Of The Ho-De’-No-Sau-Nee Or Iroquois. Vol. I”, 110§REF§" }, { "id": 286, "polity": { "id": 102, "name": "us_haudenosaunee_2", "long_name": "Haudenosaunee Confederacy - Late", "start_year": 1714, "end_year": 1848 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Messages were transmitted by 'runners' or couriers: 'A brief reference to Indian runners will not be in appropriate in this connection. To convey intelligence from nation to nation, and to spread information throughout the Confederacy, as in summoning councils upon public exigencies, trained runners were employed. But three days were necessary, it is said, to convey intelligence from Buffalo to Albany. Swiftness of foot was an acquirement, among the Iroquois, which brought the individual into high repute. A trained runner would traverse a hundred miles per day. With relays, which were sometimes resorted to, the length of the day's journey could be considerably increased. It is said that the runners of Montezuma conveyed intelligence to him of the movements of Cortes, at the rate of two hundred miles per day; but this must be regarded as extravagant. During the last war, a runner left Tonawanda at daylight in the summer season, for Avon, a distance of forty miles upon the trail. He delivered his message, and reached Tonawanda again about noon. In the night their runners were guided by the stars, from which they learned to keep their direction, and regain it, if perchance they lost their way. During the fall and winter, they determined their course by the Pleiades, or Seven Stars. This group in the neck of Taurus, they called Got-gwär[unknown] -där. In the spring and summer they ran by another group, which they named Gwe-o-gä[unknown] -ah, or the Loon, four stars at the angles of a rhombus. In preparing to carry messages they denuded themselves entirely, with the exception of the Gä-kä[unknown] -ah, or breech cloth, and a belt. They were usually sent out in pairs, and took their way through the forest, one behind the other, in perfect silence.' §REF§Morgan, Lewis Henry, and Herbert M. Lloyd. 1901. “League Of The Ho-De’-No-Sau-Nee Or Iroquois. Vol. Ii”, 105§REF§ 'If the envoy of a foreign people desired to submit a proposition to the sachems of the League, and applied to the Senecas for that purpose, the sachems of that nation would first determine whether the question was of sufficient importance to authorize a council. If they arrived at an affirmative conclusion, they immediately sent out runners to the Cayugas, the nation nearest in position, with a belt of wampum. This belt announced that, on a certain day thereafter, at such a place, and for such and such purposes, mentioning them, a council of the League would assemble. The Cayugas then notified the Onondagas, they the Oneidas, and these the Mohawks. Each nation, within its own confines, spread the information far and wide; and thus, in a space of time astonishingly brief, intelligence of the council was heralded from one extremity of their country to the other. It produced a stir among the people in proportion to the magnitude and importance of the business to be transacted. If the subject was calculated to arouse a deep feeling of interest, one common impulse from the Hudson to the Niagara, and from the St. Lawrence to the Susquehanna, drew them towards the council-fire. Sachems, chiefs and warriors, women, and even children, deserted their hunting grounds and woodland seclusions, and taking the trail, literally flocked to the place of council. When the day arrived, a multitude had gathered together, from the most remote and toilsome distances, but yet animated by an unyielding spirit of hardihood and endurance.' §REF§Morgan, Lewis Henry, and Herbert M. Lloyd 1901. “League Of The Ho-De’-No-Sau-Nee Or Iroquois. Vol. I”, 104§REF§ 'Upon the death of a sachem the nation in which the loss had occurred had power to summon a council, and designate the day and place. If the Oneidas, for example, had lost a ruler, they sent out runners at the earliest convenient day, with “belts of invitation” to the sachems of the League, and to the people at large, to assemble around their national council-fire at Gä-no-a-lo[unknown] -häle. The invitation was circulated in the same manner, and with the same celerity as in convoking a civil council. These belts or the strings of wampum, sent out on such occasions, conveyed a laconic inessage: “the name” of the deceased “calls for a council.” It also announced the place and the time.' §REF§Morgan, Lewis Henry, and Herbert M. Lloyd 1901. “League Of The Ho-De’-No-Sau-Nee Or Iroquois. Vol. I”, 110§REF§ We are unsure as to whether and when the practice was discontinued during the reservation period." }, { "id": 287, "polity": { "id": 20, "name": "us_kamehameha_k", "long_name": "Kingdom of Hawaii - Kamehameha Period", "start_year": 1778, "end_year": 1819 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": " Chiefs had retainers who would carry messages quickly through the chiefdom§REF§Kirch, P. V. 1985. Feathered Gods and Fishhooks: An Introduction to Hawaiian Archaeology and Prehistory. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Pg. 266.§REF§, but they do not appear to be full-time." }, { "id": 288, "polity": { "id": 22, "name": "us_woodland_1", "long_name": "Cahokia - Early Woodland", "start_year": -600, "end_year": -150 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "absent", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 289, "polity": { "id": 34, "name": "us_emergent_mississippian_2", "long_name": "Cahokia - Emergent Mississippian II", "start_year": 900, "end_year": 1049 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "present", "comment": null, "description": " No direct evidence for messengers but may be inferred present due to the scale of the integration and hierarchy." }, { "id": 290, "polity": { "id": 25, "name": "us_woodland_4", "long_name": "Cahokia - Late Woodland II", "start_year": 450, "end_year": 600 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "absent", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 291, "polity": { "id": 23, "name": "us_woodland_2", "long_name": "Cahokia - Middle Woodland", "start_year": -150, "end_year": 300 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "absent", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 292, "polity": { "id": 26, "name": "us_woodland_5", "long_name": "Cahokia - Late Woodland III", "start_year": 600, "end_year": 750 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "absent", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 293, "polity": { "id": 24, "name": "us_woodland_3", "long_name": "Cahokia - Late Woodland I", "start_year": 300, "end_year": 450 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "absent", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 294, "polity": { "id": 27, "name": "us_emergent_mississippian_1", "long_name": "Cahokia - Emergent Mississippian I", "start_year": 750, "end_year": 900 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "absent", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 295, "polity": { "id": 296, "name": "uz_chagatai_khanate", "long_name": "Chagatai Khanate", "start_year": 1227, "end_year": 1402 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "present", "comment": null, "description": " The yam horse relay communication system.§REF§(Khan 2003, 32) Khan, A. 2003. A Historical Atlas of Uzbekistan. The Rosen Publishing Group.§REF§" }, { "id": 296, "polity": { "id": 469, "name": "uz_janid_dyn", "long_name": "Khanate of Bukhara", "start_year": 1599, "end_year": 1747 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Present in Timurid times, perhaps maintained in succeeding khaganates." }, { "id": 297, "polity": { "id": 287, "name": "uz_samanid_emp", "long_name": "Samanid Empire", "start_year": 819, "end_year": 999 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "present", "comment": null, "description": " \"with the reign of Nasr II (r.914-43) the administrative bureaus of the Samanid state reached a level of complexity that could support an independent Barid system.\" §REF§(Silverstein 2007, 126-127) Silverstein, Adam J. 2007. Postal Systems in the Pre-Modern Islamic World. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.§REF§" }, { "id": 298, "polity": { "id": 468, "name": "uz_sogdiana_city_states", "long_name": "Sogdiana - City-States Period", "start_year": 604, "end_year": 711 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 299, "polity": { "id": 370, "name": "uz_timurid_emp", "long_name": "Timurid Empire", "start_year": 1370, "end_year": 1526 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Envoys and couriers.§REF§(Marozzi 2004, 103) Marozzi, J. 2004. Tamerlane. HarperCollinsPublishers. London.§REF§" }, { "id": 300, "polity": { "id": 353, "name": "ye_himyar_1", "long_name": "Himyar I", "start_year": 270, "end_year": 340 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Messengers included diplomats. \"The inscriptions also prove that the Himyarites employed a relatively efficient intelligence gathering organization, consisting of spies and agents that provided the commanders with timely information on enemy actions. The Himyarites were part of the international trade network and therefore it is not surprising that their diplomats could be found in Roman territory, Aksum, Ctesiphon, and in India.\"§REF§(Syvanne 2015, 136) Ilkka Syvanne. 2015. Military History of Late Rome 284-361. Pen and Sword. Barnsley.§REF§" }, { "id": 301, "polity": { "id": 354, "name": "ye_himyar_2", "long_name": "Himyar II", "start_year": 378, "end_year": 525 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Courier", "courier": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Messengers included diplomats. \"The inscriptions also prove that the Himyarites employed a relatively efficient intelligence gathering organization, consisting of spies and agents that provided the commanders with timely information on enemy actions. The Himyarites were part of the international trade network and therefore it is not surprising that their diplomats could be found in Roman territory, Aksum, Ctesiphon, and in India.\"§REF§(Syvanne 2015, 136) Ilkka Syvanne. 2015. Military History of Late Rome 284-361. Pen and Sword. Barnsley.§REF§" } ] }