Token List
A viewset for viewing and editing Tokens.
GET /api/sc/tokens/?format=api&page=5
{ "count": 394, "next": "https://seshat-db.com/api/sc/tokens/?format=api&page=6", "previous": "https://seshat-db.com/api/sc/tokens/?format=api&page=4", "results": [ { "id": 201, "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": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": " \"Within the Byzantine Empire, the billion trachy functioned as a virtual token or quasi-token coin. Its equivalence to the hyperpyron was legislated, and, in 1136, it was worth 1/48 of an hyperpyron, that is to say, one gold coin was worth 48 billion trachea or stamena. The intrinsic value of the billion trachy (based on its silver content) would have been much lower. It was, then, against this token coin that the denier and the mark were exchanged.\"§REF§(Laiou 2001, 172) Laiou A E, Mottahedeh R P. 2001. The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim World. Dumbarton Oaks.§REF§" }, { "id": 202, "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": "Token", "token": "absent", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 203, "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": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 204, "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": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Spintria may have been used in the Principate to pay prostitutes although it is also argued that these were gaming pieces." }, { "id": 205, "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": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " Spintria may have been used in the Principate to pay prostitutes although it is also argued that these were gaming pieces." }, { "id": 206, "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": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "absent", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 207, "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": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "absent", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 208, "polity": { "id": 156, "name": "tr_konya_mnl", "long_name": "Konya Plain - Ceramic Neolithic", "start_year": -7000, "end_year": -6600 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "absent", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 209, "polity": { "id": 155, "name": "tr_konya_enl", "long_name": "Konya Plain - Early Neolithic", "start_year": -9600, "end_year": -7000 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 210, "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": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": " At the site of Canhasan I, small stone balls were found and according to alternative interpretation they were identified as tokens used in early numerical systems§REF§French D. 2010.\"Canhasan I: The Small Finds\", The British Institute at Ankara. pg. 56.§REF§" }, { "id": 211, "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": "Token", "token": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 212, "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": "TRS", "is_disputed": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Spintria may have been used in the Principate to pay prostitutes although it is also argued that these were gaming pieces." }, { "id": 213, "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": "TRS", "is_disputed": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " Spintria may have been used in the Principate to pay prostitutes although it is also argued that these were gaming pieces." }, { "id": 214, "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": "Token", "token": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": " Shell beads may have been tokens of exchange." }, { "id": 215, "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": "Token", "token": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": " Shell beads may have been tokens of exchange." }, { "id": 216, "polity": { "id": 30, "name": "us_early_illinois_confederation", "long_name": "Early Illinois Confederation", "start_year": 1640, "end_year": 1717 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 217, "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": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Wampum were used as articles of exchange: 'Wampum. Of the beads that were manufactured and used by the Iroquois those known as “wampum” are by far the most significant. Though the term wampum has been used in some places to include both the discoidal and the cylindrical beads, the true wampum is an Indian-made shell bead, cylindical in form, averaging about one-quarter of an inch in length by an eighth of an inch in diameter, perfectly straight on the sides, with a hole running through it the long way. Some of the wampum beads prepared for commercial trade were as long as half an inch but none of the long beads has been found in the wampum belts. Wampum was made from the quahaug or hard shell clam (Venus Mercenaria) which provides both white and purple beads. The central axis (columellae) of the great conch shell (pyrula Carica), was used for white wampum.' §REF§Lyford, Carrie A. 1945. “Iroquois Crafts”, 45b§REF§ 'The longhouse owns “wampums” which validate its position as a ritual center but which are rarely brought out. Wampum occasionally figures in the ritual, such as the string of wampum used in the rite of confession. But the significance of wampum generally is that because it is a valuable object, it is used to indicate the significance of the event, either by giving it as a commemoration of the event or as being shown in remembrance of the event. Wampum belts, for example, were given at treaties to indicate good faith in the making of the treaty, and might be brought out to remind others of the treaty. In and of itself, wampum is not sacred.' §REF§Tooker, Elisabeth 1970. “Iroquois Ceremonial Of Midwinter”, 30§REF§" }, { "id": 218, "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": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Wampum were used as articles of exchange: 'Wampum. Of the beads that were manufactured and used by the Iroquois those known as “wampum” are by far the most significant. Though the term wampum has been used in some places to include both the discoidal and the cylindrical beads, the true wampum is an Indian-made shell bead, cylindical in form, averaging about one-quarter of an inch in length by an eighth of an inch in diameter, perfectly straight on the sides, with a hole running through it the long way. Some of the wampum beads prepared for commercial trade were as long as half an inch but none of the long beads has been found in the wampum belts. Wampum was made from the quahaug or hard shell clam (Venus Mercenaria) which provides both white and purple beads. The central axis (columellae) of the great conch shell (pyrula Carica), was used for white wampum.' §REF§Lyford, Carrie A. 1945. “Iroquois Crafts”, 45b§REF§ 'The longhouse owns “wampums” which validate its position as a ritual center but which are rarely brought out. Wampum occasionally figures in the ritual, such as the string of wampum used in the rite of confession. But the significance of wampum generally is that because it is a valuable object, it is used to indicate the significance of the event, either by giving it as a commemoration of the event or as being shown in remembrance of the event. Wampum belts, for example, were given at treaties to indicate good faith in the making of the treaty, and might be brought out to remind others of the treaty. In and of itself, wampum is not sacred.' §REF§Tooker, Elisabeth 1970. “Iroquois Ceremonial Of Midwinter”, 30§REF§" }, { "id": 219, "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": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": " \"Taxes were not paid in money, but in the produce of the soil and in the various articles manufactured by the people, there being no native coinage and but very little foreign money in circulation.\" §REF§(Kuykendall 1938, 54)§REF§ Significant \"wealth economy\" in the form of precious feathered garments (cloaks, capes, helmets, lei) which was very important to the ruling elite (the ali'i). §REF§(Kirch 2016, personal communication)§REF§" }, { "id": 220, "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": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Shell beads may have been tokens of exchange." }, { "id": 221, "polity": { "id": 28, "name": "us_cahokia_3", "long_name": "Cahokia - Sand Prairie", "start_year": 1275, "end_year": 1400 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": " Shell beads may have been tokens of exchange." }, { "id": 222, "polity": { "id": 29, "name": "us_oneota", "long_name": "Oneota", "start_year": 1400, "end_year": 1650 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 223, "polity": { "id": 287, "name": "uz_samanid_emp", "long_name": "Samanid Empire", "start_year": 819, "end_year": 999 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 224, "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": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": " \"On the whole, Sogdian great commerce did extremely well without any coinage of its own. A large-scale barter economy operated from one end of Asia to the other, composed of a few deluxe products in universal demand—precious metals, silk, spices, perfumes. Yet it must be noted that what appears to be barter from a western perspective is actually a monetary exchange from the perspective of the Chinese: Sogdian products were paid for in rolls of silk in China, where silk was in fact a money.\" §REF§(De la Vaissière 2005, 174)§REF§" }, { "id": 225, "polity": { "id": 370, "name": "uz_timurid_emp", "long_name": "Timurid Empire", "start_year": 1370, "end_year": 1526 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 226, "polity": { "id": 541, "name": "ye_qasimid_dyn", "long_name": "Yemen - Qasimid Dynasty", "start_year": 1637, "end_year": 1805 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 227, "polity": { "id": 607, "name": "si_early_modern_interior", "long_name": "Early Modern Sierra Leone", "start_year": 1650, "end_year": 1896 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": " \"Unlike other regions in West Africa, coastal Senegambia and Sierra Leone had no significant iron industry of their own and iron bars were the favoured indigenous and non-state controlled monetary medium, or ‘commodity’ currency, and given in exchange or as units or ‘measures’ of value. Like cowries elsewhere, the iron bars were durable, divisible and difficult to counterfeit and they were used for calculating the value of manufactured goods, tobacco, rum, firearms, cloth and other goods. By the nineteenth century the system had become a clumsy medium of exchange though. For example, for the purposes of book-keeping, Sierra Leone Company accounts were recorded in pounds, shillings and pence, whereas for the best part of the late eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries, goods and labour were locally valued in iron bars (or Spanish dollars).\" §REF§(Mew 2016: 200) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/U3D2FQIH/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 228, "polity": { "id": 609, "name": "si_freetown_1", "long_name": "Freetown", "start_year": 1787, "end_year": 1808 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": " \"Unlike other regions in West Africa, coastal Senegambia and Sierra Leone had no significant iron industry of their own and iron bars were the favoured indigenous and non-state controlled monetary medium, or ‘commodity’ currency, and given in exchange or as units or ‘measures’ of value. Like cowries elsewhere, the iron bars were durable, divisible and difficult to counterfeit and they were used for calculating the value of manufactured goods, tobacco, rum, firearms, cloth and other goods. By the nineteenth century the system had become a clumsy medium of exchange though. For example, for the purposes of book-keeping, Sierra Leone Company accounts were recorded in pounds, shillings and pence, whereas for the best part of the late eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries, goods and labour were locally valued in iron bars (or Spanish dollars).\" §REF§(Mew 2016: 200) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/U3D2FQIH/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 229, "polity": { "id": 611, "name": "si_mane_emp", "long_name": "Mane", "start_year": 1550, "end_year": 1650 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"First, prior to the arrival of the first wave of [colonial] settlers [to Freetown in 1787] there existed no centralised currency system that resembled, for example, the gold dust of the Asante Kingdom (where the use of cowries was forbidden). Cowries were not generally much in use in the coastal and hinterland regions of Sierra Leone, and this led to acute problems in introducing coins that were of small enough denominations for local market transactions (in turn leading to problems with cut dollars in 1818).\"§REF§(Mew 2016: 199) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/U3D2FQIH/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 230, "polity": { "id": 616, "name": "si_pre_sape", "long_name": "Pre-Sape Sierra Leone", "start_year": 600, "end_year": 1400 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"First, prior to the arrival of the first wave of [colonial] settlers [to Freetown in 1787] there existed no centralised currency system that resembled, for example, the gold dust of the Asante Kingdom (where the use of cowries was forbidden). Cowries were not generally much in use in the coastal and hinterland regions of Sierra Leone, and this led to acute problems in introducing coins that were of small enough denominations for local market transactions (in turn leading to problems with cut dollars in 1818).\"§REF§(Mew 2016: 199( Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/U3D2FQIH/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 231, "polity": { "id": 621, "name": "si_sape", "long_name": "Sape", "start_year": 1400, "end_year": 1550 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"First, prior to the arrival of the first wave of [colonial] settlers [to Freetown in 1787] there existed no centralised currency system that resembled, for example, the gold dust of the Asante Kingdom (where the use of cowries was forbidden). Cowries were not generally much in use in the coastal and hinterland regions of Sierra Leone, and this led to acute problems in introducing coins that were of small enough denominations for local market transactions (in turn leading to problems with cut dollars in 1818).\"§REF§(Mew 2016: 199( Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/U3D2FQIH/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 232, "polity": { "id": 623, "name": "zi_toutswe", "long_name": "Toutswe", "start_year": 700, "end_year": 1250 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Ostrich eggshell beads; glass beads. Large finds of each have been found in certain Toutswe sites, and their presence in a variety of sites as well as their foreign origins suggest their use as part of trading networks of exchange. “Evidence that both local and long-distance trade goods reached even the smaller sites of the Toutswe hierarchy is provided by the discovery of a pot containing over 2,600 glass beads, 5,000 ostrich eggshell beads [in Kgaswe].” §REF§ (Denbow 1986; 19) James Denbow, “A New Look at the Later Prehistory of the Kalahari,” in The Journal of African History Vol. 27, No.1 (1986): 3-28. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/X3DXN8CW/collection §REF§ “Evidence for this trade [around the vicinity of the Kalahari Desert] is occasionally present from sites in east central Botswana. Primarily this consists of… glass beads. These are regularly if sporadically encountered…. The single largest occurrence… comes from Kgaswe….” §REF§ (Reid & Segobye 2000; 61) Andrew Reid & Alinah Segobye, “Politics, Society and Trade on the Eastern Margins of the Kalahari,” in South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series Vol. 8 (2000): 58-68. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/7KBFCB3J/collection §REF§ " }, { "id": 233, "polity": { "id": 624, "name": "zi_great_zimbabwe", "long_name": "Great Zimbabwe", "start_year": 1270, "end_year": 1550 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Cowries; glass beads. Chirikure notes the presence of both cowries and glass beads within Great Zimbabwe in various locations, and it seems reasonable to infer that these were likely used as trade items in some capacity. “[exotics] such as zvuma (glass beads)… and cowries were recovered in different parts of the site.” §REF§ (Chirikure 2021, 289) Shadreck Chirikure, Great Zimbabwe: Reclaiming a ‘Confiscated’ Past (Routledge, 2021). Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/MWWKAGSJ/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 234, "polity": { "id": 632, "name": "nl_dutch_emp_1", "long_name": "Dutch Empire", "start_year": 1648, "end_year": 1795 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Cowrie shells used in West Africa. \"In the long term, the slave trade began to dominate trade relations with Africa. Until 1730 the slave trade was officially in the hands of the WIC. [...] To be successful in the slave trade, it was essential to have the right goods for the exchange cargo. Without a good mix of textiles, rifles, gunpowder, iron bars, alcohol, utensils and sometimes cowrie shells – which came from the Maldives in the Indian Ocean – there would have been no hope of becoming an attractive trading partner for the African slave traders.\" §REF§(Emmer and Gommans 2020: 228) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 235, "polity": { "id": 656, "name": "ni_yoruba_classic", "long_name": "Classical Ife", "start_year": 1000, "end_year": 1400 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Strings, \"standard measurements of beads\", possibly glass beads. \"Given their quality as a high-value and low-bulk commodity, long-distance travelers likely carried Ifè glass beads across the Yorùbá world and the adjacent areas as a means of payment for provisions on their journeys. The durability and affective qualities of these dichroic beads, especially the most common sègi, and the guarantee of their supply and demand encouraged people to use them as a means of high-value exchange and for storing wealth. We are short of evidence on whether glass beads evolved to serve as a standard currency, especially as a means of pricing. However, strings and other standard measurements of beads were likely used for purchasing high-value products and services.\" §REF§(Ogundiran 2020: 107-108)§REF§" }, { "id": 236, "polity": { "id": 661, "name": "ni_oyo_emp_2", "long_name": "Ilú-ọba Ọ̀yọ́", "start_year": 1601, "end_year": 1835 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": " “Local trade was facilitated by the use as currency of the cowry shell (cypraea moneta), which was imported ultimately from the Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean. The date at which the Oyo adopted this currency is uncertain. The use of cowries in Oyo is first attested in a contemporary source -only in the 1780s.” §REF§Law, R. (1977). The Oyo Empire c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford University Press: 209. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB32ZPCF/collection§REF§ “It is impossible to estimate what proportion of the Alafin's imperial revenues came from these trade taxes as opposed to the fixed tributes. But even these fixed tributes did not, as Ajayi appears to suppose, represent taxes on agricultural production as opposed to trade. A considerable proportion of the tributes was paid in cash-for example, Dahomey paid 400 bags of cowries (about $4,000) annually. And part was paid in the form of imported European goods for example, the tribute of Dahomey included coral, European cloth, muskets, and gunpowder and that of Porto Novo consisted of 'the richest European commodities', while within the Oyo kingdom Ilase paid gunpowder, flints, and tobacco and Ifonyin 'cloths and other articles of European manufacture'.” §REF§Law, R. (1977). The Oyo Empire c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford University Press: 231. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB32ZPCF/collection§REF§ “Oyo rule over the towns of the kingdom involved, first, the payment of an annual tribute (in Yoruba, asingba or isin). The oba and bale of the subordinate towns were required to bring their tribute to Oyo in person at the annual Bere festival, at which they followed the chiefs of the capital in paying their homage and tribute to the Alafin. […] The basic element in the tribute paid by the provincial towns was the bere grass used for the thatching of the palace roofs, the giving of which was symbolic of subordination to the recipient. In some cases, the tribute may have consisted solely of this bere grass. This is claimed, for example, at Iwo. But usually the towns paid additional tributes in money (i.e. cowry shells) and kind. The town of Saki is said to have paid two rams and ten bags of cowries (i.e. 200,000 cowries, or about 100 dollars).” §REF§Law, R. (1977). The Oyo Empire c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford University Press: 98–99. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB32ZPCF/collection§REF§" }, { "id": 237, "polity": { "id": 662, "name": "ni_whydah_k", "long_name": "Whydah", "start_year": 1671, "end_year": 1727 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Cowries: “The second letter of the third section of the 1688 Description comprises an extended description of the kingdom of \"Juda\" or Whydah (133-38). Barbot describes the natural resources of the country, the conduct of the European trade there, the local king and his court, the local religion (especially the veneration of snakes), the administration of justice (including a form of trial by ordeal, the accused being obliged to swim across a crocodile-infested river), burial customs (including human sacrifice), the ceremony of the blood pact, agriculture and crafts, weaponry, the local currency (of cowry shells), domestic slavery and polygamy, and much else besides.”§REF§Law, Robin. “Jean Barbot as a Source for the Slave Coast of West Africa.” History in Africa, vol. 9, 1982, pp. 155–73: 159. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/N4D6NU7J/collection§REF§ “These cowries, brought in the early sixteenth century by the Portuguese, and in the first place by way of Sao Tome, were in use on the coast in the sixteenth century, in both the Benin and Forcados areas; by the seventeenth century they were in use at Whydah and Ardra,\"l and we have discussed above the possibility that cowries may have been already in use in these areas before the arrival of the Portuguese.\" In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Whydah was the main centre of cowrie imports, though cowries were in use as far west as Lay (a little west of modern Ada, west of the Volta) in the 1680s, and in Christiansborg by the early eighteenth century, and probably in the later seventeenth century.” §REF§Johnson, Marion. “The Cowrie Currencies of West Africa. Part I.” The Journal of African History, vol. 11, no. 1, 1970, pp. 17–49: 34-35. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/XZMB8INB/collection§REF§ " }, { "id": 238, "polity": { "id": 666, "name": "ni_sokoto_cal", "long_name": "Sokoto Caliphate", "start_year": 1804, "end_year": 1904 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Cowries: “The cowrie currency of the Caliphate was admirably suited to the low-value transactions that made up most of the day-to-day market activity of that area. At a time when a British penny was worth about 125 cowries and when a person’s food supply for a whole day cost perhaps eighty cowries, buying just a single banana would have posed insuperable difficulty if other moneys were used.” §REF§Stiansen, Endre, and Jane I. Guyer, editors. Credit, Currencies, and Culture: African Financial Institutions in Historical Perspective. Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 1999: 63. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/A9F557EW/collection§REF§ “Within the Sokoto Caliphate, emirs used royal slaves to expand political control over their territory. Royal slaves—numbering between 2,000 and 5,000 in Kano, for example—were prominent and were organized into slave households, which served as a system of recruitment and training. These slaves were usually war captives, with the emir retaining about half, bought using cowry shells as currency.” §REF§Falola, Toyin, and Ann Genova. Historical Dictionary of Nigeria. The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2009: 328. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SJAIVKDW/collection</ref§REF§" }, { "id": 239, "polity": { "id": 667, "name": "ni_igala_k", "long_name": "Igala", "start_year": 1600, "end_year": 1900 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": " “Cowries were second to salt in importance as a currency in the Lower Niger. Ogedengbe estimates that they were introduced from the coast into the Niger valley in the 1820s, and that, by the 1830s, \"cowries had become well established as the major currency of the Niger Valley.\" He observes that cowries did not serve as a medium of exchange in the delta states: they merely \"accepted [them] as commodities from the Europeans, reselling [them] in the hinterlands as valuable currency.\"38 The Lower Niger trade involved traders of different ethnic and therefore linguistic backgrounds. In the main, there were the Ijo of the Niger delta, the Igbo, the Edo, the Igala, and the Hausa. In spite of this diversity, the traders seem to have had little difficulty in communicating and doing business with one another. According to the European testimonies, Hausa was the language of business in the Lower Niger. But of greater importance was the ability of the traders to develop proficiency in several languages.” §REF§ Nwaubani, Ebere. “The Political Economy of Aboh, 1830-1857.” African Economic History, no. 27, 1999, pp. 93–116: 98. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FZIM9AVA/collection§REF§" }, { "id": 240, "polity": { "id": 668, "name": "ni_nri_k", "long_name": "Ọ̀ràézè Ǹrì", "start_year": 1043, "end_year": 1911 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": "“More than by the inflationary import of manilla rings, cowries and iron during the 19th century, the Igbo economy was affected by an increasing import of cheap industrial goods from Europe. Hardwares fabricated in the growing British steel industry competed successfully with the craft products of local smiths. Cheap cotton from Manchester started to replace the various kinds of African cloth, while the missionary activities promoted European standards of prudery and an increasing consumption of textile. The salt formerly produced in the Niger delta was now imported almost as ballast from Liverpool (Jones fthcg.: 623). The European traders developed a monopoly in the salt trade by encouraging their partners, the African coastal chiefs, to prohibit salt production on the coast (Northrup 1978: 213).” §REF§Müller, B. (1985). Commodities as Currencies: The Integration of Overseas Trade into the Internal Trading Structure of the Igbo of South-East Nigeria (Les marchandises comme monnaies: l’intégration de la traite d’outremer dans la structure commerciale interne des Igbo du Sud-Est-Nigeria). Cahiers d’Études Africaines, 25(97), 57–77: 71. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/4SWQS6N5/collection§REF§ “It would appear that by the eighteenth century much of the commercial transactions in Igboland were done in money. Using information gathered in the nineteenth century and early this century, one would discover that many currencies were used in pre-colonial Igboland. These included salt, umumu, cowries, manillas, brass rods and copper wires. […] information available to the present writer would tend to show that as much as one or two currencies might be dominant in one part, there was no area of Igboland where any of them would not have been recognized and used as money.” §REF§ Afigbo, A. E. (1981). Economic Foundations of Pre-Colonial Igbo Society. In Ropes of Sand: Studies in Igbo History and Culture (pp. 124–144). University Press in association with Oxford University Press; 139. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/5I5XITDA/collection§REF§" }, { "id": 241, "polity": { "id": 669, "name": "ni_hausa_k", "long_name": "Hausa bakwai", "start_year": 900, "end_year": 1808 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": " “As for cowrie shells (in Hausa farin kudi, or white money), the date of their introduction into Hausaland is unknown; to the west, in Mali and Songhay, cowries were in circulation from an early date, but they were introduced into Kanem-Bornu only much later, in the nineteenth century. Until recently, it was thought that cowries began to circulate in Hausaland in the eighteenth century,120 but a recently published sixteenth-century source mentions that in Katsina 'they use sea shells, which are very white, as money to buy small objects, as is the case among all the blacks, and gold is exchanged for its weight in goods brought by the merchants'.” §REF§Niane, D. T., & Unesco (Eds.). (1984). Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century. Heinemann; University of California Press: 298. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/ERZKPETN/collection§REF§" }, { "id": 242, "polity": { "id": 670, "name": "ni_bornu_emp", "long_name": "Kanem-Borno", "start_year": 1380, "end_year": 1893 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Gabaga strips of cloth; cowries: “In Bornu, where cowries were introduced in the middle of the nineteenth century along with the Maria Theresa dollar, a different system of counting was in use. The unit of count was the rotl, an Arabic word meaning a pound weight; this unit is believed to have belonged to the copper coinage which was minted in Bornu in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The cowrie rotl consisted of 32 cowries, or four gabaga of eight cowries each (the gabaga was the local traditional currency unit, a strip of cloth, which had replaced the copper coinage in the nineteenth century). According to various writers, the 32-cowrie rotl had a nominal value of 33, the odd cowrie being set aside to help in the counting, as a sort of tally, or as a discount for the trouble of counting. Three rotl would thus make an approximate hundred. This looks very like an attempt to bring a system inherited from currency units which could be physically divided into halves and quarters into relation with the cowrie systems in use on the lower Niger, where strings of 66 and 100 were known. The relation between the rotl and the Maria Theresa dollar was never fixed; in Barth's time it was subject to manipulation by powerful speculators, and ranged between 45 and 100 rotl to the dollar. Nachtigal put it at 120-130 to the dollar, and Monteil in the 1890s at 135-160. The actual counting of cowries in Bornu was done in groups of four, not in fives as elsewhere in northern West Africa; it is probable that this method of counting goes back to the small copper coins of Bornu.” §REF§Johnson, M. (1970). The Cowrie Currencies of West Africa. Part I. The Journal of African History, 11(1), 17–49: 42. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/XZMB8INB/collection§REF§ “In Bornu, where cowries were introduced as an act of state in the middle of the nineteenth century, the counting system is unique, having some affinities with both the northern and the southern systems. Apparently it derived, in part, from a pre-existing system of counting copper coinage. Bornu cowries were counted in groups of four, and in so-called 'rotl' (pounds) of 32 cowries. The Ibo, on the lower Niger, also had a unique system of counting cowries, with a basic unit of six cowries which is not found elsewhere.” §REF§Johnson, M. (1970). The Cowrie Currencies of West Africa. Part I. The Journal of African History, 11(1), 17–49: 37. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/XZMB8INB/collection§REF§ “The earliest currency area of the cowrie which we can trace in West Africa was on the upper and middle Niger in the medieval period. The cowries came in by way of Sijilmasa, but the area in which they were current was apparently cut off from any other cowrie area; it would therefore seem that they must have been introduced deliberately, as an act of state, as in nineteenth-century Bornu, or by a well-organized group of merchants. […] By 1822, when Clapperton was there, cowries had reached Katagum, but not Bornu; we know that they were introduced into Bornu shortly before Barth's visit there in 1850, but had not in his time reached Adamawa.” §REF§Johnson, M. (1970). The Cowrie Currencies of West Africa. Part I. The Journal of African History, 11(1), 17–49: 32–33. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/XZMB8INB/collection§REF§ “Of the different parts of the Central Sudan, only Borno and the area which came to be known as Adamawa did not belong to the cowrie-gold zone for several centuries before 1900; Borno participation began in I848, while Adamawa was drawn in at roughly the same time. Nevertheless, the Borno economy was an essential section of the larger Central Sudan economy long before this time. Indeed, the Hausa cities and Borno together formed a metropolitan region or series of central places from which much economic development radiated.” §REF§Lovejoy, P. E. (1974). Interregional Monetary Flows in the Precolonial Trade of Nigeria. The Journal of African History, 15(4), 563–585: 565. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/58ASG655/collection§REF§ “Cowrie imports continued on the Guinea Coast after i845, but the entrance of Borno into the cowrie zone in 1848, after several decades of government consideration of currency reform, reduced the inflationary influence on the Caliphate economy.35 Borno's withdrawal of large quan- tities of shell from the Hausa country retarded the inflation but did not end it. The early i86os were a period of steep inflation, and the exchange rate doubled to 5,ooo K per silver coin.”§REF§Lovejoy, P. E. (1974). Interregional Monetary Flows in the Precolonial Trade of Nigeria. The Journal of African History, 15(4), 563–585: 577. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/58ASG655/collection§REF§ " }, { "id": 243, "polity": { "id": 671, "name": "ni_dahomey_k", "long_name": "Foys", "start_year": 1715, "end_year": 1894 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": "Cowry shells. “…by the cowry shells which served as currency in local markets. The importance of imported goods in royal largesse was already clear in the 1720S, when Bulfinch Lamb noted that the king of Dahomey 'gives away Booges [cowries] like Dirt, and Brandy like Water'. The importance of cowry shells should especially be stressed: in the second half of the seventeenth century, it appears that between a third and a half of the value of imports into the Slave Coast was normally in cowries. It is somewhat ironic that Peukert points to the existence of a flourishing local exchange economy in Dahomey as part of his argument for the downgrading of the significance of overseas trade. But this flourishing local trade, lubricated by a currency of imported cowry shells, was evidently, in large measure, itself a consequence of the booming Atlantic trade.” §REF§Law, R. (1986). Dahomey and the Slave Trade: Reflections on the Historiography of the Rise of Dahomey. The Journal of African History, 27(2), 237–267: 260. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/9ABZ5ETX/collection§REF§“The counting of cowries in strings and heads was subject to a number of adjustments. In eighteenth-century Dahomey, strung cowries were one cowrie short of the nominal 40, the reward to the stringer for the work of piercing and stringing the shells. […] In the later stages of the nineteenth-century cowrie inflation, part of the loss of value of cowries in Dahomey was taken up by increasing the number of cowries in a string, the number of strings in a head remaining 50. Thus, at Whydah, instead of 40 cowries to the string there were 50; at Alladah and Abomey, 46.” §REF§Johnson, M. (1970). The Cowrie Currencies of West Africa. Part I. The Journal of African History, 11(1), 17–49: 45. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/XZMB8INB/collection§REF§ " }, { "id": 244, "polity": { "id": 672, "name": "ni_benin_emp", "long_name": "Benin Empire", "start_year": 1140, "end_year": 1897 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Cowry shells: “All three associations were concerned with palace revenues and stores. The Iwebo had charge of the Oba’s reserves of cowrie shells, beads, cloth, and other trade goods.” §REF§Bradbury, R. E. (1967). The Kingdom of Benin. In West African Kingdoms in the Nineteenth Century (Repr, pp. 1–35). Published for the International African Institute by Oxford University Press: 23. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/Z8DJIKP8/collection§REF§ “The reign of Oba Esigie witnessed the increasing monetisation of the enclave economy (cowries), and provided the opportunity for the development of \"institutionalized mechanisms of exploitation\" (Belasco 1980, 81-82). The palace control of cowries and the elite domination of commercial development in the administrative and economic enclaves provided the final element in the emergence of the dual economy. The capital and commercial centres had developed highly sophisticated and well-organised monetary exchange systems. However, the vassal villages in the empire remained relatively static, with little circulation of either commercial consumer goods or currency forms (cowries or manillas).” §REF§Sargent, R. A. (1986). From A Redistribution to an Imperial Social Formation: Benin c.1293-1536. Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue Canadienne Des Études Africaines, 20(3), 402–427: 421. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/AUEZSTBR/collection§REF§ “Belasco (1980) argues that strung cowries provided for \"a) trade goods standardization and thereby a means of channeling production to state-defined ends, b) for administering exchange rates and terms of trade, c) for draining wealth out of the social and ritual cycle, d) for enabling trade transactions of ever increasing volume and variety, and e) by its circulation, for the introduction of local autonomous markets to trans-local, state run trade channels.\"” §REF§Sargent, R. A. (1986). From A Redistribution to an Imperial Social Formation: Benin c.1293-1536. Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue Canadienne Des Études Africaines, 20(3), 402–427: 426. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/AUEZSTBR/collection§REF§“De Barros, in the middle of the sixteenth century, wrote: ‘With these shells for ballast, many ships are laden for Bengal and Siam, where they are used for money just as we use small copper coin for buying things of little value. And even to this Kingdom of Portugal, or three thousand quintals are brought by way of ballast; they are then exported to Guinea, and the kingdoms of Benin and Congo, where also they are used for money.’” §REF§§REF§Johnson, M. (1970). The Cowrie Currencies of West Africa. Part I. The Journal of African History, 11(1), 17–49: 19–20. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/XZMB8INB/collection " }, { "id": 245, "polity": { "id": 673, "name": "ni_wukari_fed", "long_name": "Wukari Federation", "start_year": 1820, "end_year": 1899 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": " If these were used as anything other than currency, would be articles rather than tokens: “Kantai, iron objects pointed at each end and thicker in the middle, were another form of currency recognized from Jukun territory to Hamaruwa, farther up-river. According to Barth, ibid., the average rate of exchange around 1851 was forty akika per slave at Wukari, while according to Crowther, Journal of an Expedition 1854, 128, each slave cost thirty-six akika or one hundred kantai.” §REF§Tambo, D. C. (1976). The Sokoto Caliphate Slave Trade in the Nineteenth Century. The International Journal of African Historical Studies, 9(2), 187–217: 203. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2H7Z7CFU/collection§REF§" }, { "id": 246, "polity": { "id": 683, "name": "ug_buganda_k_2", "long_name": "Buganda II", "start_year": 1717, "end_year": 1894 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": " \"As we have noted, pre-colonial Buganda never developed a purely monetary economy, and even during the later nineteenth century barter was an important method of exchange, existing alongside a cowry currency. Nevertheless, the information we have on nineteenth-century prices suggests that virtually everything had at least a nominal cowry value. Moreover, other currencies existed alongside cowries, and some undoubtedly pre-dated the latter. Roscoe mentions a \"small ivory disc\" which he terms 'sanga', ssanga being the Luganda term for either a tusk or ivory in general. This, Roscoe claimed, was one of the earliest forms of money in Buganda; although clearly indigenous and probably much older than the cowry shell, it also had a cowry value. One disc was apparently worth one hundred shells. Ivory played a dual role insofar as it was on the one hand a commodity valued for its own sake, and on the other a standard medium of exchange. The former role gradually took precedence over the latter, as demand for ivory from the coast increased, so that as the nineteenth century progressed, ivory as money all but disappeared. [...] A third pre-cowry currency has already been mentioned, namely the blue bead, and as we have also already noted, examples of beads have been excavated at Ntusi. From such archaeological evidence, it is possible to suggest that beads may be the oldest currency in the region.\"§REF§(Reid 2010: 126-127) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2H64W34U/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 247, "polity": { "id": 684, "name": "ug_toro_k", "long_name": "Toro", "start_year": 1830, "end_year": 1896 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"As we have seen, to secure their essential ties, the ancient states, lacking writing and money, relied on kinship, trust, and personal relationships, which were periodically rekindled by direct contact and exchanged words.\" §REF§(Chrétien 2006: 178) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FXCVWDRI/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 248, "polity": { "id": 685, "name": "ug_buganda_k_1", "long_name": "Buganda I", "start_year": 1408, "end_year": 1716 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": " \"As we have noted, pre-colonial Buganda never developed a purely monetary economy, and even during the later nineteenth century barter was an important method of exchange, existing alongside a cowry currency. Nevertheless, the information we have on nineteenth-century prices suggests that virtually everything had at least a nominal cowry value. Moreover, other currencies existed alongside cowries, and some undoubtedly pre-dated the latter. Roscoe mentions a \"small ivory disc\" which he terms 'sanga', ssanga being the Luganda term for either a tusk or ivory in general. This, Roscoe claimed, was one of the earliest forms of money in Buganda; although clearly indigenous and probably much older than the cowry shell, it also had a cowry value. One disc was apparently worth one hundred shells. Ivory played a dual role insofar as it was on the one hand a commodity valued for its own sake, and on the other a standard medium of exchange. The former role gradually took precedence over the latter, as demand for ivory from the coast increased, so that as the nineteenth century progressed, ivory as money all but disappeared. [...] A third pre-cowry currency has already been mentioned, namely the blue bead, and as we have also already noted, examples of beads have been excavated at Ntusi. From such archaeological evidence, it is possible to suggest that beads may be the oldest currency in the region.\"§REF§(Reid 2010: 126-127) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2H64W34U/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 249, "polity": { "id": 687, "name": "Early Niynginya", "long_name": "Kingdom of Nyinginya", "start_year": 1650, "end_year": 1897 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"As we have seen, to secure their essential ties, the ancient states, lacking writing and money, relied on kinship, trust, and personal relationships, which were periodically rekindled by direct contact and exchanged words.\" §REF§(Chrétien 2006: 178) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FXCVWDRI/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 250, "polity": { "id": 689, "name": "rw_ndorwa_k", "long_name": "Ndorwa", "start_year": 1700, "end_year": 1800 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"As we have seen, to secure their essential ties, the ancient states, lacking writing and money, relied on kinship, trust, and personal relationships, which were periodically rekindled by direct contact and exchanged words.\" §REF§(Chrétien 2006: 178) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FXCVWDRI/collection.§REF§" } ] }