Token List
A viewset for viewing and editing Tokens.
GET /api/sc/tokens/?format=api&page=7
{ "count": 394, "next": "https://seshat-db.com/api/sc/tokens/?format=api&page=8", "previous": "https://seshat-db.com/api/sc/tokens/?format=api&page=6", "results": [ { "id": 301, "polity": { "id": 426, "name": "cn_southern_song_dyn", "long_name": "Southern Song", "start_year": 1127, "end_year": 1279 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": "\"In Hangchow, towards the end of the thirteenth century, discs of tin issued by the Ministry of Finance came into use, each equivalent to a certain number of cash coins.\"", "description": null }, { "id": 302, "polity": { "id": 423, "name": "cn_eastern_zhou_warring_states", "long_name": "Eastern Zhou", "start_year": -475, "end_year": -256 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": "cowrie shells, tortoise shells, jade used as currency; also some coins shaped like cowrie shells, clearly imitating a previous form of currency§REF§(Bodde 1986, 60)§REF§" }, { "id": 303, "polity": { "id": 711, "name": "om_busaidi_imamate_1", "long_name": "Imamate of Oman and Muscat", "start_year": 1749, "end_year": 1895 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "absent", "comment": "Inferred from the fact that these are not mentioned in Pallaver's <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/C62TFXBJ\">[Pallaver_Wynne-Jones_LaViolette 2017]</a> comprehensive account of currency used on the Swahili Coast between the eighth and nineteenth centuries CE.", "description": null }, { "id": 304, "polity": { "id": 709, "name": "pt_portuguese_emp_2", "long_name": "Portuguese Empire - Early Modern", "start_year": 1640, "end_year": 1806 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": "\"In the mid-sixteenth century, J. de Barros, a clerk in Lisbon, having never himself visited the east, but based on reports sent from India, provided vivid information on cowrie shells in the Maldives [...] He also recorded that the Portuguese had begun to participate in the cowrie trade [...] Cowrie shells as ballast served the Portuguese and other Europeans just like one stone for two birds. Ocean-going ships needed ballast, which usually consisted of stones, sand or scrap iron, the latter being solely for the purpose of safeguarding navigation. As ballast, these shells did not occupy any precious space reserved for desirable Asian goods in the navigation from Asia to Europe or desirable European goods in the navigation from Europe to West Africa. Once unloaded in West Africa, cowrie shells immediately transformed themselves from ballast into hot items and ready cash. This special ballast not only produced sizable profits, but could also buy goods directly, especially slaves.\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/I5DXF22V\">[Yang 2019]</a>", "description": null }, { "id": 305, "polity": { "id": 337, "name": "ru_moskva_rurik_dyn", "long_name": "Grand Principality of Moscow, Rurikid Dynasty", "start_year": 1480, "end_year": 1613 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": "EMPTY_COMMENT", "description": null }, { "id": 306, "polity": { "id": 710, "name": "tz_tana", "long_name": "Classic Tana", "start_year": 1000, "end_year": 1498 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": "Not mentioned in Karin Pallaver's <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/C62TFXBJ\">[Pallaver_Wynne-Jones_LaViolette 2017]</a> comprehensive account of currency used along the Swahili coast between the eighth and nineteenth centuries CE. However, Middleton argues that Swahili coins were often used as tokens: \"A crucial aspect of these negotiations was that of the medium of exchange. Many Swahili kings minted their own coins, in gold, silver, and copper. Ten silver coins or one thosand copper coins were equal to one gold coin; the various coins were equal in value to those issued elsewhere in the Indian Ocean trading world by Egyptian, Arab, Portuguese, and other rulers. The coins seem only rarely to have been used as actual currency; instead they were used as counters or tokens, owned by the merchants and kept in safes in their houses. As counters, they were used during the negotiations to set values on the commodities to be exchanged.\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/DGHHAKUZ\">[Middleton 2004, p. 84]</a>", "description": null }, { "id": 307, "polity": { "id": 535, "name": "ug_bunyoro_k_2", "long_name": "Bito Dynasty", "start_year": 1700, "end_year": 1894 }, "year_from": 1800, "year_to": 1894, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": "\"Another method of exchange involved the use of ensimbi (cowrie shells) It is generally believed that the ensimbi were introduced by the Arabs in the nineteenth century and that with their introduction, a money economy started. Some informants, however, assert that ensimbi had been in use since Abachwezi times 'or even earlier', but admit that the practice only became widespread in the nineteenth century as a result of Arab stimulation. As no less an authority than Nyakatura--the traditional historian of Kitara--subscribes to this view, it must deserve some respect. Archaeology may yet vindicate him. Be that as it may, ensimbi were definitely used as a medium of exchange in the nineteenth century. But opinion is divided as to how widely they were used even in this period. Some informants believe that they largely superseded trade by barter; others argue that many people were suspicious of that sort of exchange and saw no reason to change from the traditional pattern. Grant, who visited Kitara during the reign Kamurasi noted that 'cowries were the chief coin of the country'. Baker (1866) observed that every morning during his residence in Kitara he heard the cry: 'Tobacco, tobacco; two packets for either beads or simbis' simbi)</ref>; 'Milk to sell for beads or salt!' and 'salt to exchange for lance-heads'. Emin Pasha (1888) stated bluntly that the majority of the people ignored ensimbi as a medium of exchange. But Casati (1891) found that in 1880s the introduction of cowries (Cyprea moneta) 'has facilitated and extended business'.\"§REF§(Uzoigwe 1972: 448-449)§REF§" }, { "id": 308, "polity": { "id": 534, "name": "ug_bunyoro_k_1", "long_name": "Cwezi Dynasty", "start_year": 1450, "end_year": 1699 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "absent", "comment": "\"Another method of exchange involved the use of ensimbi (cowrie shells). It is generally believed that the ensimbi were introduced by the Arabs in the nineteenth century and that with their introduction, a money economy started. Some informants, however, assert that ensimbi had been in use since Abachwezi times 'or even earlier', but admit that the practice only became widespread in the nineteenth century as a result of Arab stimulation. As no less an authority than Nyakatura--the traditional historian of Kitara--subscribes to this view, it must deserve some respect. Archaeology may yet vindicate him. Be that as it may, ensimbi were definitely used as a medium of exchange in the nineteenth century. But opinion is divided as to how widely they were used even in this period. Some informants believe that they largely superseded trade by barter; others argue that many people were suspicious of that sort of exchange and saw no reason to change from the traditional pattern. Grant, who visited Kitara during the reign Kamurasi noted that 'cowries were the chief coin of the country'. Baker (1866) observed that every morning during his residence in Kitara he heard the cry: 'Tobacco, tobacco; two packets for either beads or simbis' simbi); 'Milk to sell for beads or salt!' and 'salt to exchange for lance-heads'. Emin Pasha (1888) stated bluntly that the majority of the people ignored ensimbi as a medium of exchange. But Casati (1891) found that in 1880s the introduction of cowries (Cyprea moneta) 'has facilitated and extended business'.\" (Uzoigwe 1972: 448-449)", "description": null }, { "id": 309, "polity": { "id": 774, "name": "mw_early_maravi", "long_name": "Early Maravi", "start_year": 1400, "end_year": 1499 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "UND", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "uncoded", "comment": "EMPTY_COMMENT", "description": null }, { "id": 310, "polity": { "id": 775, "name": "mw_northern_maravi_k", "long_name": "Northern Maravi Kingdom", "start_year": 1500, "end_year": 1621 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "UND", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "uncoded", "comment": "EMPTY_COMMENT", "description": null }, { "id": 312, "polity": { "id": 717, "name": "tz_early_tana_2", "long_name": "Early Tana 2", "start_year": 750, "end_year": 999 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "absent", "comment": "EMPTY_COMMENT", "description": null }, { "id": 313, "polity": { "id": 791, "name": "bd_khadga_dyn", "long_name": "Khadga Dynasty", "start_year": 650, "end_year": 700 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": "“This trade had ancient roots: the third-century bce Mahasthan Brahmi inscription (Plate 2.3) mentions payment in gandakas, a term probably referring to cowries. Cowries continued to be used as currency in parts of rural Bangladesh up to the end of the nineteenth century.” <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JJDGEDFZ\">[van_Schendel 2009]</a>", "description": null }, { "id": 314, "polity": { "id": 793, "name": "bd_sena_dyn", "long_name": "Sena Dynasty", "start_year": 1095, "end_year": 1245 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": "Cowries. “Kapardakapurāṇa seems to denote a theoretical unit of account representing the value of a purāṇa, a unit of silver currency, counted in cowrie-shells.” <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/84Q49F5X\">[Furui 2020]</a>", "description": null }, { "id": 315, "polity": { "id": 795, "name": "bd_yadava_varman_dyn", "long_name": "Yadava-Varman Dynasty", "start_year": 1080, "end_year": 1150 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": "“Cowries continued to be used as currency in parts of rural Bangladesh up to the end of the nineteenth century.” <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JJDGEDFZ\">[van_Schendel 2009]</a>", "description": null }, { "id": 316, "polity": { "id": 210, "name": "et_aksum_emp_2", "long_name": "Axum II", "start_year": 350, "end_year": 599 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "unknown", "comment": "EMPTY_COMMENT", "description": null }, { "id": 317, "polity": { "id": 213, "name": "et_aksum_emp_3", "long_name": "Axum III", "start_year": 600, "end_year": 800 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "unknown", "comment": "EMPTY_COMMENT", "description": null }, { "id": 318, "polity": { "id": 379, "name": "mm_bagan", "long_name": "Bagan", "start_year": 1044, "end_year": 1287 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": "\"The Bawdwin mines are reputed to have been worked since the tenth century; in addition to the refuse of mining operations there are ruins of roads, stone bridges, settlements, fortifications, and burial sites. It is equally significant that silver Shan shell-money, used as currency throughout northern Burma, Thailand, and Laos until the late nineteenth century, originated from Bawdwingyi.\"§REF§(Wicks 1992, 134) Robert S Wicks. Money, Markets, And Trade In Early Southeast Asia. The Development of Indigenous Monetary Systems To AD 1400. Cornell Southeast Asia Program Publications.§REF§" }, { "id": 319, "polity": { "id": 226, "name": "ib_banu_ghaniya", "long_name": "Banu Ghaniya", "start_year": 1126, "end_year": 1227 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "unknown", "comment": "EMPTY_COMMENT", "description": null }, { "id": 320, "polity": { "id": 399, "name": "in_chaulukya_dyn", "long_name": "Chaulukya Dynasty", "start_year": 941, "end_year": 1245 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": "Cowries were used. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/KXBH3VEF\">[Majumdar 1956, p. 272]</a>", "description": null }, { "id": 321, "polity": { "id": 246, "name": "cn_chu_dyn_spring_autumn", "long_name": "Chu Kingdom - Spring and Autumn Period", "start_year": -740, "end_year": -489 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": "cowrie shells, tortoise shells used as currency in all Spring Autumn states from Western Zhou period§REF§(Hsu 1999, 581)§REF§§REF§(Bodde 1986, 60)§REF§" }, { "id": 322, "polity": { "id": 249, "name": "cn_chu_k_warring_states", "long_name": "Chu Kingdom - Warring States Period", "start_year": -488, "end_year": -223 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": "cowrie shells, tortoise shells, jade used as currency; also some coins shaped like cowrie shells, clearly imitating a previous form of currency§REF§(Bodde 1986, 60)§REF§" }, { "id": 323, "polity": { "id": 774, "name": "mw_early_maravi", "long_name": "Early Maravi", "start_year": 1400, "end_year": 1499 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "UND", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "uncoded", "comment": "\"One other foreign item commonly occurring at Mankhamba, but whose usefulness to the community is entirely unclear, is the cowrie shell. Like imported ceramics, cowrie shells are very rare at other archaeological sites in the southern Lake Malawi area. Elsewhere in Africa, cowrie shells had economic and cultural value. [...] At Mankhamba, however, all the 46 shells were whole, with no evidence of any attempted modification. Further, cowrie shells do not feature in the oral traditions of the Chewa. It is therefore not clear what economic, social or ritual role these objects played among the Chewa at Mankhamba.\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/IT7NS8P7\">[Juwayeyi 2020]</a>", "description": null }, { "id": 324, "polity": { "id": 533, "name": "ug_early_nyoro", "long_name": "Early Nyoro", "start_year": 900, "end_year": 1449 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "absent", "comment": "In the 19th century, \"[t]he medium of exchange was barter\", though cowrie shells were also used. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/DBEPG6WE\">[Uzoigwe 1972, pp. 447-450]</a> Given general pattern of increasing complexity through time in the region <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6ITEA4NM\">[Taylor_Robertshaw 2000, pp. 17-19]</a> , it seems reasonable to infer that that this statement applies to preceding centuries as well.", "description": null }, { "id": 325, "polity": { "id": 717, "name": "tz_early_tana_2", "long_name": "Early Tana 2", "start_year": 750, "end_year": 999 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "absent", "comment": "Not mentioned in Karin Pallaver's <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/C62TFXBJ\">[Pallaver_Wynne-Jones_LaViolette 2017]</a> comprehensive account of currency used along the Swahili coast between the eighth and nineteenth centuries CE.", "description": null }, { "id": 326, "polity": { "id": 429, "name": "mr_wagadu_1", "long_name": "Early Wagadu Empire", "start_year": 250, "end_year": 700 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "UND", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "uncoded", "comment": "Cowries at Awdaghurst \"in the ninth to tenth centuries.... trading in them in the north in the eleventh century.\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/I67UD5MG\">[Devisse 1988, p. 421]</a>", "description": null }, { "id": 327, "polity": { "id": 389, "name": "in_kamarupa_k", "long_name": "Kamarupa Kingdom", "start_year": 350, "end_year": 1130 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": "Cowries. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/58FRDM4B\">[Baruah 1985, p. 165]</a>", "description": null }, { "id": 328, "polity": { "id": 273, "name": "uz_kangju", "long_name": "Kangju", "start_year": -150, "end_year": 350 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "unknown", "comment": "EMPTY_COMMENT", "description": null }, { "id": 329, "polity": { "id": 395, "name": "in_karkota_dyn", "long_name": "Karkota Dynasty", "start_year": 625, "end_year": 1339 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": "\"That the cowree was from early times used as a monetary token in Kashmir as elsewhere in India, is amply shown by Kalhana's work.\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XJWSDUQS\">[Bamzai 1962, p. 231]</a>", "description": null }, { "id": 330, "polity": { "id": 298, "name": "ru_kazan_khanate", "long_name": "Kazan Khanate", "start_year": 1438, "end_year": 1552 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "unknown", "comment": "EMPTY_COMMENT", "description": null }, { "id": 331, "polity": { "id": 241, "name": "ao_kongo_2", "long_name": "Kingdom of Congo", "start_year": 1491, "end_year": 1568 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": "\"currency in the form of nzimbu (cowry) shells. The king tightly controlled this currency, which gradually depreciated as slaves became the most sought-after trading commodity during the Portuguese era.\"§REF§(Gondola 2002, 29) Ch Didier Gondola. 2002. The History of Congo. Greenwood Publishing Group. Westport.§REF§" }, { "id": 332, "polity": { "id": 290, "name": "ge_georgia_k_2", "long_name": "Kingdom of Georgia II", "start_year": 975, "end_year": 1243 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "unknown", "comment": "EMPTY_COMMENT", "description": null }, { "id": 333, "polity": { "id": 326, "name": "it_sicily_k_2", "long_name": "Kingdom of Sicily - Hohenstaufen and Angevin dynasties", "start_year": 1194, "end_year": 1281 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": "EMPTY_COMMENT", "description": null }, { "id": 334, "polity": { "id": 212, "name": "sd_makuria_k_1", "long_name": "Makuria Kingdom I", "start_year": 568, "end_year": 618 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "unknown", "comment": "EMPTY_COMMENT", "description": null }, { "id": 335, "polity": { "id": 215, "name": "sd_makuria_k_2", "long_name": "Makuria Kingdom II", "start_year": 619, "end_year": 849 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "unknown", "comment": "EMPTY_COMMENT", "description": null }, { "id": 336, "polity": { "id": 219, "name": "sd_makuria_k_3", "long_name": "Makuria Kingdom III", "start_year": 850, "end_year": 1099 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "unknown", "comment": "EMPTY_COMMENT", "description": null }, { "id": 337, "polity": { "id": 383, "name": "my_malacca_sultanate", "long_name": "Malacca Sultanate", "start_year": 1396, "end_year": 1511 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "unknown", "comment": "EMPTY_COMMENT", "description": null }, { "id": 338, "polity": { "id": 235, "name": "my_malacca_sultanate_22222", "long_name": "Malacca Sultanate", "start_year": 1270, "end_year": 1415 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": "Cowrie shells were a ubiquitous form of currency in East Africa and gradually spread to West Africa during the Middle Ages. “As early as the 13th century, the proliferation of cowry shells as a dominant currency had taken place, mainly because of their import into Africa from different areas. First, Arab traders imported cowry shells from areas around the Maldives islands and the Indian Ocean into North Africa and, later, into other parts of Africa.”Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag", "description": null }, { "id": 339, "polity": { "id": 776, "name": "mw_maravi_emp", "long_name": "Maravi Empire", "start_year": 1622, "end_year": 1870 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "UND", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "uncoded", "comment": "\"One other foreign item commonly occurring at Mankhamba, but whose usefulness to the community is entirely unclear, is the cowrie shell. Like imported ceramics, cowrie shells are very rare at other archaeological sites in the southern Lake Malawi area. Elsewhere in Africa, cowrie shells had economic and cultural value. [...] At Mankhamba, however, all the 46 shells were whole, with no evidence of any attempted modification. Further, cowrie shells do not feature in the oral traditions of the Chewa. It is therefore not clear what economic, social or ritual role these objects played among the Chewa at Mankhamba.\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/IT7NS8P7\">[Juwayeyi 2020]</a>", "description": null }, { "id": 340, "polity": { "id": 209, "name": "ma_mauretania", "long_name": "Mauretania", "start_year": -125, "end_year": 44 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "unknown", "comment": "EMPTY_COMMENT", "description": null }, { "id": 341, "polity": { "id": 530, "name": "mx_monte_alban_5_a", "long_name": "Monte Alban V Early Postclassic", "start_year": 900, "end_year": 1099 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "unknown", "comment": "Sources do not suggest that monetary items have been found dating to this period. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SHF4S8D7\">[Flannery_Marcus 1996]</a>", "description": null }, { "id": 342, "polity": { "id": 531, "name": "mx_monte_alban_5_b", "long_name": "Monte Alban V Late Postclassic", "start_year": 1101, "end_year": 1520 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "unknown", "comment": "Sources do not suggest that monetary items have been found dating to this period. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SHF4S8D7\">[Flannery_Marcus 1996]</a>", "description": null }, { "id": 343, "polity": { "id": 775, "name": "mw_northern_maravi_k", "long_name": "Northern Maravi Kingdom", "start_year": 1500, "end_year": 1621 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "UND", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "uncoded", "comment": "\"One other foreign item commonly occurring at Mankhamba, but whose usefulness to the community is entirely unclear, is the cowrie shell. Like imported ceramics, cowrie shells are very rare at other archaeological sites in the southern Lake Malawi area. Elsewhere in Africa, cowrie shells had economic and cultural value. [...] At Mankhamba, however, all the 46 shells were whole, with no evidence of any attempted modification. Further, cowrie shells do not feature in the oral traditions of the Chewa. It is therefore not clear what economic, social or ritual role these objects played among the Chewa at Mankhamba.\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/IT7NS8P7\">[Juwayeyi 2020]</a>", "description": null }, { "id": 344, "polity": { "id": 542, "name": "tr_ottoman_emp_4_copy", "long_name": "Yemen - Ottoman period", "start_year": 1873, "end_year": 1920 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "absent", "comment": "EMPTY_COMMENT", "description": null }, { "id": 345, "polity": { "id": 237, "name": "ml_songhai_1", "long_name": "Songhai Empire", "start_year": 1376, "end_year": 1493 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": "according to Ibn al-Mukhtar who was writing in the seventeenth century \"the king would pay a dowry of 40,000 cowries to the girl's family in order to establish his right of ownership over her children\" in the event she married a slave. §REF§(Roland and Atmore 2001, 69-70)§REF§ Cowrie shells \"can be accurately traded by weight, by volume, and by counting; their colour and lustre do not fade as their durability compares favourably with that of metal coins.\"§REF§(Reader 1998, 387)§REF§" }, { "id": 346, "polity": { "id": 380, "name": "th_sukhotai", "long_name": "Sukhotai", "start_year": 1238, "end_year": 1419 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "present", "comment": null, "description": "According to an inscription of 1292 CE, cowries were \"used both as an offering (implying that they were used, even at that time, for exchange purposes as well) and a measure of value to indicate the total value of the gifts presented.\" The cowrie \"was used as a general standard of value for land, and as a valuational index for the total quality of gifts presented to the monastery.\" \"It is significant that the cowrie as a measure of value appears in the very first Sukhothai inscriptions.\"§REF§(Wicks 1992, 171) Robert S Wicks. Money, Markets, And Trade In Early Southeast Asia. The Development of Indigenous Monetary Systems To AD 1400. Cornell Southeast Asia Program Publications.§REF§ \"Pelliot has pointed out that the 80-cowrie suo of the Ming period in Yunnan was preserved in the demoninational system in use among the Thai in the nineteenth century, suggesting to him that the Thai adopted the cowrie as a valuational measure prior to settling in the upper reaches of the Menam basin in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries\".§REF§(Wicks 1992, 171) Robert S Wicks. Money, Markets, And Trade In Early Southeast Asia. The Development of Indigenous Monetary Systems To AD 1400. Cornell Southeast Asia Program Publications.§REF§" }, { "id": 347, "polity": { "id": 217, "name": "dz_tahert", "long_name": "Tahert", "start_year": 761, "end_year": 909 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "unknown", "comment": "EMPTY_COMMENT", "description": null }, { "id": 348, "polity": { "id": 271, "name": "ua_skythian_k_3", "long_name": "Third Scythian Kingdom", "start_year": -429, "end_year": -225 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "unknown", "comment": "No data.", "description": null }, { "id": 349, "polity": { "id": 230, "name": "dz_tlemcen", "long_name": "Tlemcen", "start_year": 1235, "end_year": 1554 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "unknown", "comment": "EMPTY_COMMENT", "description": null }, { "id": 350, "polity": { "id": 227, "name": "et_zagwe", "long_name": "Zagwe", "start_year": 1137, "end_year": 1269 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "unknown", "comment": "EMPTY_COMMENT", "description": null }, { "id": 351, "polity": { "id": 535, "name": "ug_bunyoro_k_2", "long_name": "Bito Dynasty", "start_year": 1700, "end_year": 1894 }, "year_from": 1700, "year_to": 1799, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Token", "token": "absent", "comment": null, "description": "\"Another method of exchange involved the use of ensimbi (cowrie shells) It is generally believed that the ensimbi were introduced by the Arabs in the nineteenth century and that with their introduction, a money economy started. Some informants, however, assert that ensimbi had been in use since Abachwezi times 'or even earlier', but admit that the practice only became widespread in the nineteenth century as a result of Arab stimulation. As no less an authority than Nyakatura--the traditional historian of Kitara--subscribes to this view, it must deserve some respect. Archaeology may yet vindicate him. Be that as it may, ensimbi were definitely used as a medium of exchange in the nineteenth century. But opinion is divided as to how widely they were used even in this period. Some informants believe that they largely superseded trade by barter; others argue that many people were suspicious of that sort of exchange and saw no reason to change from the traditional pattern. Grant, who visited Kitara during the reign Kamurasi noted that 'cowries were the chief coin of the country'. Baker (1866) observed that every morning during his residence in Kitara he heard the cry: 'Tobacco, tobacco; two packets for either beads or simbis' simbi)</ref>; 'Milk to sell for beads or salt!' and 'salt to exchange for lance-heads'. Emin Pasha (1888) stated bluntly that the majority of the people ignored ensimbi as a medium of exchange. But Casati (1891) found that in 1880s the introduction of cowries (Cyprea moneta) 'has facilitated and extended business'.\"§REF§(Uzoigwe 1972: 448-449)§REF§" } ] }