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Postal stations suffered greatly from warfare during the early Qing dynasty, however the reign of emperors Kangxi and Yongzheng saw great improvements to the postal service with the reconstruction of post offices and the establishment of new courier stations in remote and border areas.
[1]
[1]: (Ma et al. 2016, p. 307) |
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“In the Civil Code, compilation of which was provided for by the legislature of 1856 and which was enacted in the legislative session of 1858-59, the earlier postal laws (of 1846, 1851, and 1854) were revised, expanded, and codified as sections 397-415 of the Code. Here, for the first time in the laws, we read of “‘a post-office system for the Hawaiian Kingdom,” which was to be superintended by a “‘Postmaster-General,’’ who was ‘“‘ex officio Postmaster of Honolulu.” Section 406 gave the interisland postage rates mentioned above, and the foreign postage rates were prescribed in section 403. The law as a whole furnished the basis for a postal system adapted to the conditions existing in the Hawaiian kingdom.”
[1]
[1]: (Kuykendall 1938: 32) Kuykendall, Ralph Simpson. 1938. The Hawaiian Kingdom. Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii. http://archive.org/details/hawaiiankingdom0002kuyk. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/QJ4Z7AAB |
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Temple clusters functioned as postal stations. ’The findings challenge a few currently held views (e.g. that transactions were conducted without a unit of account), corroborate others (e.g. that officials based in regional areas acted in multiple roles, including the collection of levies), and provide some additional insights into the political economy of the Khmer state (e.g. that there were clusters of temple sites of long duration together forming communication corridors).’
[1]
[1]: (Lustig 2009, p. 30) |
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Temple clusters functioned as postal stations. ’The findings challenge a few currently held views (e.g. that transactions were conducted without a unit of account), corroborate others (e.g. that officials based in regional areas acted in multiple roles, including the collection of levies), and provide some additional insights into the political economy of the Khmer state (e.g. that there were clusters of temple sites of long duration together forming communication corridors).’
[1]
[1]: (Lustig 2009, p. 30) |
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Temple clusters functioned as postal stations. ’The findings challenge a few currently held views (e.g. that transactions were conducted without a unit of account), corroborate others (e.g. that officials based in regional areas acted in multiple roles, including the collection of levies), and provide some additional insights into the political economy of the Khmer state (e.g. that there were clusters of temple sites of long duration together forming communication corridors).’
[1]
[1]: (Lustig 2009, p. 30) |
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Temple clusters functioned as postal stations. ’The findings challenge a few currently held views (e.g. that transactions were conducted without a unit of account), corroborate others (e.g. that officials based in regional areas acted in multiple roles, including the collection of levies), and provide some additional insights into the political economy of the Khmer state (e.g. that there were clusters of temple sites of long duration together forming communication corridors).’
[1]
[1]: (Lustig 2009, p. 30) |
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Gladwin’s comments are somewhat unclear when it comes to the establishment of postal systems: ’Prior to the introduction and spread of writing other devices had to be used, many of which are in use in some form today but have taken second place to the letter. The chance encounter, or a message carried by a go-between, were of course useful; as the houses were then widely scattered through the interior of the island, instead of being concentrated as they are today along the shore, the opportunities for meeting in momentary privacy along a path were far greater.’
[1]
The eHRAF material on the Chuuks islands is not coded for ’mail’.
[1]: Gladwin, Thomas, and Seymour Bernard Sarason 1953. “Truk: Man In Paradise”, 104 |
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Preiser-Kapeller says present.
[1]
Imperial post.
[2]
[1]: (Johannes Preiser-Kapeller 2015) Institute for Medieval Research, Division of Byzantine Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences) [2]: (Haussig 1971, 180) Haussig, H W.trans Hussey, J M. 1971. History of Byzantine Civilization. Thames and Hudson. |
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No specific stations for messengers are recorded, although the Wari built structures along the roads that could remind of the Inca tambos. "Smaller special-purpose sites may be located to control the movement of people into and out of regions. Some are located along ancient roads and may have functioned in part as way stations, places to house travelers on official state business."
[1]
[1]: (Schreiber in Bergh 2012, 40) |
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"Chasqui runners served at posts located at one quarter to one-half league intervals along the Inca roads, carrying and relaying verbal messages between Cuzco and the provincial capitals."
[1]
Postal stations were huts, called chullas, that accommodated two messengers for each direction.
[2]
With the chasqui runner system "messages or packages could travel as many as 50 leagues (c.275-300 km) in a period of 24 hours."
[2]
Hyslop is better than these sources.
[1]: (Andrushko 2007, 12) [2]: (Kaufmann and Kaufmann 2012) |
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“A regular postal service was set up between Valencia and Madrid in the early sixteenth century, with riders guaranteeing to cover a minimum of ten leagues a day, and if they were paid extra, up to twenty leagues (112 km).”
[1]
[1]: (Casey 2002, 14) Casey, James. 2002. Early Modern Spain: A Social History. New York: Routledge. https://www.zotero.org/groups/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2SNTRSWT |
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The following quote refers to the Mauryan period, but the literature consulted does not confirm whether or not such a system remained in place after that empire’s fragmentation: "a communication system linking the empire with tree-lined roads, public wells, rest houses, and a mail service."
[1]
[1]: (McClellan III and Dorn 2015, 164) McClellan III, James E. Dorn, Harold. 2015. Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction. JHU Press. |
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The following quote refers to the Mauryan period, but the literature consulted does not confirm whether or not any such system existed after that empire’s fragmentation: "a communication system linking the empire with tree-lined roads, public wells, rest houses, and a mail service."
[1]
[1]: (McClellan III and Dorn 2015, 164) McClellan III, James E. Dorn, Harold. 2015. Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction. JHU Press. |
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No persuasive evidence could be found, in the literature consulted, for the existence of a postal service of any kind in India, between the end of the Mauryan period and the fourteenth century, when Ibn Battuta visited the Delhi Sultanate and described its communication services. However, it is entirely possible that such systems existed in at least some polities, especially the larger ones.
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No persuasive evidence could be found, in the literature consulted, for the existence of a postal service of any kind in India, between the end of the Mauryan period and the fourteenth century, when Ibn Battuta visited the Delhi Sultanate and described its communication services. However, it is entirely possible that such systems existed in at least some polities, especially the larger ones.
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No persuasive evidence could be found, in the literature consulted, for the existence of a postal service of any kind in India, between the end of the Mauryan period and the fourteenth century, when Ibn Battuta visited the Delhi Sultanate and described its communication services. However, it is entirely possible that such systems existed in at least some polities, especially the larger ones.
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No persuasive evidence could be found, in the literature consulted, for the existence of a postal service of any kind in India, between the end of the Mauryan period and the fourteenth century, when Ibn Battuta visited the Delhi Sultanate and described its communication services. However, it is entirely possible that such systems existed in at least some polities, especially the larger ones.
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No persuasive evidence could be found, in the literature consulted, for the existence of a postal service of any kind in India, between the end of the Mauryan period and the fourteenth century, when Ibn Battuta visited the Delhi Sultanate and described its communication services. However, it is entirely possible that such systems existed in at least some polities, especially the larger ones.
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No persuasive evidence could be found, in the literature consulted, for the existence of a postal service of any kind in India, between the end of the Mauryan period and the fourteenth century, when Ibn Battuta visited the Delhi Sultanate and described its communication services. However, it is entirely possible that such systems existed in at least some polities, especially the larger ones.
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No persuasive evidence could be found, in the literature consulted, for the existence of a postal service of any kind in India, between the end of the Mauryan period and the fourteenth century, when Ibn Battuta visited the Delhi Sultanate and described its communication services. However, it is entirely possible that such systems existed in at least some polities, especially the larger ones.
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No persuasive evidence could be found, in the literature consulted, for the existence of a postal service of any kind in India, between the end of the Mauryan period and the fourteenth century, when Ibn Battuta visited the Delhi Sultanate and described its communication services. However, it is entirely possible that such systems existed in at least some polities, especially the larger ones.
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This reference concerns possessions in South Africa: "...by horses and, in the ’twenties, by postcarts: a weekly postal service was set up in 1834. In 1852 there was a daily service from Cape Town to Paarl and Stellenbosh, thrice weekly to Grahamstown and twice weekly to the Karoo. The postcart also conveyed passengers. Following the issue of the famous three-cornered Capes in 1853, a penny post was established in limited areas in 1860 and four years later it was possible to extend it to the whole Colony. But, despite better roads, the ox-waggon remained the commercial vehicle and was still in use a century later."
[1]
[1]: (? 1963, 795) ? in Eric A Walker. ed. 1963. The Cambridge History of the British Empire. Volume III. South Africa, Rhodesia and The High Commission Territories. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
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We have information on newspapers published by missionaries, but have found little about the colonial postal system.
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After Tiglath-pileser III (744-727 BCE) system of roads and posting stages. Mounted riders (mar shipri) could traverse the empire in 5-7 days from capital Nineveh. Letters were on parchment or clay tablet.
[1]
The King’s Road communication system between king and governor in provinces and client states. Planned and created in 9th Century.
[2]
[1]: (Chadwick 2005, 79) [2]: (Radler 2014) |
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[1]
Lettered communication between central bureaucracy and the satrapies.
[2]
"The Archaemenids introduced the world’s first postal service, and it was said the network of relay horses could deliver mail to the furthest corner of the empire within 15 days."
[3]
"In Persia the postal service appears to have originated in the Achaemenid period. ... There were way stations where the couriers could rest and where fresh horses could be obtained. The itinerary was measured in parasangs, or stages, along roads that seem not to have been paved or well maintained (cf. Olmstead, p. 299)."
[4]
[1]: (Farazmand 2002) [3]: (Burke 2010, 30) Burke, A. 2010. Iran. Lonely Planet. [4]: (Floor 1990) Floor, Willem. 1990. ČĀPĀR. www.iranicaonline.org/articles/capar-or-capar-turk |
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Seleucids took over the Persian postal system. "... originally post stations on the main roads, the Seleucids having taken over the Persian postal system - each stathmos being the centre of a subdivision comprising so many villages."
[1]
[1]: (Tam 2010, 2) Tam, W W. 2010. The Greeks in Bactria and India. Cambridge University Press. |
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During the colonial period, some journals were distributed among small educated neo-elites, but not to the general population: ‘Most of the writings before 1940 had religious intonation though secular form of literature began in 1924. Before this, there were only two journals in Garo language-one was the A’chikni Ripeng or “Friend of the Garos”, a powerful organ of the American Baptist Mission started in 1879. Since the journal was meant for propagation of plans and policies of the American Baptist Mission, articles dealing with one’s freedom of thought and expression were not accepted and published in it. The other journal, which was brought out in October, 1912 by three local leaders, namely Jobang D. Marak, Modhunath G. Momin and Alexander Macdonald Bassamoit, was Phringphrang or “Morning Star”. This journal, which was supposed to be secular in nature, was not very much different from the A’chikni Ripeng as most of the articles there, were connected with religion. The journal had its last publication in December, 1914 after which there were no more secular journals.’
[1]
This suggests that neither couriers nor institutions resembling a postal service were present prior to colonization.
[1]: Shira, Lindrid D. 1995. “Renaissance In Garo Literature”, 176 |
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Journals and newspapers were distributed among small educated neo-elites, but not to the general population: ‘Most of the writings before 1940 had religious intonation though secular form of literature began in 1924. Before this, there were only two journals in Garo language-one was the A’chikni Ripeng or “Friend of the Garos”, a powerful organ of the American Baptist Mission started in 1879. Since the journal was meant for propagation of plans and policies of the American Baptist Mission, articles dealing with one’s freedom of thought and expression were not accepted and published in it. The other journal, which was brought out in October, 1912 by three local leaders, namely Jobang D. Marak, Modhunath G. Momin and Alexander Macdonald Bassamoit, was Phringphrang or “Morning Star”. This journal, which was supposed to be secular in nature, was not very much different from the A’chikni Ripeng as most of the articles there, were connected with religion. The journal had its last publication in December, 1914 after which there were no more secular journals.’
[1]
We have assumed that some form of postal or courier service was present in the town.
[1]: Shira, Lindrid D. 1995. “Renaissance In Garo Literature”, 176 |
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While colonial settlers and mission-educated natives printed and distributed newspapers, this does not seem to be true of the general population. ’One of the first newspapers of the country to attract attention was the West African Herald, which was edited by the gifted and lamented Charles Bannerman, of Accra, lawyer, wit, and publicist. It appears this remarkable man had no press, and he took the extraordinary pains of first composing his articles, and then making out several copies of a given issue in his own handwriting. There are some copies of the West African Herald in the editor’s handwriting extant. Other able writers, hailing from the Eastern Province, of the period and after, were Edmund Bannerman, younger brother of Charles, and the late Robert Hansen, known among his friends in his day as the “Hermit.” I had the pleasure of meeting this gentleman in 1893 when I was sub-editing the Gold Coast Chronicle at Accra’
[1]
[1]: Hayford, J. E. Casely (Joseph Ephraim Casely) 1970. “Gold Coast Native Institutions With Thoughts Upon A Healthy Imperial Policy For The Gold Coast And Ashanti”, 175 |
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There are no archaeological remains which can be interpreted as postal stations at Mehrgarh, and are therefore presumed absent.
[1]
No evidence for social structure that could have organized a postal system nor one what would have required one.
[1]: Jarrige, J. F. (2008). Mehrgarh neolithic. Pragdhara, 18, 135-154. |
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There are no archaeological remains which can be interpreted as postal stations at Mehrgarh, and are therefore presumed absent.
[1]
No evidence for social structure that could have organized a postal system nor one what would have required one.
[1]: Jarrige, J. F. (2008). Mehrgarh neolithic. Pragdhara, 18, 135-154. |
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There are no archaeological remains which can be interpreted as postal stations at Mehrgarh, and are therefore presumed absent.
[1]
No evidence for social structure that could have organized a postal system nor one what would have required one.
[1]: Jarrige, J. F. (2008). Mehrgarh neolithic. Pragdhara, 18, 135-154. |
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The following suggests that, even if a postal system had existed in previous centuries (something for which there is no evidence), it most likely would have disappeared by this time. "The Indus civilization flourished for around five hundred to seven hundred years, and in the early second millennium it disintegrated. This collapse was marked by the disappearance of the features that had distinguished the Indus civilization from its predecessors: writing, city dwelling, some kind of central control, international trade, occupational specialization, and widely distributed standardized artifacts."
[1]
[1]: (McIntosh 2008, 91-92) Jane McIntosh. 2008. The Ancient Indus Civilization. Oxford; Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio. |
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Trade system very well developed.
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"In Persia the postal service appears to have originated in the Achaemenid period. ... There were way stations where the couriers could rest and where fresh horses could be obtained. ... Under the Sasanians a similar postal system appears to have been in operation; in a peace treaty concluded with Byzantium in a.d. 561 one clause stipulated that envoys should be supplied with mounts at the postal stations maintained by both empires."
[1]
The barid of the Islamic era thought to have been based on earlier system of postal stations.
[1]: (Floor 1990) Floor, Willem. 1990. ČĀPĀR. www.iranicaonline.org/articles/capar-or-capar-turk |
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"In Persia the postal service appears to have originated in the Achaemenid period. ... There were way stations where the couriers could rest and where fresh horses could be obtained. ... Under the Sasanians a similar postal system appears to have been in operation; in a peace treaty concluded with Byzantium in a.d. 561 one clause stipulated that envoys should be supplied with mounts at the postal stations maintained by both empires."
[1]
The barid of the Islamic era thought to have been based on earlier system of postal stations.
[1]: (Floor 1990) Floor, Willem. 1990. ČĀPĀR. www.iranicaonline.org/articles/capar-or-capar-turk |
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The Umayyad had a department of the state running the post office, called the Barīd. The system was based on a group of mounted couriers and a large network of inns and stables connecting the capitol of Damascus to other cities, covering an distance of 4,000 miles from Algiers to Kabul.
[1]
[2]
"The Muslim conquerors adopted many ancient institutions, including the postal system, which they called barīd. Although there is some controversy over whether it was primarily the Byzantine or Sasanid model that was followed (see, e.g. EI2, s.v. Barīd; Camb. Hist. Iran III/1, p. 564), it is probable that elements of both were taken over (Mez, p. 466). In the eastern part of the empire at least, ancient Persian practices and terminology seem to have prevailed."
[3]
For a detailed portrayal of Postal systems in the Pre-Modern Islamic world, see Adam J. Silverstein’s work on the subject.
[4]
[1]: (Alcock, Bodel and Talbert, eds. 2012, 7-41) [2]: (Gosch, Stephen, and Stearns 2007, 112-115) [3]: (Floor 1990) Floor, Willem. 1990. ČĀPĀR. www.iranicaonline.org/articles/capar-or-capar-turk [4]: (Silverstein 2007 7-41) |
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Simple postal stations in use as stopping point for couriers.
[1]
The Abbasid had a department of state running the post office, called the Barim.
[2]
"The Muslim conquerors adopted many ancient institutions, including the postal system, which they called barīd (ultimately derived from Lat. veredus, Gk. beredos “[courier’s] horse”). Although there is some controversy over whether it was primarily the Byzantine or Sasanian model that was followed (see, e.g. EI2, s.v. Barīd; Camb. Hist. Iran III/1, p. 564), it is probable that elements of both were taken over (Mez, p. 466). In the eastern part of the empire at least, ancient Persian practices and terminology seem to have prevailed."
[3]
[1]: Silverstein, Adam J. Postal systems in the pre-modern Islamic world p. 77-78, 97.. [2]: ( Alcock, Susan E., John Bodel, and Richard Ja Talbert, eds. Highways, byways, and road systems in the pre-modern world. Vol. 9. (Wiley 2012) pp. 70-74) [3]: (Floor 1990) Floor, Willem. 1990. ČĀPĀR. www.iranicaonline.org/articles/capar-or-capar-turk |
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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.
"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) [1] [1]: (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.) |
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Unclear, based on the literature consulted.
Thomas seems to suggest that long-distance communication mainly took place via a system of watchtower, possibly augmented by carrier pigeons. "[Fortresses] seem to have functioned as part of networks of watchtowers that provided an efficient signalling and communication system, although al-Juzjani also states that pigeons were used to carry messages between the fortresses." [1] At the same time, it is possible that, following the conquest of the Ghaznavid polity, the Ghurids adopted all or some of whatever communication system may have existed in those lands. Nizami does point to the existence of an official in charge of diplomatic correspondence, which implies the existence of some kind of messaging system, though possibly one restricted to government use. "The d ̄ıwa ̄n of the chief secretary dealt with correspondence with provincial officials and with external rulers. We possess in sources such as Bayhaq ̄ı’s history and cAq ̄ıl ̄ı’s A ̄tha ̄r al-wuzara ̄’ [Famous Past Deeds of the Viziers or Past Traces of the Viziers] the texts, in florid Arabic and Persian, of several letters to the Karakhanids and the cAbbasid caliphs, including announcements of victories (fat’h-na ̄mas)." [2] [1]: (Thomas 2018, no page number) Thomas, D. C. 2018. The Ebb and Flow of the Ghūrid Empire. Sydney University Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/WP4SXX74/library [2]: (Bosworth 1998: 119) Bosworth, C. E. 1998. The Ghaznavids. In Asimov (ed) History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The historical, social and economic setting, Volume 1 pp. 103-124. UNESCO. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/MVIGXRNM/library |
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Ibn Battuta described a kind of postal service for the Delhi Sultanate, but the literature consulted does not indicate whether any such system was retained in independent Sind. Moreover, it seems the Delhi Sultanate system may have solely served the rulers.
"Description of the Barid [Postal Service]. The postal service in India is of two kinds. The horse-post, which they call wlag, consists of horses belonging to the Sultan [with relays] every four miles. The service of couriers on foot has within the space of each mile three relays, which they call dawa,’ the dawa being a third of a mile, and a mile itself is called by them kuruh. The manner of its organization is as follows. At every third of a mile there is an inhabited village, outside which there are three pavilions. In these sit men girded up ready to move off, each of whom has a rod two cubits long with copper bells at the top. When a courier leaves the town he takes the letter in the fingers of one hand and the rod with the bells in the other, and runs with all his might. The men in the pavilions, on hearing the sound of the bells, get ready to meet him and when he reaches them one of them takes the letter in his hand and passes on, running with all his might and shaking his rod until he reaches the next däwa, and so they continue until the letter reaches its destination. This post is quicker than the mounted post, and they often use it to transport fruits from Khuräsän which are regarded as great luxuries in India; the couriers put them on [woven baskets like] plates and carry them with great speed to the Sultan. In the same way they transport the principal crimi- nals; they place each man on a stretcher and run carrying the stretcher on their heads. Likewise they bring the Sultan’s drinking water when he resides at Dawlat Abad, carrying it from the river Kank [Ganges], to which the Hindus go on pilgrimage and which is at a distance of | forty days’ journey from there." [1] [1]: (Ibn Battuta, tr. H.A.R. Gibb 1971, pp. 594-595) The Travels of Ibn Battuta, translated by H. A. R. Gibb. 1971. Cambridge University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GD7E8RNS/item-list |
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State was not providing either postal stations or a general postal service.
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’there were no specialized building solely devoted to postal activities. However there were post stations which were established to provide services to couriers’
[1]
[1]: Shively, Donald H. and McCullough, William H. 2008. The Cambridge History of Japan Volume 2: Heian Japan. Cambridge Histories Online Cambridge University Press.p.693 |
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There were post stations which were established to provide services to couriers, these stations developed into settlements.
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there were post stations which were established to provide services to couriers. ’coins were accepted everywhere at inns and post stations’
[1]
’Post horses, too, were initially requisitioned at the district deputy’s office and then sent to the shugosho’s main castle or to neighboring provinces, as needed.’
[2]
[1]: Yamamura, Kozo (ed). 2008. The Cambridge History of Japan. Vol. 3. Cambridge Histories Online Cambridge University Press [sixth edition].p.384 [2]: Yamamura, Kozo (ed). 2008. The Cambridge History of Japan. Vol. 3. Cambridge Histories Online Cambridge University Press [sixth edition].p.252 |
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The sources mention postal savings schemes estabished during the White Rajah period, but no general postal service: ’In 1885 the Rajah felt it necessary to issue an Order requiring that all loans from Ibans to Chinese be registered with the Government, to protect the Ibans from defaulters. In 1902, a year when the price of gutta percha reached an alltime high, the Resident of the Third Division registered sixty such loans amounting to over $10,000. The total sum of money which the shopkeepers of Kapit owed to the still far from pacified upper Rejang Ibans at the same period was double that figure. Over the years, transactions of this kind became entirely customary, so much so that when the Third Rajah inaugurated a postal savings scheme in 1926, an official report complained of the competition encountered in bidding for Iban business: “...the temptation to Dayaks to ‘invest’ their savings with Chinese at a high rate of interest is at present too great to allow them to take the safer course of investing at 3%.”’
[1]
GeneralpPostal services are a very recent introduction: ’With urban migration, and mail service making possible postal remittances, an increasing number of parents have no adult child residing in the BILEK with them.’
[2]
But Gomes mentions Saribas Ibans writing and receiving letters: ’A Dyak schoolmaster, who had taught in Banting for many years, afterwards worked as the Government clerk [Page 108] at Betong in Saribas. He told me that he was struck by the number of Dyak men and women in Saribas who could write, and how they often wrote letters to their friends who were away, and received letters from them.’
[3]
It is unclear from his description how these were transported. Expert feedback is needed. We are unsure as to when mail services were made available.
[1]: Pringle, Robert Maxwell 1968. “Ibans Of Sarawak Under Brooke Rule, 1841-1941”, 496 [2]: Vinson H. Sutlive, Jr. and John Beierle: eHRAF Cultural Summary for the Iban [3]: Gomes, Edwin H. 1911. “Seventeen Years Among The Sea Dyaks Of Borneo: A Record Of Intimate Association With The Natives Of The Bornean Jungles”, 107 |
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NB caravenserais were not specialised postal stations, but fulfilled that function among others.
“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.” [1] [1]: (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 |
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Post stations were erected at distances of one day’s journey between them. Marco Polo said that this was 25-30 miles distance.
[1]
The extensive Yam system was used to communicate royal orders and royal envoys across the empire.
[2]
Ḡāzān Khan established "special yāms exclusively for official couriers (īḷčī or yārāltū; cf. Doerfer, III, p. 12 and I, pp. 551-53) and making each one the responsibility of a grand amir. Stations were built along main arteries at a distance of three farsaḵs from one another and were required to have on hand fifteen well-nourished (farbeh) horses at all times. Two special couriers (peyk) were stationed at each yām; their function was to carry to the capital important reports about the provinces; such reports bore a special seal called tamḡā-ye peykī (seal of the messenger). A single courier could travel 30 farsaḵs in twenty-four hours, changing mounts frequently; the distance could be doubled if relays were used. Theoretically an urgent message could reach Tabrīz from Khorasan in four days (Rašīd-al-Dīn, Jāmeʿ al-tawārīḵ, Baku, pp. 483-84; idem, Tārīḵ-eḡāzānī, pp. 274-75; cf. Spuler, Mongolen3, pp. 424-25)."
[3]
[1]: David Morgan, The Mongols (Oxford: Blackwell, 2nd ed. 2007), p.91. [2]: David Morgan, The Mongols (Oxford: Blackwell, 2nd ed. 2007), p.90-91. [3]: (Floor 1990) Floor, Willem. 1990. ČĀPĀR. www.iranicaonline.org/articles/capar-or-capar-turk |
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No general postal service until the Cursus Publicus, established by Augustus during the Principate. However "A series of postal stations connected by wagon and horse relays along the major trunk roads of the Empire".
[1]
[1]: (Gabriel 2002, 209) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport. |
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No general postal service until the Cursus Publicus, established by Augustus during the Principate.
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No general postal service until the Cursus Publicus, established by Augustus during the Principate.
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No general postal service until the Cursus Publicus, established by Augustus during the Principate.
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No general postal service until the Cursus Publicus, established by Augustus during the Principate.
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This should be bracketed. I have not found any specific mentions of postal stations, but the ongoing bureaucratization of the post delivery system would probably have led to this.
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Specialized buildings exclusively devoted to the postal service.
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Postal stations and services were introduced under Russian rule. During the Russian period, Sakha leaders participated in the growing postal system: ’Yakut oral histories begin well before first contact with Russians in the seventeenth century. For example, OLONKHO (epics) date at least to the tenth century, a period of interethnic mixing, tensions, and upheaval that may have been a formative period in defining Yakut tribal affiliations. Ethnographic and archaeological data suggest that the ancestors of the Yakut, identified in some theories with the Kuriakon people, lived in an area near Lake Baikal and may have been part of the Uighur state bordering China. By the fourteenth century, Yakut ancestors migrated north, perhaps in small refugee groups, with herds of horses and cattle. After arrival in the Lena valley, they fought and intermarried with the native Evenk and Yukagir nomads. Thus, both peaceful and belligerent relations with northern Siberians, Chinese, Mongols, and Turkic peoples preceded Russian hegemony. When the first parties of Cossacks arrived at the Lena River in the 1620s, Yakut received them with hospitality and wariness. Several skirmishes and revolts followed, led at first by the legendary Yakut hero Tygyn. By 1642 the Lena valley was under tribute to the czar; peace was won only after a long siege of a formidable Yakut fortress. By 1700 the fort settlement of Yakutsk (founded 1632) was a bustling Russian administrative, commercial, and religious center and a launching point for further exploration into Kamchatka and Chukotka. Some Yakut moved northeast into territories they had previously not dominated, further assimilating the Evenk and Yukagir. Most Yakut, however, remained in the central meadowlands, sometimes assimilating Russians. Yakut leaders cooperated with Russian commanders and governors, becoming active in trade, fur-tax collection, transport, and the postal system. Fighting among Yakut communities decreased, although horse rustling and occasional anti-Russian violence continued. For example, a Yakut Robin Hood named Manchari led a band that stole from the rich (usually Russians) to give to the poor (usually Yakut) in the nineteenth century. Russian Orthodox priests spread through Yakutia, but their followers were mainly in the major towns. By 1900 a literate Yakut intelligentsia, influenced both by Russian merchants and political exiles, formed a party called the Yakut Union. Yakut revolutionaries such as Oiunskii and Ammosov led the Revolution and civil war in Yakutia, along with Bolsheviks such as the Georgian Ordzhonikidze.’
[1]
[1]: Balzer, Marjorie Mandelstam and Skoggard, Ian: eHRAF Cultural Summary for the Yakut |
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During the Russian period, Sakha leaders participated in the growing postal system: ’Yakut oral histories begin well before first contact with Russians in the seventeenth century. For example, OLONKHO (epics) date at least to the tenth century, a period of interethnic mixing, tensions, and upheaval that may have been a formative period in defining Yakut tribal affiliations. Ethnographic and archaeological data suggest that the ancestors of the Yakut, identified in some theories with the Kuriakon people, lived in an area near Lake Baikal and may have been part of the Uighur state bordering China. By the fourteenth century, Yakut ancestors migrated north, perhaps in small refugee groups, with herds of horses and cattle. After arrival in the Lena valley, they fought and intermarried with the native Evenk and Yukagir nomads. Thus, both peaceful and belligerent relations with northern Siberians, Chinese, Mongols, and Turkic peoples preceded Russian hegemony. When the first parties of Cossacks arrived at the Lena River in the 1620s, Yakut received them with hospitality and wariness. Several skirmishes and revolts followed, led at first by the legendary Yakut hero Tygyn. By 1642 the Lena valley was under tribute to the czar; peace was won only after a long siege of a formidable Yakut fortress. By 1700 the fort settlement of Yakutsk (founded 1632) was a bustling Russian administrative, commercial, and religious center and a launching point for further exploration into Kamchatka and Chukotka. Some Yakut moved northeast into territories they had previously not dominated, further assimilating the Evenk and Yukagir. Most Yakut, however, remained in the central meadowlands, sometimes assimilating Russians. Yakut leaders cooperated with Russian commanders and governors, becoming active in trade, fur-tax collection, transport, and the postal system. Fighting among Yakut communities decreased, although horse rustling and occasional anti-Russian violence continued. For example, a Yakut Robin Hood named Manchari led a band that stole from the rich (usually Russians) to give to the poor (usually Yakut) in the nineteenth century. Russian Orthodox priests spread through Yakutia, but their followers were mainly in the major towns. By 1900 a literate Yakut intelligentsia, influenced both by Russian merchants and political exiles, formed a party called the Yakut Union. Yakut revolutionaries such as Oiunskii and Ammosov led the Revolution and civil war in Yakutia, along with Bolsheviks such as the Georgian Ordzhonikidze.’
[1]
Sieroszewski mentions post horses and post roads: ’The most ancient of the yassak are apparently the post-horses. Even in the order given to the clerk Kurdiukov in 1685 we find a mention that the yassak gatherers should not misuse this obligation: do not take away the good horses from the Yakut too much, and give them, the natives, your own poor horses in return for their good ones. This was apparently done often and the news of it even reached Moscow. In view of this it was ordered to take in the service of the Great Sovereigns... bulls and horses; whatever kind they give you, to ride on it. Besides this guides and coachmen were needed. Gmelin used Yakut oarsmen during his entire journey of 1732, from the boundary of the Yakutsk Oblast. Some Yakut families were transplanted to the Olekminsk, Okhotsk, Ayan, Verkhoyansk, and Kolymsk post roads to maintain the post-horses.’
[2]
[1]: Balzer, Marjorie Mandelstam and Skoggard, Ian: eHRAF Cultural Summary for the Yakut [2]: Sieroszewski, Wacław 1993. “Yakut: An Experiment In Ethnographic Research”, 795 |
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Shuar communities transmitted messages through ceremonial and war drums (see above). They did not use professional couriers or postal services.
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Shuar communities transmitted messages through ceremonial and war drums (see above). They did not use professional couriers or postal services.
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Letters existed.
[1]
However this might not be enough to infer the presence of postal stations. (Thut III - Am II period). "Inscription from the tomb of Vizier Rh-mi-r’" states the duties of the vizier. "It is he who dispatches every messenger of the pr-nswt sent to the mayors and the settlement-leaders; is he who dispatches everyone who will circulate all messages of the pr-nswt."
[2]
[2]: (Pagliari 2012, 726) Pagliari, Giulia. 2012. Function and significance of ancient Egyptian royal palaces from the Middle Kingdom to the Saite period: a lexicographical study and its possible connection with the archaeological evidence. Ph.D. thesis. University of Birmingham. |
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unknown. Letters existed.
[1]
(Thut III - Am II period). "Inscription from the tomb of Vizier Rh-mi-r’" states the duties of the vizier. "It is he who dispatches every messenger of the pr-nswt sent to the mayors and the settlement-leaders; is he who dispatches everyone who will circulate all messages of the pr-nswt."
[2]
[2]: (Pagliari 2012, 726) Pagliari, Giulia. 2012. Function and significance of ancient Egyptian royal palaces from the Middle Kingdom to the Saite period: a lexicographical study and its possible connection with the archaeological evidence. Ph.D. thesis. University of Birmingham. |
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Did the Achaemenids set up postal stations within Egypt or were they just to Egypt? Postal stations were used by the Ptolemies. Coding inferred present on the basis that Cyrene region to the Egyptian Delta may have been bridged by Achaemenid era postal station network and the subsequent dynasties could have maintained this network, even without further expansion of the network in this period.
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coded present for previous period because of inheritance from Abbasid Caliphate. “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”
[1]
.
[1]: (Matthee 2011, 366) Matthee, Rudi., 2011. Review of Postal Systems in the Pre-Modern Islamic World. Journal of World History 22(2). https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/2S554ZK2/item-list |
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coded present for previous period because of inheritance from Abbasid Caliphate. “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”
[1]
.
[1]: (Matthee 2011, 366) Matthee, Rudi., 2011. Review of Postal Systems in the Pre-Modern Islamic World. Journal of World History 22(2). https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/2S554ZK2/item-list |
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From the Shang period roads considered important enough to be "controlled by a special official"
[1]
but references to post usually begin with the Qin’s First Emperor who "constructed post roads across his empire".
[2]
However, Confucius (551-479 BCE) said: "News of good deeds travels faster than the mail"
[3]
which strongly implies a postal system was present at his time. One may infer from the importance of roads a basic postal system existed under the Western Zhou.
[1]: (Lindqvist 2009) Lindqvist, Cecilia. 2009. China: Empire of Living Symbols. Da Capo Press. [2]: ( ? 2003, 391) ? in Mokyr, Joel ed. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History, Volume 2. Oxford University Press [3]: (Postal Museum Chunghwa Post Co. 2010, [2]) |
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From the Shang period roads considered important enough to be "controlled by a special official"
[1]
but references to post usually begin with the Qin’s First Emperor who "constructed post roads across his empire".
[2]
However, Confucius (551-479 BCE) said: "News of good deeds travels faster than the mail"
[3]
which strongly implies a postal system was present at his time. One may infer from the importance of roads a basic postal system existed earlier.
[1]: (Lindqvist 2009) Lindqvist, Cecilia. 2009. China: Empire of Living Symbols. Da Capo Press. [2]: ( ? 2003, 391) ? in Mokyr, Joel ed. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History, Volume 2. Oxford University Press [3]: (Postal Museum Chunghwa Post Co. 2010, [2]) |
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Dunhuang City, Gansu: "Excavations between 1990 and 1992 exposed the site of a ’postal relay station’ (zhi), which was used from the middle of the Western Han (ca. 111 BCE) until the Cao Wei (220-65 CE) and Western Jin (265-316 CE) periods. The site included a hostel, kitchen facilities, rooms for courier personnel, and stables."
[1]
[1]: (Barbieri-Low and Yates 2015, 44) Barbieri-Low, Anthony J. Yates, Robin D.S. 2015. Law, State, and Society in Early Imperial China (2 vols): A Study with Critical Edition and Translation of the Legal Texts from Zhangjiashan Tomb, Issue 247. BRILL. |
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"The creation of a system of relay postal stations has been credited to Chinngis Khan, but was most effectively employed by Chinngis Khan’s successor Ogodei. Ogodei did not invent the system that goes back nearly two thousand years. Athough the Tuoba rulers of what is now northern China had a similar system in the fourth and fifth centuries, it appears to have been implemented already by the Honno, the first steppe empire in history, an empire contemporary with the Roman Empire and ruled by a Turkic tribe."
[1]
[1]: (Avery 2003, 40) |
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The Mongol empire established astonishing communications networks even before the Yuan. Posting stations were said to be found at distance of twenty-five or thirty miles along all the main highways leading to the provinces.
[1]
"The most remarkable improvement in transport involved the postal relay system. China had had postal stations and relays at least since the Han dynasty, but the Mongolian rulers vastly extended the system. The postal stations were designed for the transmission and delivery of official mail, but they were also available to traveling officials, military men, and foreign state guests, aided in the transport of foreign and domestic tribute, and facilitated trade. They were not intended as hostels for merchants, but they came to be used as such and were vital links in the networks of foreign and domestic commerce. By the end of Khubilai’s reign, China had more than 1,400 postal stations, which in turn had at their disposal about 50,000 horses, 1,400 oxen, 6,700 mules, 4,000 carts, almost 6,000 boats, over 200 dogs, and 1,150 sheep. The individual stations were anywhere from fifteen to forty miles apart, and the attendants worked in the stations as part of their corvee obligations. In an emergency, the rider-messengers could cover up to 250 miles a day to deliver significant news, a remarkably efficient mail service for the thirteenth, or any other, century. Despite abuses by officials, merchants, and attendants, the postal system operated efficiently, a fact to which numerous foreign travelers, including Marco Polo, have attested."
[2]
[1]: (Brook, 2010, p.29-30) [2]: (Rossabi, M. 1994. The reign of Khubilai khan. In Franke, H. and D. Twitchett (eds) The Cambridge History of China, volume 6: Alien Regimes and Border States, 710-1368 pp. 414-489. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. P. 450) |
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"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."
[1]
[1]: (Silverstein 2007, 126-127) Silverstein, Adam J. 2007. Postal Systems in the Pre-Modern Islamic World. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
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Courier stations. "Eventually the capital covered an area of 27 It: It was built on a standard Chinese plan with walls, gates, a street grid, palaces, ministry buildings, temples, courier stations, and so forth. It was in fact a dual city, for to the south was a separate Chinese city, with dense housing and markets. It also had a special quarter for the Uighur merchants, who played a major part in the trade of the north, and lodgings for envoys from foreign nations."
[1]
[1]: (Twitchett, D.C. and K. Tietze. 1994. The Liao. In Franke, H. and D.C. Twitchett (eds) The Cambridge History of China Volume 6: Alien Regimes and Border States, 907-1368 pp. 43-153. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. P. 63) |
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Were the Samanid era barid and the postal stations maintained?
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Postal stations could be found at inns from the late seventeenth century.
[1]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 362) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U |
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The following two quotes from Tarn suggest that the Greeks retained at least part of the postal system set up by the Persians.
“There remains one country yet to notice, Ferghana (Ta-yuan), which had formed part of the kingdom of Euthydemus (p. 83 and App. 10). It was the first ‘western country’ which Chang-k’ien reached after escaping from the Hiung-nu; he found a settled agricultural land like Bactria with ‘walled towns’ and ‘postal roads’” [1] “the hyparchy[…] was again subdivided into fortified posts called stathmoi—originally post stations on the main roads, the Seleucids having taken over the Persian postal system” [2] [1]: Tarn, William Woodthorpe. The Greeks in Bactria and India. Cambridge University Press, 2010. p. 307. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/tarn/titleCreatorYear/items/SQY9X379/item-list [2]: Tarn, William Woodthorpe. The Greeks in Bactria and India. Cambridge University Press, 2010. p. 2. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/tarn/titleCreatorYear/items/SQY9X379/item-list |
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Inferred from the fact that the Abbasids (that is, the Ziyadids’ predecessors) likely established a postal system across their empire:
"Second, and perhaps more importantly, is al-’Umarì’s statement that from the fall of the Umayyads until the reign of Hàrùn al- Rashìd there was no regular Barìd service at the disposal of the Abbasid caliphs. There are no fewer than eight documents that disprove his assumption. Before discussing them, it is worth mentioning that there are literary references to the Barìd being used under the early Abbasid caliphs, and the thought that—despite the rich heritage of imperial communications systems in the Near East—the Abbasids spent the first four decades of their reign without a Barìd is plainly counter-intuitive. But, in essence, what we have here is a tension between a number of literary sources, and it is only from the existing documentary evidence that these tensions can be alleviated. Of the eight Barìd-related fragments, six are from Egypt and two are from Central Asia." [1] [1]: (Silverstein, 157) Silverstein, A. Documentary Evidence for the Early History of the Barìd. In SIJPESTEIJN, P. M. and L. Sundelin (eds) PAPYROLOGY AND THE HISTORY OF EARLY ISLAMIC EGYPT pp. 153-162. Brill. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/8BIFF7D2/library |
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Postal stations have not been mentioned in the sources consulted.
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Note: This is the code for Abbasid Caliphate. Simple postal stations in use as stopping point for couriers.
[1]
The Abbasid had a department of state running the post office, called the Barim.
[2]
For an detailed portrayal of Postal systems in the Pre-Modern Islamic world, see Adam J. Silverstein’s work on the subject.
[3]
[1]: Silverstein, Adam J. Postal systems in the pre-modern Islamic world p. 77-78, 97.. [2]: ( Alcock, Susan E., John Bodel, and Richard Ja Talbert, eds. Highways, byways, and road systems in the pre-modern world. Vol. 9. (Wiley 2012) pp. 70-74) [3]: Silverstein, Adam J. Postal systems in the pre-modern Islamic world. (Cambridge University Press, 2007) |
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"In an effort to establish a quick postal service, Adud al-Daula concentrated on improving the roads between Baghdad and Shīrāz."
[1]
The barid "post and intelligence service that had been established by the early Abbasids, and which allowed the caliphal government to keep tabs on its most far-flung provinces ... was used by both the Buyids and the Ghaznavids".
[2]
"Under the Buyids rapid and efficient service was established first between Baghdad and Ray, then between Baghdad and Shiraz, with couriers arriving in the capital daily (Ebn Jawzī, VI, p. 341; Helāl Ṣābeʾ, p. 18; cf. Busse, p. 311)."
[3]
However, “The struggles between the different regional powers and the Abbasid caliphate of Baghdad, particularly during the time of the Buyids and later in the eleventh century with the arrival of the Turks in the Middle East, meant that the barid became progressively disorganized until only an occasional postal service remained (Sauvaget, 11; Ebn Fazlollāh al-ʿOmari, 241).” [4] [1]: (Busse 1975, 283) [2]: (Peacock 2015, 200) Peacock, A C S. 2015. Edinburgh University Press Ltd. Edinburgh. [3]: (Floor 1990) Floor, Willem. 1990. ČĀPĀR. www.iranicaonline.org/articles/capar-or-capar-turk [4]: (Gazagnadou 2017, 51) Gazagnadou, D. 2017. The Iranian origin of the word ’barid’. Journal of Persianate Studies 10(1) pp. 49-56. Seshat URL https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/A2CXIP3I/library |
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Inferred that postal stations were kept and used by chosen emissaries and it was just the bureaucracy behind it which involved an intelligence service that was abolished. "Despite Nizam al-Mulk’s urging, Alp Arslan was steadfast in rejecting the introduction of the barid. ... One reason may have been the Ghaznavid barid reports were encrypted (mu’amma), meaning that only a trained bureaucrat could interpret them. The Seljuks may not have wished to place such confidence in their kuttab."
[1]
Nizam al-Mulk mentions postal stations in his "Book of Government". "Little is known about the postal service in Persia under the Saljuqs, but Sultan Alp Arslan (455-65/465-1072) abolished at least the intelligence-gathering aspects of the courier service, preferring to rely on personally chosen emissaries".
[2]
[1]: (Peacock 2015, 200) Peacock, A C S. 2015. Edinburgh University Press Ltd. Edinburgh. [2]: (Floor 1990) Floor, Willem. 1990. ČĀPĀR. www.iranicaonline.org/articles/capar-or-capar-turk |
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was a postal station network maintained through the Fatimid period for the Ayyubids to inherit? did the Ayyubids develop their own network?
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"The Safavid government maintained a postal system, mainly to relay messages and government orders. The couriers gradually came to be known as čāpār. The system of relay stations no longer existed, however."
[1]
[1]: (Floor 1990) Floor, Willem. 1990. ČĀPĀR. www.iranicaonline.org/articles/capar-or-capar-turk |
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No persuasive evidence could be found, in the literature consulted, for the existence of a postal service of any kind in India, between the end of the Mauryan period and the fourteenth century, when Ibn Battuta visited the Delhi Sultanate and described its communication services. However, it is entirely possible that such systems existed in at least some polities, especially the larger ones.
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No persuasive evidence could be found, in the literature consulted, for the existence of a postal service of any kind in India, between the end of the Mauryan period and the fourteenth century, when Ibn Battuta visited the Delhi Sultanate and described its communication services. However, it is entirely possible that such systems existed in at least some polities, especially the larger ones.
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No persuasive evidence could be found, in the literature consulted, for the existence of a postal service of any kind in India, between the end of the Mauryan period and the fourteenth century, when Ibn Battuta visited the Delhi Sultanate and described its communication services. However, it is entirely possible that such systems existed in at least some polities, especially the larger ones.
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No persuasive evidence could be found, in the literature consulted, for the existence of a postal service of any kind in India, between the end of the Mauryan period and the fourteenth century, when Ibn Battuta visited the Delhi Sultanate and described its communication services. However, it is entirely possible that such systems existed in at least some polities, especially the larger ones.
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No persuasive evidence could be found, in the literature consulted, for the existence of a postal service of any kind in India, between the end of the Mauryan period and the fourteenth century, when Ibn Battuta visited the Delhi Sultanate and described its communication services. However, it is entirely possible that such systems existed in at least some polities, especially the larger ones.
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No persuasive evidence could be found, in the literature consulted, for the existence of a postal service of any kind in India, between the end of the Mauryan period and the fourteenth century, when Ibn Battuta visited the Delhi Sultanate and described its communication services. However, it is entirely possible that such systems existed in at least some polities, especially the larger ones.
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No persuasive evidence could be found, in the literature consulted, for the existence of a postal service of any kind in India, between the end of the Mauryan period and the fourteenth century, when Ibn Battuta visited the Delhi Sultanate and described its communication services. However, it is entirely possible that such systems existed in at least some polities, especially the larger ones.
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No data on whether the elite used relay stations to transmit messages faster. This might be considered unlikely as elsewhere relay stations evolved and were used in context of much larger states and bureaucracies where long distances needed to be traversed.
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No data on whether the elite used relay stations to transmit messages faster. This might be considered unlikely as elsewhere relay stations evolved and were used in context of much larger states and bureaucracies where long distances needed to be traversed.
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No data on whether the elite used relay stations to transmit messages faster. This might be considered unlikely as elsewhere relay stations evolved and were used in context of much larger states and bureaucracies where long distances needed to be traversed. However: "Military expansion during phase III of Erlitou is said to have brought regions as far away as 500 km under the control of the state (Liu 2004, pp. 232-234)."
[1]
[1]: (Shelach and Jaffe 2014, 330) |
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No data on whether the Erligang elite at Zhengzhou used relay stations to transmit messages faster. This might be considered unlikely as elsewhere relay stations evolved and were used in context of much larger bureaucracies and more culturally homogeneous empires.
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From the Shang period roads considered important enough to be "controlled by a special official"
[1]
but references to post usually begin with the Qin’s First Emperor who "constructed post roads across his empire".
[2]
However, Confucius (551-479 BCE) said: "News of good deeds travels faster than the mail"
[3]
which strongly implies a postal system was present at his time. One may infer from the importance of roads a basic postal system existed earlier.
[1]: (Lindqvist 2009) Lindqvist, Cecilia. 2009. China: Empire of Living Symbols. Da Capo Press. [2]: ( ? 2003, 391) ? in Mokyr, Joel ed. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History, Volume 2. Oxford University Press [3]: (Postal Museum Chunghwa Post Co. 2010, [1]) |
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Probably absent, only mentioned for the Mongolian Empire.
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Specialized buildings exclusively devoted to the postal service.
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"With the collapse of the Mongol Empire by the mid-fourteenth century, the jam [postroad] system also broke down in China, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Russia."
[1]
[1]: (Shim 2022, no page number) Shim, H. 2022. The Jam System: The Mongol Institution for Communication and Transportation. In May and Hope (eds) The Mongol World. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/K2ZP2CKP/library |
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"Caravan trade was tightly confined by the ecological parameters set by the desert, steppe, and oasis environment. Three institutions were critical to it: garrisons and watchtowers manned by soldiers to keep the peace; postal relay stations, originally established by the Mongol empire, for rapid communications; and caravanserai, to provide lodgings and trading places in the oases. "
[1]
This description refers to the wider geographic region, but we can infer that these features were also present in the Zungharian empire because of trade.
[1]: (Perdue 2005, 38) |
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Schwimmer’s material suggests a very late introduction of postal stations: ’For the rest, the skills acquired by Orokaiva over the last 15 years are largely concerned not directly with village development but rather with an increase of understanding of the world outside. While before the war, only a small minority had school education, the Anglican Mission spread its operations to several new stations, including Sasembata, after the war. After the eruption, the scope of education was again greatly extended and it could be said that the eruption marked the beginning of universal school education in the majority of Orokaiva villages. The Sasembata station began to draw virtually the entire child population of the surrounding villages, and most students now follow a five or six year course. While this development had been planned ever since the war, it may be significant that regular school attendance of all the villages in the district was experienced for the first time at Ilimo, where a school was conducted for the whole evacuee child population, and adult classes as well. It is the objective of present school programmes, as far as I can see, to make the population literate and the increase of literacy is a major aspect of acculturation over the period. Literacy has certainly progressed to a point where letters written in Orokaiva to any family in Sivepe can be read and understood with the help of at least a junior member of the family; and can be replied to. While I could see no evidence that people have acquired mathematical knowledge of any sophistication, I was struck by a strong quantitative orientation. In the Orokaiva language, there are no numerals higher than 2; hence, it is the invariable practise to use English numerals when speaking the Orokaiva language. The numerals are, in fact, among the main English linquistic features that have been borrowed. They are used with remarkable frequency; the number of coffee trees, the value in pounds of trade goods included in a bride price, the calculation of money prices, even the number of brothers or men who together played some role in a mythological tale (a distinctly contemporary touch, this)-all these phenomena show that “numbers” have become an integral part of Orokaiva culture. The Orokaiva use the English word “number” for a variety of quantitative concepts, including price. Finally, one must regard as an aspect of acculturation, the introduction of many [Page 80] concepts drawn from the scene of world affairs. While among the Orokaiva, I heard talk about Vietnam, Indonesia, Africa, India. The political orientation displayed was a mild kind of nationalism, and a sense of closeness to newly independent non-white states. But the information, derived from radio broadcasts and speeches by councillors, introduced an acculturative kind of perspective. Its dissemination is being actively encouraged by the Australian authorities.’
[1]
[1]: Schwimmer, Eric G. 1969. “Cultural Consequences Of A Volcanic Eruption Experienced By The Mount Lamington Orokaiva”, 79 |
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No information found in sources so far.
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Postal relays were for exclusive royal and administrative use until 1603 CE when relays opened to the public. Starting in Paris 1760 CE mail began to be delivered to homes.
[1]
[1]: (http://www.ladressemuseedelaposte.fr/La-Poste-en-quelques-dates) |
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1477 CE Post relay created by Louis XI.
[1]
[1]: (http://www.ladressemuseedelaposte.fr/La-Poste-en-quelques-dates) |
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Present in Timurid times, perhaps maintained in succeeding khaganates.
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Hmong villages also transmitted messages through ad hoc dispatches and the use of the drum tower: ’Whenever there is an emergency that requires a public meeting, the drum tower keeper, also known as messenger (or footman, who receives as remuneration from the village 1,000 catties of grain a year), would climb up the wooden pillar to beat the drum at the top, crying loudly at the same time. The tempo and the number of the beats vary according to a fixed set of rules. The “tum, tum” beats can be heard within a radius of many li. The first drum beat signifies a call for a meeting for some important affair, and upon hearing it, the villagers would abandon their work to listen attentively. The second drum beat is an urgent call to gather together at the drum tower, and the third drum beat is a signal for the meeting to start. Ordinarily, after the third beat each family would have without fail a representative at the drum tower.’
[1]
’If a certain village has a most serious affair, such as banditry, the meeting would then be different from that stated above. The Tung-chia call this meeting “Ch’uan-k’uan” /summoning for conditions/, which means to summon all elders from various villages to discuss conditions. The meeting place is still at the drum tower. The procedure of “Ch’uan-k’uan” consists of the dispatch of a piece of wood (known in the Tung-chia language as ch’a) about one foot long and as large as a staff, on which is written the name of the elder to be summoned and the nature of the business. Those qualified for summoning are all village leaders who can direct the villagers.’
[2]
Only Chinese towns had postal offices: ’Like Kweiyang, the hsien city of Lung-li was in an open plain, but a narrow one. The space between the mountains was sufficient for a walled town of one long street between the east and west gates and one or two on either side. There were fields outside the city walls. Its normal population was between three and four thousand, augmented during the war by the coming of some “companies” for the installation and repair of charcoal burners in motor lorries and the distillation of grain alcohol for fuel, an Army officers’ training school, and the engineers’ corps of the railway being built through the town from Kwangsi to Kweiyang. To it the people of the surrounding contryside, including at least three groups of Miao and the Chung-chia, went to market. It was also the seat of the hsien government and contained a middle school, postal and telegraph offices, and a cooperative bank, with all of which the non-Chinese, as well as the Chinese, had some dealings. A few of the more well-to-do families sent one of their boys to the middle school. Cases which could not be settled in the village or by the lien pao official, who was also a Chinese, were of necessity brought to the hsien court, as well as cases which involved both Miao and Chinese.’
[3]
But Mickey’s comments imply that non-Chinese communities made use of the postal services in Chinese towns.
[1]: Che-lin, Wu, Chen Kuo-chün, and Lien-en Tsao 1942. “Studies Of Miao-I Societies In Kweichow”, 108 [2]: Che-lin, Wu, Chen Kuo-chün, and Lien-en Tsao 1942. “Studies Of Miao-I Societies In Kweichow", 109 [3]: Mickey, Margaret Portia 1947. “Cowrie Shell Miao Of Kweichow”, 40b |
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"the Sumerian civilisation which flourished before 3500 BC. This was an advanced civilisation building cities and supporting the people with irrigation systems, a legal system, administration, and even a postal service. Writing developed and counting was based on a sexagesimal system, that is to say base 60."
[1]
-- presumably postal stations would have been necessary for an ancient postal service.
[1]: J J O’Connor, J J. Robertson, E F. December 2000. http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Babylonian_mathematics.html |
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"the Sumerian civilisation which flourished before 3500 BC. This was an advanced civilisation building cities and supporting the people with irrigation systems, a legal system, administration, and even a postal service. Writing developed and counting was based on a sexagesimal system, that is to say base 60."
[1]
-- presumably postal stations would have been necessary for an ancient postal service. "Other major administrative achievements of the Elamites included ... the construction and maintenance of numerous public works and enterprises, such as roads, bridges, cities and towns, communication centers, and economic and commercial centers..."
[2]
[1]: J J O’Connor, J J. Robertson, E F. December 2000. http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Babylonian_mathematics.html [2]: (Farazmand 2009, 22) Farazmand, Ali. 2009. Bureaucracy and Administration. CRC Press. Boca Raton. |
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"the Sumerian civilisation which flourished before 3500 BC. This was an advanced civilisation building cities and supporting the people with irrigation systems, a legal system, administration, and even a postal service. Writing developed and counting was based on a sexagesimal system, that is to say base 60."
[1]
-- presumably postal stations would have been necessary for an ancient postal service. "Other major administrative achievements of the Elamites included ... the construction and maintenance of numerous public works and enterprises, such as roads, bridges, cities and towns, communication centers, and economic and commercial centers..."
[2]
[1]: J J O’Connor, J J. Robertson, E F. December 2000. http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Babylonian_mathematics.html [2]: (Farazmand 2009, 22) Farazmand, Ali. 2009. Bureaucracy and Administration. CRC Press. Boca Raton. |
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"The advent of the Parthians did not mark a break in the cultural history of the Greek cities, which retained their constitutions and magistrates, their schools, language, and law, long after the decline of Seleucid power."
[1]
Seleucids took over the Persian postal system. "... originally post stations on the main roads, the Seleucids having taken over the Persian postal system - each stathmos being the centre of a subdivision comprising so many villages." [2] [1]: (Neusner 2008, 10) Neusner, Jacob. 2008. A History of the Jews in Babylonia. 1. The Parthian Period. Wipf & Stock. Eugene. [2]: (Tam 2010, 2) Tam, W W. 2010. The Greeks in Bactria and India. Cambridge University Press. |
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possibly inherited from the Timurids.
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Sources do not suggest there is evidence for a postal system during this period.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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Sources do not suggest there is evidence for a postal system during this period.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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Sources do not suggest there is evidence for a postal system during this period.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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Sources do not suggest there is evidence for a postal system during this period.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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Sources do not suggest there is evidence for a postal system during this period.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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Sources do not suggest there is evidence for a postal system during this period.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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Sources do not suggest there is evidence for a postal system during this period.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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Sources do not suggest there is evidence for a postal system during this period.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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There is no evidence for a postal system during this period.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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"The Near East is no stranger to land-based empires, and empires have never been able to survive without the ability of rulers to com- municate regularly and speedily with the remotest provinces of their lands. The usual method of communication employed by imperial rulers is often referred to as a ‘postal system’. By the time the caliphs created their own postal-system, called al-Barìd, they were able to draw on the centuries, if not millennia, of postal experience imprinted on the lands they ruled. [...] Noth’s general conclusion is that any literary sources that refer to the Barìd must be no earlier than c. 700. Although I agree with Noth’s cautious approach to the literary sources and respect his uncompromising reliance on documentary evidence, in this case he is over a century and a half off the mark: a South Arabian inscription from c. 542 makes reference to two couriers bearing news of the breaching of the Ma’rib Dam, the term for these couriers being represented by the consonants BRDN"
[1]
[1]: (Silverstein, 153, 156) Silverstein, A. Documentary Evidence for the Early History of the Barìd. In SIJPESTEIJN, P. M. and L. Sundelin (eds) PAPYROLOGY AND THE HISTORY OF EARLY ISLAMIC EGYPT pp. 153-162. Brill. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/8BIFF7D2/library |
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"Letters were the primary means of communication at this time, and their delibery was surprisingly reliable. A network of post-horses and couriers knit together the entire peninsula and connected Italian merchants to northern Europe. The specialists in this field since at least 1251 had been the Tasso family, of Bergamo in Lombardy. Omodeo, the founder, began with a courier service for the Venetian republic, operating a chain of postal stations between Venice and Milan and between Venice and Rome. In 1460, the Tasso family took exclusive charge of postal serice for the Papal States, a monopoly it held until 1539."
[1]
[1]: Ingrid Rowland. Noah Charney. 2017. The Collector of Lives: Giorgio Vasari and the Invention of Art. W. W. Norton & Company. |
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“During the sixteenth and first half of the seventeenth centuries, Venice’s postal couriers provided the only regular, reliable mail service between the Ottoman Empire and Europe, and as a result they carried a majority of all commercial, diplomatic and personal correspondence to and from Constantinople.”
[1]
“Dal 1200 al 1740 il servizio postale da Costantinopoli a Cattaro, con corrieri a cavallo e di qui a Venzia con barche armate, è largamente usato in tempo di pace anche da mercanti e diplomatici occidentali accreditati alla Porta e dopo l’intervallo 1740-1787, quando la stessa Repubblica preferisce appoggiarsi al più veloce servizio austriaco via Vienna, viene ripreso con l’unica variante dell’itinerario, che ora tocca Zara e Ancona” [2] Translation: “From 1200 to 1740 the postal service from Constantinople to Cattaro, with couriers on horseback and from there to Venice with armed boats, was widely used in peacetime also by Western merchants and diplomats accredited to the Porte. After a pause in 1740-1787, when the Republic itself preferred to rely on the faster Austrian service via Vienna, it resumed with a slight alteration to the itinerary, which now touched Zara and Ancona". [1]: (Preto 2010, 602) Preto. P. 2010. I servizi segreti di Venezia. Spionaggio e controspionaggio ai tempi della Serenissima. Il Saggiatore. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/X2J9U6U9/library [2]: (Dursteler 2009, 295) Dursteler, E. R. 2009. POWER AND INFORMATION: THE VENETIAN POSTAL SYSTEM IN THE EARLY MODERN EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN. IN Ramada Curto, Dursteler, Kirschner and Trivellato (eds) From Florence to the Mediterranean: Studies in Honor of Anthony Molho pp. 601-623. Olshki. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/dursteler/titleCreatorYear/items/S4N55M4Z/item-list |
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“From schooling to military service to welfare benefits to postal services, the responsibilities of the state increased… When we add to this the massive state- funded expansion of the railway, telegraph, and postal systems (in 1848 there had been ten telegraph stations in Austria, by 1913 there were 7,282), we can see how the state became a more immediate and present actor in people’s lives.”
[1]
[1]: (Judson 2016: 335-336) Judson, Pieter M. 2016. The Habsburg Empire: A New History. Cambridge, USA; London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/BN5TQZBW |
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“From schooling to military service to welfare benefits to postal ser vices, the responsibilities of the state increased… When we add to this the massive state- funded expansion of the railway, telegraph, and postal systems (in 1848 there had been ten telegraph stations in Austria, by 1913 there were 7,282), we can see how the state became a more immediate and present actor in people’s lives.”
[1]
[1]: (Judson 2016: 335-336) Judson, Pieter M. 2016. The Habsburg Empire: A New History. Cambridge, USA; London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/BN5TQZBW |
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There was no postal service during this period. “The state also developed communications such as railways, the telegraph (made available to the public from 1850), and postal service (the first Austrian post- age stamps date from 1850).”
[1]
[1]: (Agnew 2004: 127) Agnew, Hugh LeCaine. 2004. The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. California: Hoover Institution Press. http://archive.org/details/czechslandsofboh0000agne. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6LBQ5ARI |
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“The “modernity” of the capital, while exemplary in its scale and expense, paled with the cost of public works in the regions; railroads crisscrossed the country by the 1880s, electrical and telephone utilities by the 1890s, and vast bonds were issued to finance new state and municipal buildings, schools, and trams… Increased urbanization and mobility along the 18,000 kilometers of railway (as well as a vast telegraph system, new roads, seaports, telephone networks, and reliable postal delivery) complemented existing transportation networks like mule trains (Connolly 1997).”
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[1]: (Bunker and Macias-Gonzalez 2011: 68) Bunker, Steven B. and Macías-González, Víctor M. 2011. “Consumption and Material Culture from Pre-Contact through the Porfiriato,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp54–82. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SDIQ5VE7 |
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A postal service had been established in the previous period: A regular postal service was set up between Valencia and Madrid in the early sixteenth century, with riders guaranteeing to cover a minimum of ten leagues a day, and, if they were paid extra, up to twenty leagues (112 kilometres), which seems to have been regarded as a kind of physical limit. By the early seventeenth century the ordinary mail left Madrid on Sunday and arranged to get to Valencia by Wednesday. The king’s business could be dispatched a little faster.”(Casey 2002: 14) Casey, James. 2002. Early Modern Spain: A Social History. New York: Routledge. https://www.zotero.org/groups/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2SNTRSWT
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There was not a general postal service during this time.
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There has been no information on a postal system in the sources consulted.
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British postal stations were spread throughout the Empire. This reference concerns possessions in South Africa: "...by horses and, in the ’twenties, by postcarts: a weekly postal service was set up in 1834. In 1852 there was a daily service from Cape Town to Paarl and Stellenbosh, thrice weekly to Grahamstown and twice weekly to the Karoo. The postcart also conveyed passengers. Following the issue of the famous three-cornered Capes in 1853, a penny post was established in limited areas in 1860 and four years later it was possible to extend it to the whole Colony. But, despite better roads, the ox-waggon remained the commercial vehicle and was still in use a century later."
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[1]: (? 1963, 795) ? in Eric A Walker. ed. 1963. The Cambridge History of the British Empire. Volume III. South Africa, Rhodesia and The High Commission Territories. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
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