State courier and relay system
Mensajería estatal y postas reales
- Date
- c. 2100 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Ur (Ur III) and Mari, Mesopotamia
- Credited to
- Ur III dynasty and the kingdom of Mari
- Field
- Communication
What it is
Network of official messengers with rations assigned at way stations, documented by thousands of Ur III 'messenger texts', and letters in sealed clay envelopes. Hammurabi and the kings of Mari kept daily correspondence with governors hundreds of kilometres away.
Ur III messengers travelled on foot or by donkey; horse-relay posts are a Neo-Assyrian and Persian development.
What it led to
- Remote government of provinces and written control of governors
- Written international diplomacy (Amarna archive, Hittite correspondence) using Akkadian as a lingua franca
- Espionage, reports and news as an instrument of state
- A precursor of the Persian relay post and the Roman cursus publicus
Built on
- Cuneiform writingc. 3200 BCE
- Royal road and highway
- Donkey domestication
Made possible
- Sealed clay envelopec. 2000 BCE
- Written international peace treaty (Kadesh)1259 BCE
- Persian Royal Road and relay postc. 500 BCE
- Mongol relay postal system (yam / örtöö)c. 1234
- Persian postal system
- Amarna diplomatic correspondence