Assyrians
Communication of Assyrians
The Original Hybrid Transport Technology: The Mule
The assyrians relied on mounted messengers and the exclusive animal used for this purpose was the mule. They always went in pairs mainly because they didn't want to end up stranded with such a lame animal. The offspring of a horse mother and a donkey father, mules mature five years later than both parent animals but have a longer working life of up to twenty years.
Making speed: the first relay communications system
Messages exchanged between the king and his governors in the provinces and his delegates abroad could be delivered either by letter or by envoy. The first method was considerably faster, as the letter was passed on in a relay system to a new courier with a fresh pair of mules after reaching a post station, enabling it to travel on without delay. This may seem an obvious course of action but the disassociation between letter and courier was in fact an innovation of the Neo-Assyrian state and one that allowed unprecedented speed
Assyrian Mule
What was used for Communication
Assyrian City
Place where Assyrian people lived
Assyrian People
A woman and a boy riding a mule, seated on a comfortable-looking two-seat saddle construction. They are part of a group of Assyrian soldiers and Babylonian deportees in a depiction of the events after the capture of Sahrina during the wars in Babylonia in 702 BC.
Writing System
Writing is one of the essentials and characteristics of civilization. Urbanization, capital formation and writing are closely related. Writing developed at the end of the 4th millennium in the Middle East. The prime motivation was of an economic nature: the desire to administer economical and trade transactions. Almost all of the early cuneiform texts and a very large fraction of the 2nd millenium texts concern economy and administration.