Transcript Ancient Civilizations

Ancient Civilizations
India, China, & Mesoamerica
Indus Civilization
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Developed between 30002500 BCE
Two largest cities were
Harappa and Mohenjo Daro
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Well planned cities
• Running water, sewers, and
brick buildings
• Grid pattern
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Pictographic writing (still
undeciphered)
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Has 400 symbols
Clear social classes
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Different types of houses:
wealthy 2-3 stories, common
people one room
Economics
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Advanced Agriculture
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Wheat, rye, peas, rice (maybe)
Domesticated animals: chickens, cattle, goats, sheep
Abundant crops led to job specialization in cities (like E&M)
• Craftsmen less skilled than Mesopotamia (stone arrows, poor
spears)
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Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro
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Connected by villages
Major trading centers with China, SE Asia, Southern India, and
Mesopotamia
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Jade and jewels from SE Asia and China
Wheeled carts for transportation
Mesopotamia for olive oil, wool, and leather
Persia for gold, silver, and copper
End of Indus
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By 1500 BCE civilization had
declined (unsure as to why: drought,
earthquakes changed course of river,
overuse of land, disease…)
1500 BCE a Indo-European group,
the Aryans, overtook India
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Culture of Aryans blended with
the Indians
• Sanskrit; literary language of
India
• Vedas became major books of
Hinduism
• Placed native Indians into
inferior class
• People divided into 4 Varnas
and each Varna into subclasses called Jati
• At the bottom were the Pariahs
or Untouchables
Caste System
Scholars and priests
Rulers and warriors
Professionals
Servants
Pariahs
Other Developments of the
Aryans
1. Iron Metallurgy – for
weapons and
agricultural
tools
2. Long Distance Trade
networks
3. Literature – The
Mahabharata and The
Ramayana
4. Development of Hinduism
Between about 500 – 324 BCE
1. Small, regional kingdoms
(called maha-janapadas) in
the Ganges Plain area
1. *. Many traded with other
civilizations about whom
we’ve already discussed
2. “Foreign” Control of parts of
the Indus Valley by
1. the Persians (under Darius I)
in the 500s BCE
2. Alexander the Great in the
300s BCE (Bactria)
Greco-Bactrian Coin
Trade Routes of the Ancient World
China
• China Has The “Longest Lasting Civilization in the
World”
• Chinese civilization formed almost 4000 years ago!
• Like Ancient Egypt, ruled by royal dynasties until
1911 CE
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Mandate of Heaven (Zhou)– principle that said that
a ruler and his family were given “permission” from
the gods if they governed properly
Predynastic (Neolithic) China
(ca. 8000 – 2205 B.C.E.)
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Most isolated of the river valleys
Huang He (Yellow River) and
Chiang Jiang (Yangtze) rivers
flood quite often
Yangshao Culture (ca. 5000-2700
B.C.E.)
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Agricultural Society
• crops: millet, wheat, rice
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Animals: dogs, pigs, goats, horses
Small Villages Located in river
valleys
• Villages enclosed by earthen,
defensive walls
More Predynastic China…
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Longshan Cultures (ca. 3500 –
2200 B.C.E.) – a slightly more
“advanced” Neolithic culture
• Differences from Yangshao
Culture
• Agriculture: also had cattle
and sheep
• Technology: pottery wheel
(easier to make pottery of
better quality)
• Evidence of ancestor
worship?: burials under or
inside foundations of homes
• Evidence of an early legal
code
Huang He Civilization
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Xia (shah) Dynasty 4000 Years
ago
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first, legendary dynasty
Ruler Yu
Irrigation and drained
floodwaters
Beginning of Chinese
civilization
No written records – existence is
by legend
Legend says that Yu united all the people of every tribe and ordered them to help him build canals in all the
major rivers that were flooding and lead it out to the sea. He did this for 13 years, without going back to
his home village. Legend says in those 13 years, he passed by his house three times without going in which
is a sign of his perseverance in his work .
Shang Dynasty (1766-1122 BCE)
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Writing: Oracle Bones
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Cities – Walled cities, elaborate
palaces and tombs
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Written on bone and used to
foretell future
Characters: a symbol= sound,
word, object
Anyang (the last “capital” of the
Shang Dynasty) is the most
famous
Central rule to oversee irrigation
and flood control
Farming society ruled by a king
and an aristocracy
Ancestor worship developed
More Shang
• Technology – bronze metalworking, silk
weaving, complex pottery, political and
monumental architecture
• Occupations – artisans, farmers, priests,
government officials, and slaves
• Social Classes are apparent through burials
and architecture
Religion and Social Institutions
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Social Institutions
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Government
Kings led government from a “capital”
King’s relatives ruled other cities in the name of the king
Palaces for royalty in cities
Religion
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King also led religion
Very elaborate tombs for kings and nobility
• Contain lots of goods, animals, and human retainers
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Temples in cities
Oracle bones
Polytheistic – based on nature spirits and ancestor worship
Zhou Dynasty (1122-256 BCE)
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Pronounced “joe”
800+ years, longest dynasty
Mandate of Heaven
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Culture
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Confucius asking Laozi about etiquette
Claimed they overthrew Shang by
will of gods
Took steps to centralize government,
but local leaders ignored central
government
Set up an agricultural system (nobles
& peasants) A.K.A. feudalism
Mandarin is standardized as language
Laozi and Confucius both lived
during Zhou
Emphasis on veneration of ancestors
If you honored family, society would
function well
More Zhou
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Technology:
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Chopsticks
Iron Metallurgy
Use cavalry & crossbow
Expanded Chinese territory to
Yangtze River Valley (wheat &
rice growing areas added)
Increased food production and
use of iron
Lost control of western half of
empire, last two centuries
known as “era of warring
states”
Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.)
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Ruler: Qin Shi Huangdi (1st
Emperor) – brutal ruler
Qin name applied to country’s
name
Unified the Chinese world
Legalism – favored
government force; viewed
human nature as evil
A highly centralized
government
Standardized coinage, weights,
and measures
Irrigation
Qin Shi Huangdi
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Uniform writing system, & a law
code
Manufacture of silk cloth is
encouraged
Nucleus of the Great Wall is
constructed
Burned books and attacked culture
National census, tax, and labor
service
Downfall: high taxes, attacks on
intellectuals, killed men, brutal
punishments, & revolts after Qin’s
death
Pre-Classical Mesoamerica
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Location/Geography
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Mesoamerica = “Middle
America”
Religion - - common elements
throughout Mesoamerica:
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Polytheistic
Chief or King = chief
priest/shaman
Human Sacrifice – two
types
• “auto sacrifice” – ritual
bloodletting of cultural elites
• captive sacrifice
Here is a woman self-sacrificing
by piercing her tongue
More Pre-Classical Mesoamerica
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Ritual Ball Game –
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thought to represent the
sun in the sky (played
everywhere except for
at Teotihuacan)
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Calendar systems
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260 day ceremonial
calendar
365 day solar calendar
Olmecs
• The Olmecs (ca. 1150 – 700
B.C.E.)
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Centered around the Gulf (of
Mexico) Coast of Mexico
• Cultural Elements
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Large, probably independent,
agricultural villages
Earthen mounds/pyramids
with courtyards – Temple
complexes (religion)
• Government (chiefdom or
monarchy) evidence:
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Burial “goods” – obsidian,
jade, and magnetite (traded
“exotics”)
differences in architecture
basalt thrones
More Olmecs:
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Social Class Differences –
Nobility and commoners
Elaborate Artwork
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Random Llama!
Huge Basalt Heads –
possibly the likeness of
rulers
Jade statues
“Were-Jaguar” Motif – halfman/half-jaguar looking
creatures on pottery and as
subjects of statues
Some very basic glyphs
(symbols) – early writing
(not fully translated yet)
Early Andean South America
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Location/Geography
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Western South America
Zones:
• Arid Coastal area
• Altiplano:
• a plateau region in
South America,
situated in the Andes
of Argentina,
Bolivia, and Peru.
• Mountains
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Chavín
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Centered around what
is now coastal Peru
Chavin
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Cultural Elements:
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Major site = Chavín
de Huántar
Ceremonial
Architecture –
pyramids, plazas,
earthen mounds
No evidence of
governmental or
economic
organization
Artistic styles –
spread throughout
Chavín cultural zone
So Why are the Olmec and
Chavin Important???
• Both created the foundations
for later civilizations and
empires in their areas
• Art
• ceremonial architecture
• religion
Olmec werejaguar
Dailies: Harappa and Shang
• Which people did the Harappans trade
with?
• Why do we know the least about the
Harappans?
• What are the Varnas?
• What are the Jati?
• What 3 things did the Aryans bring to
India?
Dailies: Shang, Zhou, Qin
• Why did Qin Shi Huangdi burn books?
• What is feudalism?
• What was the importance of the Xia
dynasty?
• Describe the Era of Warring States.
• Why did the Chavin not invent the wheel?