Transcript River Valley Civilizations Part 2

INDUS VALLEY
• Arose around 2,500 BCE
• Main Cities
• Mohenjo Daro
• Harappa
• Hundreds of other settlements
• Independent city-states, strong government
• Extremely well-planned, coordinated cities
• Extensive trade network
• Elaborate writing system (undeciphered)
• Religion
• Worshipped mother goddess
• Evidence of priestly class and temples
• Collapse: systems failure
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Little evidence of warfare until end
Devastated by environmental upheavals?
Destroyed by Indo-European (Aryan) nomads?
Cities abandoned
HUANG-HE (YELLOW) RIVER
• Developed in isolation
• Along lower Yellow River
• Rich loess soil
• Constantly flooding
• First Dynasties
• Control of flooding critical
• Xia Dynasty (Mythical?)
• God-like kings
• Taught irrigation, silkmaking
• Shang Dynasty (1766 to 1045 bce)
• Warlike kings, landed aristocracy; few priests
• Most people worked land as peasants
• Elaborate bronze workings
Shang dynasty bronze ritual vessel.
CHINESE WRITING
• Originated during Shang
• Ideographic
• Writing denotes ideas
• First used on Oracle Bones
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Priests asked gods questions
Wrote questions on bones
Tossed into fire
Cracks read by priests (divination)
• Elitist technique = scholar-bureaucrats
• Extremely difficult to read
• Required well-educated class to use
• Only elite had time to learn
• Cuneiform, hieroglyphs had similar effects
CHINESE BELIEFS
• Shang dynasty’s religion
• Di – supreme god
• Veneration of ancestors (continues in China)
• Ruler links heaven and earth
• Social structures
• Three-generation family
• Paternal authority
• Kongzi (Confucius) - 5th century bce
• Harmony in human relations through ritual
• Family relationships are a model for relationship
to ruler
• Compiled in Analects, later basis of Confucianism
MANDATE OF HEAVEN
• Zhou dynasty (1046-256 bce)
• Developed shi, professional men of service
• Chinese political idea
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Rulers exercise power given by heaven
Rulers continue to rule if heaven pleased
Heaven will take back mandate to rule
Heaven will replace ruling dynasty
• Indicators of a Lost Mandate
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Wars, invasions, military disasters
Over-taxation, disgruntled peasants
Social, moral decline of elite classes
Increased crime, banditry
DYNASTIC CYCLE
• One ruling family replaces another
• The Dynasty Changes
• Due to the loss of the Mandate of Heaven
• Stages in Cycle
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New dynasty arises, takes control of China
Strengthens rule, reestablishes prosperity, peace
Weakens, becomes lazy, problems arise
Invasions, revolts toss out reigning dynasty
• Shang replaces Xia, Zhou replaces Shang
MEANWHILE, IN AMERICAS
 Olmec in Mesoamerica, 1200bce
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Used rainfall for agriculture
Cities are centers of trade, religion
Priests and ruling class over others
Giant stone heads (as tall as 2 Mr. Storcks!)
 Chavin off coast of Peru, 900bce
 Two major regions:
mountains and coast
 Trade routes running
through mountains
 CONTRAST: Neither are river valleys
CIVILIZATION SPREADS
• Phoenician Sailors in Lebanon
• City-states traded across Mediterranean
• Invented 22-letter alphabet
• Nubia (in modern-day Sudan)
• Originally, a tributary state of Egypt
• After Egypt dissolves, forms independent state of Kush
• Borrows Egyptian culture, becomes major trading state
• Meroe and Axum further south in Egypt
• Hittite Empire
• Forms northwest of Mesopotamia
• Copper, silver, iron --> trade, military power
• Late Bronze Age – cosmopolitanism in Middle East
• Shared cultures and lifestyles from contact between societies
HERITAGES
• First heritages
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Passed thru children
Writing systems inherited
Intellectual systems, art copied
Religious, philosophical systems copied
Useful inventions rarely forgotten, easily spread
• River valley civilizations decline by 1000BCE
• All subject to nomadic invasions
• Geographical centers shifted (all except China)
• Political Structures often not continued
NOMADS: BARBARIANS?
• Pastoralism
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Domestication of animals
Way of life based on herding
Often on fringes
Bordered settled areas
• Seen as savages
• Interaction vs. conflict
• Nomads traded, coexisted with settled areas
• Nomads warred on, conquered settled areas
• Often protected merchants, allowed trade
• Prior to 1500 BCE little major threat
• Chariot Peoples (Central Asian Indo-Europeans)
• Domesticated horse, invented chariot, iron weapons
• Pushed into SW Asia, S. Asia, E. Asia, Europe
• Responsible for spread of ideas, trade