Category
TigrisEuphrates
Valley Sumer
4,000 BCE –
to find out
Nile Valley
Egypt
Indus Valley –
Harrapan
China –
Shang
Dynasty
Mesoameri
ca –
Olmec
South
America –
Moche
3200 BC
332 BC
2500 BC 1500 BC about a thousand years
1766-1122 B.
C. 31 kings
and 17
generations –
about 600
years
1200 BC
400 AD
100 AD to
800 AD
Costal
Peru
Cities
21 – 123
enlarged
settlements
from 4,000
to 3,000 BCE
Menes first
city to
governmen
t
Never
developed
strong or
large urban
population
until the
Greeks
took over
Chanudaro
Mohenjodaro
Dholavira
Lothal
Goladaro
Harappa
Ganweriwala
Ruins of Yin –
called, one of
the Shang
capitals
Central
government
and law
codes
Rulers
religiously
supported
Controlled
the work
force - taxes
Ruled by a
pharaoh
Organized
governmen
t to
institute
large scale
dikes and
irrigation
systems
Central government
Religion large part of
government
Rajahs ruled the cities
Not big on schooling
Masks found – reason
unknown
Priests high in
government
Founded by
man who
overthrow
the Xia
emperor and
dynasty
Kings ruled hereditary
Tula
Teotihuaca
n
Tenochtitla
n
Monte
Alban
La Venta
Palenque
Tulum
Copan
All cities
where
build on
mounds
Governed
by priests
Theocratic
governmen
t
Colossal
stone
heads
represent
rulers
Time period
Mediterranean
– Minoan Crete
Three periods
3,000 BCE
1,100 BCE
Another guy
four periods
Not much info
from before
2,600
Sipan
147 cities
Huancaco Knossos – main
Chan Chan city
Malia – palace,
third largest,
treated , much
like a city
Phaistos
Controlled
by priests
and
warriors –
kings
Allied city
states
2KBC began to
serve a king
Formed social
hierarchy
Lords. Nobles,
and Kings
Peasants – the
manufacturers
Slave – Slaves
Writing and
record
keeping
Called
cuneiform –
marks made
on wedges,
used wordpictures on
clay tablets,
they where
good
farmers and
so they used
tablets to
keep
records
Two
kingdoms
known as
lower and
upper
Egypt
Believed it
was
important
to record
informatio
n
Written
scripts
called
hieroglyphi
cs able to
preserve
the history
and ideas
of ancient
Egypt
wrote on
tombs
walls and
on papyrus
scrolls
First civilization to use
language
Wrote on buildings and
monuments
Characters are
hieroglyphs
Ideograms
Symbolic graphs
Language never decode
Sentences comprise of
5-26 characters
The Chinese
believed that
recording
history was
very
important.
They kept
accurate
records and
even devised
a system to
tell if
someone had
counterfeited
a historical
document,
based on
writing styles
Full writing
system that
had been
developed
earlier.
Complex
symbols
where,
complex
meaning
complex
Written
records
Limited
No writing
evidence of or record
writing
keeping
from
Olmecs
Debate
where
symbols
are actually
writing
May have
been first
Mesoameri
cans to
develop
writing
Pictographs
2100-1700 BC
Linear A script
middle Minoan
Linear B script
1450
Specialized
jobs
Potters,
farmers,
merchants –
traders,
smiths,
jewelers
Bakers
Beer
makers
Farmers
Builders
Cattle
herders
Stone
cutters
Painters
Mathematic
ians
priests
Not much info
Merchants
Farmers
Landowners
Craftsmen
Etc.
Social classes
Ruling class ,
financed and
controlled
long
distance
trade ,
merchants
where the
rulers
agents –
they
sometimes
acted on
their own
Pharaohs
Priests
Scribes
Military
Civil
population
System of
who had
the most
power of
the ninjas
like people
Highest: nobles,
priests, highest officers
Middle: merchants,
farmers, landowners,
and craftsmen
Lowest: slaves
Priests and slaves
higher than nobles – a
bit
Slaves not picked by
race, could free
themselves after 3
years of service
confirm the
existence of
the Shang
dynasty
society based
on
agriculture
and
supported by
hunting and
breeding
animals
priests
farmers
artists
traders and
merchants
potters
all things
found in
specialized
societies
historians
11 royal
tombs found
in Yin
King of
military
nobility
Territorial
rulers
appointed
based on
support in
military
campaigns
Priests, kept
Farmers
Buildings
The
buildings
where to
large to be
built by
one person
State
officials
Healers
Architects
Engineers
Religious
officials
Oligarchs
and kings
Farmers
Constructi
on
workers
soldiers
Soldiers
Farmers
Philosophers
Priests
Soldiers played
the biggest role
in Greece
Farmers where
a large part of
the Minoan
economy
The elite
and the
common
Common
sometimes
burned
crops and
the like to
retaliate
Fishers
where the
lowest
Firmest a
little
higher – in
different
parts of
the land
Supreme
king
Further
social
structure
Nobles
Peasants
Slaves
Slaves almost
no power
Peasants where
the
manufacturers
of the society
Nobles included
the king and
other wealthy
people
Hierarchy
powerful
political and
religious
leaders and
wealthy
landowners
- controll
ed
power
rights
prestige
and
backed
with
religious
ideas
elite
officials,
managers,
high
ranking
military
-saw that
rulers
wishes
where
carried out
Small pop
with special
skills or
wealth from
manu. or
trade
Bottom was
peasants
and
records and
in charge of
religion
Hereditary
slavery
Warriors
very special
because of
the amount of
violence and
the wars that
they got into
Had slaves
Peasants at
bottom of
social scale
based on
occupatio
n
Gender roles
laborers,
few
possessions,
rights, or
life options
Slavery
became
widespread
2,800 slaves
where POW
Women
where
inferior to
men
Shared
social
standing of
husbands
and fathers
Occasionally
held high
offices
Priestesses
– good
position
Women had
about 75%
of options as
men
2,000 BCE
women
became
inferior to a
high level
and became
confined to
the house
Men where
rulers
Women
bore and
raised
children
Responsibl
e for
familiar
domestic
relationshi
ps
Women
took care of
daily needs
Men
interpreted
women as
serving
them
Men taught
their boys
their own
trades and
related to
society at
large
Human figurines ad
seals
More female figurines
than males
Not much info
Three types of
figurines
Men till,
women
weave
Although
men worked
outside
the home and
women
inside,
both were
portrayed as
productive
members of
society. –
both online
quotes
The women
were
awarded to
their
husbands at a
bride price of
how much it
cost to raise
them – seems
like they
were
Women
cared for
children
Both
farmed
Males
hunted in
addition to
farming
Women
wove and
cooked
Sometime
s being
paid
Many
female
deities
Women
smaller
variety of
jobs to
complete
Not
subordina
te to men
Had their
own
world
Both
patriarcha
l and
matriarch
al at once
Men and
women almost
equal
Men slightly
more power
Men valued for
contributions
Woman valued
for weaving and
pottery
considered
inferior to
men
Most
frequently
the women’s
positions
were
servitudes
Younger girls
forbidden to
leave rooms
at age ten in
the higher
classes
Women
where
subjugated
and looked
upon as
objects for
mans
pleasure
Chinese
believed that
sexual
activity was
the most
natural thing
in the world
The Shang
believed that
their was a
connection
between sex,
health, living
long, and
Complex
technologies
Wheels,
boats,
weapons,
larger
building
projects
Irrigation
ditches
The water
wheel
A Shaduf to
put water
in their
irrigation
canals
Constructio
n of
pyramids
and
temples
Mummifica
tion
High agriculture
technology
Uniform weights and
measures
Made instruments
Copper bronze lead
and tin
Idea of density
Used gold testing
Plumbing and
sanitation
immortality
Confucians
and Buddhist
heavily
attacked
these notions
about sex
Copper and
Tin allows
Better bronze
working than
that in the
Middle East
Chariots
Metal
working –
large cup,
weapons,
using
foundations
to make
larger
structures
bronze, jade,
ceramic, and
other types of
artifacts have
been found,
the
workmanship
in the bronze
in shows that
they could
work metal
and had
higher
technologies
Calendars –
very
accurate
Not many
domesticat
ed animals
– mainly
plants
True zero
Used
Mayan
numerals
Had
irrigation
system for
their crops
One of the
first
civilization
s to build
pyramids
Metallurg
y
Fishhooks
Earrings
Chisels
Spear
points
Shovels
tweezers
Plumbing and
sanitation
systems in
every house
Lead pipes,
until realized it
was poisoning
the water
Had boats and
trade many
items with
Egypt Asia
minor and Syria
Discovered
mars and
various
comets with
astronomy
Complex
astrological
tools
millet, wheat,
rice,
mulberry,
and hempindustrial
grade
marijuana’s
fibers-George
Washington
did the same
created a
calendar
based on
moon cycles
with big and
small months
use
mathematics
and
understood
decimals –
used
numbers up
to
30,000
created
mirrors that
allowed
people to
Art
Organized
religion
view their
entire face
Black-top
Ceramic pictures
Bronze was
ware
Beads, pendants,
more
White cross bangles, button seals,
commonly
line ware
painted pottery
used for art
Copper
Some human figurines than
instead of
– some with animal
weapons
stone use
body parts
Bronze
to make
casting and
tools and
poetry where
weaponry
advanced in
Silver gold
Shang culture
lapis
Many musical
Faience
instruments
where used
where
ornamental
invented in
ly
the time of
Grinding
the Shang
palettes for
dynasty
paint
Pottery was
another
common
form of art in
the Shang
dynasty
Many gods Goddess centered
The Shang
Believed in religion
worshipped a
after life
Polytheistic
supreme god
Deities
Some gods represented they called
combined
by animals
“Shang Ti” or
to form
Mother goddess cattle
“Lord on
new deities god
High.” It was
Believe
Some male gods
a supreme
physical
Started in two villages
god ruled
body had to Baluchistan
over lesser
be
Afghanistan – in these
gods of the
Naturist art
Monument
al
Art
depicted
jaguars and
monkeys
Stone
sculptures
carved
with
perfect
proportion
s
Represent
s
ceremony
mythology
daily life
Mostly
used clay
Pottery
for burial
practices
and
drinking
Mainly
clay and
pottery
Pottery
Architecture
Painting
Sculpting
Metal working
The art tells of a
joyous society
in touch with
their
environment
In awe of
logical order of
the natural
world
Humans
from hole
in the
ground
Plumed
serpents,
jaguars –
worshippe
d
Warfare
between
Murderou
s deity
known as
decapitato
r
Appears
in pictures
of human
sacrifice
Leaders
drank
Orients itself
around animals
Numerous
deities
Worshipped
trees, rocks,
and springs
Evil figures
represented as
human demons
with the limbs
persevered
to go to
afterlife
Large
pyramids
used to
bury
pyramids
regions
sun, the
moon, the
wind, the
rain, and
other natural
forces and
places.
Shang-Ti also
regulated
human affairs
as well as
ruling over
the material
universe.
The Shang
also believed
that when
their
ancestors
died, they
went to
heaven, but
continued to
show an
interest in
their
descendants
and family.
The
obligations
within the
family
included the
ancestors. If
a family
failed its
duties to its
cults
Worshippe
d ancestors
and may
have had
something
to do with
megaliths
human
blood
formed by
gruesome
ritual –
spiced
with and
coagulant
herb
Kings –
high –
priests
lower
level
of lions or other
carnivores
ancestors, it
could bring
all sorts of
disasters and
hardships on
a family.
Sacrifices
were made to
all gods and
ancestors,
but we do not
know how
frequent
these
sacrifices
were, or how
they were
carried out.
Shang
sacrifices
sometimes
involved
humans. The
king
preformed
oracle bone
divinations,
especially
towards the
end of the life
heated bones
of animal
sacrifices
up to 40
animals like
pigs and
sheep
sacrificed for
1 person
many
sacrifices for
dead kings
and
sometimes
queens
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/ - an online encyclopedia that was recommended to me by other students here at DA
Shang Dynasty. (2008, April 2). New World Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:29, November 6, 2008 from
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Shang_Dynasty?oldid=683093.
http://library.thinkquest.org/12255/library/dynasty/shang.html - found by google
http://www.warriortours.com/intro/history/shang/ - found by google
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/shzh/hd_shzh.htm
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/ANCCHINA/SHANG.HTM
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Shang_Dynasty
http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/uni/ans/eastm/back/cs12/cs12-5-bray.pdf