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Ancient Civilizations

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Title: Ancient Civilizations


1
Ancient Civilizations
  • India, China, Mesoamerica

2
Indus Civilization
  • Developed between 3000-2500 BCE
  • Two largest cities were Harappa and Mohenjo Daro
  • Well planned cities
  • Running water, sewers, and brick buildings
  • Grid pattern
  • Pictographic writing (still undeciphered)
  • Has 400 symbols
  • Clear social classes
  • Different types of houses wealthy 2-3 stories,
    common people one room

3
Economics
  • Advanced Agriculture
  • Wheat, rye, peas, rice (maybe)
  • Domesticated animals chickens, cattle, goats,
    sheep
  • Abundant crops led to job specialization in
    cities (like EM)
  • Craftsmen less skilled than Mesopotamia (stone
    arrows, poor spears)
  • Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro
  • Connected by villages
  • Major trading centers with China, SE Asia,
    Southern India, and Mesopotamia
  • 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

4
End of Indus
  • 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
  • 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
    sub-classes called Jati
  • At the bottom were the Pariahs or Untouchables

Scholars and priests
Rulers and warriors
Professionals
Servants
Pariahs
5
Huang He Civilization
  • Most isolated of the river valleys
  • Huang He (Yellow River) and Chiang Jiang
    (Yangtze) rivers flood quite often
  • Xia (shah) Dynasty 4000 Years ago
  • first, legendary dynasty
  • Ruler Yu
  • Irrigation and drained floodwaters
  • Beginning of Chinese civilization
  • No written records existence is by legend

6
Shang Dynasty (1766-1122 BCE)
  • first to leave written records
  • Writing Oracle Bones
  • Written on bone and used to foretell future
  • Farming society ruled by a king and an
    aristocracy
  • bronze metallurgy
  • Central rule to oversee irrigation and flood
    control
  • Walled citied, elaborate palaces and tombs
  • Ancestor worship developed

7
Zhou Dynasty (1122-256 BCE)
  • Pronounced joe
  • 800 years, longest dynasty
  • Mandate of Heaven
  • 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
  • Culture
  • 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

Confucius asking Laozi about etiquette
8
More Zhou
  • Technology
  • 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

9
Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.)
  • Ruler Qin Shi Huangdi (1st Emperor) brutal
    ruler
  • Qin name applied to countrys name
  • Unified the Chinese world
  • Legalism favored government force viewed human
    nature as evil
  • A highly centralized government
  • Standardized coinage, weights, and measures
  • Irrigation

10
Qin Shi Huangdi
  • 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
    Qins death

11
Mesoamerica
  • Not a river valley, small rivers and streams near
    ocean
  • Did not have wheel or large animals for labor,
    llama biggest animal
  • Olmecs
  • 1500 BCE settled around Gulf of Mexico
  • Made figurines out of jade and dressed based on
    status
  • Polytheistic
  • Built Colossal Heads
  • Dont know why they declined
  • Chavin, early civilization in the Andes
  • Ceramics, textiles, gold
  • Constructed religious shrines

12
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?
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