Evidence of transition to agriculture
Semi-permanent camps, 8000 BCE
Gathered wild varieties of rice
What technologies were they developing?
Evidence of hunting
Wild animal bones
Fishing & hunting implements
Evidence of agriculture
Millet native to region
Domesticated pig and dog bones
Evidence of ???
Pottery
Artwork
Millet
Domesticated Dogs and Pigs
Painted Pottery
Tools
Was agriculture the only source of food?
Village life
Was there social stratification?
Religion
What is the meaning of burial?
Sima Qian, Records of the Grand Historian, 90 BCE
Xia (?)
*Shang (1766-1045 BCE)
*Zhou (1045-256 BCE)
Shang (ca. 1200-1045 BCE)
Zhou (1045-256 BCE)
Shimao (2300-1800 BCE)
Sanxingdui
Wucheng
Inner city
50 large buildings
Outskirts
Artisan’s workshops
farmers’ houses
Vertical pit with ramp
Wooden structure at bottom
Death attendants
Controversies over origins
Qijia in E. Gansu ca. 2000 BCE
350 sites yielding 50 small objects
Ceremonial vessels
Large size
Outside influence?
Casting method
Ceremonial vessels
Animal motifs
taotie face
Humans rare
Weapons
Instruments
Transportation Revolution
Chariot and horse
Invented, ca. 2100 BCE
Andronovo spread widely by 1500 BCE
Fortified settlements
Domesticated horses
Bronze
Rapid transmission of technology
Ural steppe, 2100 BCE
Andronovo, 1500 BCE
Egypt, 1400 BCE
Shang, 1200 BCE
*Pictographs
*Oracle bones
Method of divination
Common formula: "Date, The diviner X asks on behalf of the king..."
Political stability
Shang
Di
Ancestor worship
Zhou
Tian
*Mandate of Heaven
*Confucius (551-479 BCE)
1) How did Chinese farming differ between the north and south? Why is Yangshao considered to be a Neolithic farming culture and not a complex society?
2) What is the difference between legend and history? How has recent historical and archaeological research shown that Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian is a mixture of history and legends?
3) Why do royal tombs provide evidence that Shang China was a complex society around 1200 BCE? What does labor mobilization reveal about the political and social structures of the Shang?
4) Which elements of Shang complex society appear to be imported from Central Asia and which elements appear to be native to China?
1. What different types of agriculture developed in North and South China from 8000 BCE to 1200 BCE? What technologies developed during this period that became foundations of Shang complex society?
2. What were the characteristics of Shang China's complex society? How was Shang complex society of China similar or different from the complex societies of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt?
1. What types of architecture, artifacts and cultural practices did archaeologists discover when they excavated the late Neolithic city of Shimao in North China? Why were these finds and their dating so surprising?
2. Critical Thinking: How will the account of China's origins in Voyages in World History need to be changed based on the findings of archaeologists at Shimao? Give specific examples.