Ancient Civilisations: Indus and Shang

Ancient Civilisations China, India and Southeast Asia

What is a Civilisation?
LIVE TOGETHER in cities
Have same CULTURE - same beliefs, traditions, same langauge etc
Advanced development - advanced scientific and artistic knowledge

What is the CRADLE of CIVILISATION?
Where earliest civilisation began
3800BC - 3 earliest civilisations - Nile Valley Civilisation (Egypt), Mesopotamia Civilisation (near Iran and Iraq) and Indus Valley Civilisation (India)

What CONDITIONS led to RISE of Civilisations
A place suitable for farming - fertile soil
A place with plenty of sunshine, water supply (such as rivers and seas)
EXAMPLES: Shang Civilisation near Yellow River and Indus Valley Civilisation near Indus River

Features COMMON TO ALL CIVILISATIONS
A System of GOVERNMENT
DIFFERENT OCCUPATIONS
WRITING SYSTEM
RELIGIOUS BELIEFS
ARTISTIC and SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENTS

SYSTEM OF GOVERMENTS
HOW ARE THE PEOPLE RULED?
KINGDOM - ruled by king - divided land into small areas ruled by chiefs - controlled by KING
EMPIRE = MUCH LARGER AREA - RULED BY EMPEROR - defeated rival kings and COMBINED KINGDOMS into ONE LARGE EMPIRE

INDUS and SHANG GOVT
Indus cities good/efficient govt - looked after welfare of people
EVIDENCE - well-planned city
Good drainage system -network of drains/wells city clean environment
Good defence - citadel with mud-brick walls - people can hide there when attacked
Good system of roads linked different parts of city - Streets straight and narrow
Government probably controlled the important buildings such as the Great Bath and the Granary. This tells us that the ruler was probably a Priest King - in charge of all religious activities

INDUS and SHANG GOVT
Shang capital Angyang - ruled by kings from same family line - known as SHANG DYNASTY - also efficient govt
EVIDENCE - well-planned city - King divided KINGDOM into villages and smaller cities
Good facilities - palaces, temples, storage houses for food
Good defence - capital city surrounded by thick rammed earth walls - protect against enemy attacks and floods
Well-built housing - The upper class or richer people such as the rulers, warriors and priests lived in houses on raised foundations while the poorer people like the farmers lived in sunken mud houses with low walls and thatched roofs

INDUS and SHANG OCCUPATIONS
Indus people mainly FARMERS - grew crops such as barley and wheat, kept domesticated animals like bullock - help them in their work
CRAFTSMEN -skilled in making tools, utensils (pottery) and jewellery from bronze, copper, gold and clay (terracotta)
PRIESTS - conducted religious ceremonies - at places like Great Bath and also conducted animal sacrifices - shown on the pictographs on SEALS
SKILLED ENGINEERS and ARCHITECTS - planned and build the city, system of wells and drains and baths in the city, straight roads and even the bricks of the same size
TRADERS - traded with places like Mesopotamia - used SEALS to stamp goods (INDUS SEALS found in Mesopotamia - so this shows the Indus traders travelled to this place to sell their goods) and used weights to weigh the goods

Indus traders travelled to Bahrain and Mesopotamia to trade by boat along the river Indus

INDUS and SHANG OCCUPATIONS
SHANG people mainly FARMERS - grew crops such as rice and wheat
CRAFTSMEN -skilled in making BRONZE vessels for wine and food- to offer food and sacrifice to the gods or to the dead (ancestors) - made beautiful silk and jade ornaments for the kings and government officials.
PRIESTS - conducted religious ceremonies - used ORACLE BONES to predict the future or “communicate” with their gods and ancestors

INDUS and SHANG WRITING
BOTH SHANG AND INDUS CIVILSATIONS - very advanced - had system of writing
INDUS WRITING - a kind of SYMBOL - found on SEALS
SHANG WRITING - PICTOGRAPHIC writing = earliest form of Chinese writing . EVIDENCE - found on ORACLE BONES and even inscribed on BRONZE objects.

INDUS and SHANG RELIGION
INDUS people worshipped POWERFUL animals - elephants , leopards, rhinoceros and MYTHOLOGICA L ( NOT REAL) animals - UNICORN .
Religious rituals - offer SACRIFICES of animals to the gods and goddesses .
PRIESTS conducted these rituals.
also believed in the CLEANSING power of water - priests conducted rituals at the GREAT BATH to get rid of evil spirits.

INDUS and SHANG RELIGION
SHANG PEOPLE believed in the worship of their dead ANCESTORS - offer food and wine in religious rituals using the BRONZE vessels .
PRACTICED animal and human SACRIFICE as seen in the animal remains found buried with the chariots (horse) - shows that the person who was buried was probably a WEALTHY and POWERFUL person in the city.
Shang priests PREDICTED the FUTURE using ORACLE bones - bones of animals or tortoise shells -burnt in fire and priests can READ the cracks as message from the dead or the gods

Besides the strikingly beautiful funerary objects , the excavation also yielded large numbers of human bones . These were the bones of sacrificial victims who had either allowed themselves to be buried alive or were killed outright at the time of the king's burial . Those who apparently died voluntarily included soldiers, ceremonial attendants and the king's servants , but most frightful was the discovery of the bones of at least fifty-nine people who had been decapitated like cattle on the southern ramp of the tomb as part of the burial ceremonies. After the central structure had been buried, the ramps leading to it were gradually filled in with layers of earth and groups of decapitated victims were buried in each layer ; the heads of all the victims were collected and finally buried in the uppermost layer. The victims were separated according to age, with youths between fifteen and twenty years of age in the lower layers and adults in the middle and upper layers . It is possible that these people were prisoners of war captured by the Shang king on a campaign against the Ch'iang nomad tribe of the northwest, who were the traditional enemies of the Shang. In all, at least 164 sacrifical victims were found in various parts of the tomb , an indication of the awesome grandeur of a Shang king's funeral.

What Caused DECLINE of Indus Civilisation?
1500 BC - declined rapidly
Mohenjo-daro and Harappa abandoned
Theory 1: floods caused decline - evidence: rebuilding of walls and houses - shows that flood was a constant threat- destroyed irrigation systems used for farming - destroyed crops
Theory 2- floods caused breeding of mosquitoes - outbreak of malaria
Theory 3: invasion by Aryans - people from western part of Asia

What Caused DECLINE of Indus Civilisation?
Theory 4- great climate change - drought - the warming trend continued until there wasn't enough water even in the Indus river valley to support these cities and the farmers who fed them. Some people probably starved to death, while others moved up into the hills, where it was cooler and some rain fell.

Skeletons in lane between Houses XVIII and XXXIII', VS area, Mohenjodaro, Archaeological  Survey of India, 1925-'26,

What Caused DECLINE of Shang Civilisation?
Last Shang king killed in 1150 BC - he was a cruel ruler
Shang dynasty fell and new invaders started a new dynasty- Zhou Dynasty
CAUSE OF DECLINE? - INVASION by RIVAL KING!!!
After that Zhou Dynasty fell - period of WARRING STATES - China broken into many kingdoms - fight for control and power
221BC - a prince defeated other kingdoms -united kingdoms and formed first Chinese EMPIRE - called himself First Emperor and started QIN dynasty

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Ancient Civilisations: Indus and Shang

by Joyce Lee on Sep 10, 2007

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