Shang Civilisation

What happened c. 1150 BCE?

The last king was killed c.1150 BCE. The dynasty that ruled next was the Western Zhou dynasty(1027-771BCE). The Zhou kings had a similar culture to the Shang kings. Thus, the change in dynasty did not result in the end of Shang Civilisation. Around 771 BCE, a group of people killed the Zhou king and his son had to move his capital eastward. His dynasty was known as the Eastern Zhou dynasty(771-221 BCE).

However, fighting between the people continued and the last 232 years of the Eastern Zhou dynasty was known as the Period of Warring States. During this period, the northern part of China was broken up into several competing kingdoms. Finally, in 221 BCE, a prince manged to unite these kingdoms to form the first Chinese empire under the Qin dynasty(221-206 BCE).

Shang Civilisation

RELIGION
The Shang worshipped a figure they called "Shang Ti," or "Lord on High." This supreme god ruled over lesser gods of the 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. This dual function would, in the Chou dynasty, be attributed to a more abstract figure, "t'ien," or "Heaven." The Shang also believed that their ancestors dwelled in heaven after their death and continued to show an interest in their family and descendants. The obligations within the family included, therefore, the ancestors. Failing in one's duties to the ancestors could bring all sorts of disaster on a family. All of these divine and semi-divine figures, from Shang-Ti to a family's ancestors, were sacrificed to. However, we know little of the nature or the frequency of these sacrifices. We do know, however, that in the Chou dynasty only the king could sacrifice to Shang-Ti; it is highly likely that Shang-Ti was the "local god" of the Shang kings who was subsequently elevated in order to elevate the Shang themselves. The one disturbing fact of Shang sacrifice is that it certainly involved humans; slaves and prisoners of war were often sacrificed by the hundreds when a king died. Lesser numbers were sacrificed at the founding of a palace or temple.


information taken from http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/ANCCHINA/SHANG.HTM

image taken from http://www.taoistsecret.com/images/god08.jpg

Indus Valley Civilisation

What happened c. 1500 BCE?

Around 1900 BC, signs of a gradual decline begin to emerge. People started to leave the cities. Those who remained were poorly nourished. By around 1800 BC, most of the cities were abandoned.

In the aftermath of the Indus civilization's collapse, regional cultures emerged, to varying degrees showing the influence of the Indus civilization. In the formerly great city of Harappa, burials have been found that correspond to a regional culture called the Cemetery H culture. At the same time, the Ochre Coloured Pottery culture expands from Rajasthan into the Gangetic Plain.

It is in this context of the aftermath of a civilization's collapse that the Indo-Aryan migration hypothesis into northern India is discussed. In the early twentieth century, this migration was forwarded in the guise of an "Aryan invasion", and when the civilization was discovered in the 1920s, its collapse at precisely the time of the conjectured invasion was seen as an independent confirmation.

In the words of the archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler, the Indo-Aryan war god Indra "stands accused" of the destruction. It is however far from certain whether the collapse of the IVC is a result of an Indo-Aryan migration, if there was one. It seems rather likely that, to the contrary, the hypothized Indo-Aryan migration was as a result of the collapse, comparable with the decline of the Roman Empire and the incursions of relatively primitive peoples during the Migrations Period.

A third possibilty is that IVC colapsed primarily due to natural reasons (climate change, tectonic activity along the subduction zone along the Indo-Asian plate boundary) and that there was no Indo-Aryan invasion that took place. Swastika, a symbol associated with the Indo-Aryans by easrly historians, has been found in large numbers over several IVC sites.

Similarly, several Shiv Lingum type structures have been found at several IVC sites. Both the Swastika and Shiv Lingum have been symbols closely related to the Hindu religion (even to the present day), indicating continuity of the IVC civilization rather than a complete collapse or destruction. The discovery of Swastikas have put to question the theory of an Aryan invasion of Indian subcontinent.A possible natural reason of the IVC's decline is connected with climate change.

In 2600 BC, the Indus Valley was verdant, forested, and teeming with wildlife. It was wetter, too; floods were a problem and appear, on more than one occasion, to have overwhelmed certain settlements. As a result, Indus civilization people supplemented their diet with hunting. By 1800 BC, the climate is known to have changed. It became significantly cooler and drier.

The crucial factor may have been the disappearance of substantial portions of the Ghaggar-Hakra river system. A tectonic event may have diverted the system's sources toward the Ganges Plain, though there is some uncertainty about the date of this event. Such a statement may seem dubious if one does not realize that the transition between the Indus and Gangetic plains amounts to a matter of inches.

The region in which the river's waters formerly arose is known to be geologically active, and there is evidence of major tectonic events at the time the Indus civilization collapsed. Although this particular factor is speculative, and not generally accepted, the decline of the IVC, as with any other civilization, will have been due to a combination of a variety of reasons.

Indus Valley Civilisation : Writings

In 2004 Steve Farmer, Richard Sproat (University of Illinois) and Michael Witzel (Harvard University) stunned the world of ancient Indus scholarship with the claim that the Indus sign system was not writing. They based their reasoning on computer analysis of Indus sign properties apparently not in common with other ancient written languages.

A target of their critique was the work of Dr. Asko Parpola who - like a number of other ancient Indus "decipherments" in the past century - had concluded that the Indus sign system represented an ancient Dravidian language. Like the Jesuit priest Father Heras in the 1930s, he proposed (to the layman, rather convincingly) that the fish sign represented the word min, (pronounced meen) which designates both fish and star in most Dravidian languages. Dr. Parpola and his team's further "decipherments" based on the fish sign and old Tamil words for heavenly bodies seem to fit (to the layman, again) very nicely with words designating Venus, Saturn, the Pleaides, and other astral entities. The stars and heavenly signs were important to ancient peoples everywhere, especially ones who built economies on maritime navigation. Although it is not possible to test his interpretations, it would not be surprising if some of them are close to the truth. Still, important scholars like Gregory Possehl (University of Pennsylvania) do not accept Dr. Parpola's interpretations, while others like Indian and early Tamil expert Iravatham Mahadevan add to them. Something as clear as a definitive Rosetta stone for the ancient Indus language still eludes archaeologists. Nonetheless the discovery in the spring of 2006 of Indus signs on a hand-axe in the southern India state of Tamil Nadu could increase the probability that the ancient Indus signs are related to the Dravidian language family. Until this apparent discovery, there was no clear physical evidence for such a link.

Dr. Parpola's work also stems from a deep knowledge of Bronze Age ancient Mesopotamian civilizations. Some of the largest world trade ever must have taken place between Indus and Mesopotamian merchants during the heyday of these urban civilizations around 2350 BCE. Then there are the further discoveries in recent years of adjacent cultures between the Euphrates and Indus, like the Bactria Margiana Architectural Complex (BMAC) civilization of central Asia and Afghanistan and the city of Jiroft in southwestern Iran at the edge of the Indus plateau. Ancient human history from Turkey to India was international long before the global economy.

All these entitites traded with each other. The birth of signs or writing on stamp seals to designate ownership of goods is intertwined with the rise of early cities. To assume that other cultures with whom the Indus people traded were writing on stamp seals but the ancient Indus people were not seems slightly improbable. The objective of the seals and the symbols on them was to facilitate efficient communication across cultures.

Dr. Parpola's work is also rigorously informed by the early Vedic Hindu tradition that followed the ancient Indus civilization after around 1700-1500 BCE. Some of his interpretations, like the link between the gods Rudra and Shiva, continue the linkages to later Hindu traditions.

image taken from http://www.harappa.com/har/har0html

information taken from http://www.harappa.com/script/indusscript.html

Indus Valley Civilisation : Occupation

1. Commoners -- They live in the valley and make up the Indus civilisation.

2. Builders -- They build the houses and other things in the valley.











3. Travelers -- They travelled in flat bottomed ferry boats to cross Indus River near Mohenjo-daro.

images taken from

http://www.harappa.com/har/har0.html

Features of Indus Valley Civilisation

The pillared hall

This picture is a picture of the pillared hall, which may have been a hall of assembly for doing religious ceremonies.

The Dyer's Workshop

This picture is a picture of the dyer's workshop, which might be a place where people dye their clothes.

Public Well

This picture is a picture of a public well. Public wells are built so that water can be accessed directly from the main street.

images taken from http://www.harappa.com/har/har0.html

History : txtbk pg 23: recap ques

1. What are primary and secondary sources?
Primary sources are original evidence form the past. Examples are written evidence such as diaries; oral evidence such as a video; pictorial evidence such as pictures and artefacts such as ancient Greek coins.

2. How do historians make sure that their sources are reliable?
They use the 3Cs which is credibility, consistency and corroboration.

3. Why and when is it necessary for historians to revise their interpretations of the past events?
It is necessary when they are unsure of their results because they can relate their results with the past to make sure that their results are acceptable.