1. Religion
1.1. Sumerian
1.1.1. Sumerians practiced polytheism; the worship of many gods.
1.1.2. Polytheism was also believing that gods controlled all things in nature.
1.1.3. Gods were believed to express human characteristics such as falling in love, got married, ate, drank, and even fought.
1.1.4. Sumerians did their best to try to please the gods. They would create temples and have priests and priestesses sacrifice food and drink.
1.1.5. Enlil the Air God
1.2. Shang Dynasty
1.2.1. They were thought to believe in an afterlife because they would bury the ruler with prized possessions and hundreds or war prisoners.
1.2.2. They also believed in ancestor worship, so they gave gifts and offerings to keep them happy in the afterlife.
1.2.3. Oracle bones are animal bones or turtle shells that have writing on them and when a question was asked to the ancestor, hot metal was applied and a priest would translate the meanings of the cracks.
1.2.4. Confucianism is the practice of love and respect. Daoism focuses on improving society.
1.2.5. Oracle Bones
2. Government and Leaders
2.1. Sumerian
2.1.1. As trade enriched, a very serious Social Hierarchy, at the top are the King, Priests. Next were the wealthy and large landowners.
2.1.2. They believed in a man named Etana who ascends to heaven on the back of an eagle and, they believed he had super human traits.
2.1.3. The kingship also started at about the same time as writing evolved and the city-states of Sumer came to be ruled by a single monarch but was also assisted by a council of elders which happened to be both men and women.
2.1.4. Under their king became the center of a small empire which included most of Sumer and parts of neighboring Elam.
2.2. Shang Dynasty
2.2.1. At their capital, the kings were usually surrounded by a gathering of wealthy nobles who would pray that the king would keep the kingdom safe.
2.2.2. The Shang Dynasty created a social pyramid, with the king at the top, then the military nobility, priests, merchants, and farmers.
2.2.3. The king always had a huge army at his disposal he also had many governors that he appointed to rule the distant parts of the kingdom.
2.2.4. The government that the king appointed were there to protect the cities and lead and fight off rebellion.
3. Economy and Trade
3.1. Sumerian
3.1.1. The Sumerians got most of their materials for buildings and art from raw trade.
3.1.2. The Sumerians lacked some materials such as wood, and metals, so to obtain those materials, the Sumerians had to trade with people across Southwest Asia, from Asia they got, woven textiles, timber, and stone.
3.1.3. Trade was established with foreign lands at around the same time writing evolved from pictograms to cuneiform script so they could communicate with people who they were going to trade with.
3.1.4. Even though, it was not a huge part of economy, the sumerians used slaves. Usually they were women, and they usually worked as weavers, pressures, and millers.
3.1.5. The people of Sumer usually relied on economy and agriculture to survive and get their necessities.
3.2. Shang Dynasty
3.2.1. The Shang farmed wheat, rice, and barley crops provided the major sources of food, that they easily could've traded.
3.2.2. The Shang were very skilled workers with bone, jade, ceramics, stone, wood, shells, and bone, which the wealthy people usually collected.
3.2.3. The Shang were very dependent on agriculture, most of the lower class Shang' worked alongside slaves in the feild
3.2.4. Most people were wealthy though, so they had lots of leisure time which they usually spent fishing or doing activities they enjoyed
4. Arts and Education
4.1. Sumerian
4.1.1. We find some of the earliest written records in Uruk. The large city was dedicated to agriculture. South Mesopotamia was eventually dominated by Uruk.
4.1.2. Within the city of Uruk, there was a large temple dedicated to Innana, the patron goddess of the city. The State's agricultural would be given to her and stored at her temple. Harvested crops would then be processed and given back to the citizens of Uruk in equal share at regular intervals.
4.1.3. Mesopotamia was between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This is how its name was made. The word Mesopotamia is Greek meaning between the rivers. In the area where the two rivers meet, was a region known as Babylonia. Babylonia was split into two areas. The north was known as Akkad, and the south was known as Sumer.
4.1.4. Sumerian life was very civilized for a time ranging from 3100-2800 BC. Farmers used plows pulled by ox. Bronze would be seen in their farming equipment. A ziggurat would mark the city center.
4.2. Shang Dynasty
4.2.1. During the Shang, there were groups who recorded important events. What has survived are bronzes, and more importantly, oracle bones used by the Shang for divination. Thousands of bones have been recovered, many of them broken.
4.2.2. According to histories and traditions, the Shang people originated along the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow river. They defeated the Xia under the king Chengtang and established a number of city states.
4.2.3. One of the important things in determining the history of the Shang is the presence of written records. Writing at this time was mostly pictographic, meaning that a word was represented by a picture that closely resembled its meaning.
4.2.4. Shang kings maintained a controlled state. They acted not only as priests, but also created military campaigns and controlled a lot of workshops for producing ceramics, bone objects and most importantly, bronzes.
5. They put most of their time in technology into worshiping ancestors because that was a big part of their life.
6. Geography and Agriculture
6.1. Sumerian
6.1.1. The sumerians were located in west Asia/ Mesopotamia. The Mesopotamia was the land between the two major water sources the Tigris river and the Euphrates river.
6.1.2. There was also many challenges to in farming in the south Mesopotamia one is the crops could get washed away from the rivers overflowing and the south part of Mesopotamia had little to no rain so crops would die in the summer months.
6.1.3. In the Mesopotamia the two rivers Tigris and Euphrates flooded often and left enriched soil for crops. The foods they grew were millet, wheat, rice and barley crops.
6.1.4. From the river always flooding it left a flat and wet land that was great for agriculture.
6.2. Shang Dynasty
6.2.1. China’s dynasty has to 2 major water sources it was the Yellow river and Yangtze river for their earliest civilizations. When the Yellow river and the Yangzi river flooded it left good farming soil.
6.2.2. Loess was a dusty soil that was left behind from China’s desert winds. This dust was found along the valley of Huang He which made this valley of land very fertile for corps.
6.2.3. The southern part of china by the Yangzi river the climate was warm and got a lot of rainfall and it was good for growing rice. In the northern part of china the climate was suitable for growing millet, grains, and wheat because the climate temperature was a little cooler and the land was dry.
6.2.4. Features such as hills, mountains, and deserts protect China from invasions which helps China develop as a country.
7. Science and Technolgy
7.1. Sumerian
7.1.1. Sumerians learned geometry in order to build good structures and irrigation systems.
7.1.2. Sumerians invented the wheel, they used it for pottery and vehicles.
7.1.3. They used bronze to make stronger tools and even made sewers.
7.1.4. They learned how to perform basic surgery and were very advanced in the medical field.
7.1.5. Irrigation system
7.2. Shang Dynasty
7.2.1. They could make huge structures used as tombs.
7.2.2. The shang dynasty figured out the cycles of the moon and made a calendar based on it.
7.2.3. They discovered bronze and worked well with it.
8. Social Structure and Family Life
8.1. Sumerian
8.1.1. The men in the Sumerian families would make laws and work in the government. And the women would stay home and take of the children.
8.1.2. Some women in the upper-class got education and they also were priestess in temples.
8.1.3. Sumerain people had a social pyrimd at the bottom wa slaves and people that were captured in battle. In the middle was farmers, artistans, and laborers also majority of the Sumerian people were in the category. And second to the top was usually large land owners. And at the very top were principal agents, kings, and priests.
8.1.4. Sumerian men and women had their own roles in the family as to what they do.
8.2. Shang Dynasty
8.2.1. Most people in the Shang Dynasty spent their time in the felids planting crops.
8.2.2. Sometimes farmers would be called in to fight in the army or sometimes they worked with slaves to build tombs or palaces.
8.2.3. The upper-class in the Shang Dynasty spent most of their time doing leisure activities such as hunting.
8.2.4. Also the upper-class enjoed collecting expensive objects made of jade and bronze.