1. Sumerians
1.1. Sumerian Art
1.2. The Sumerians are thought to be inventive, and are likely responsible for developing the first writing. They wrote on tablets of clay.
1.3. The Sumerian education system initially taught to recognize basic cuneiform characters. Also, they are thought to have learned how to prepare blank clay tablets for writing.
1.4. The schools, for the Sumerians, were attached to the temples and were called edubbas, which means tablet house.
1.5. The Sumerian's written language was called cuneiform. There were over 600 characters in this written language.
2. Religion
2.1. Shang Dynasty
2.1.1. The main folk religion was polytheistic, which means they worshiped many gods.
2.1.2. Worshiping their ancestors was very important to them. They believed that their health and well being came from their ancestors' happiness and anything bad came from their unhappiness.
2.1.3. The main god worshiped by them was Shang Ti, the "lord on high." They believed that he linked people to heavenly beings, so it was important to keep him happy.
2.1.4. During the Zhou dynasty, Confucianism was very popular. Confucius was alive during this time and started this philosophy.
2.2. Sumerians
2.2.1. They had a polytheistic religion with over 2000 gods and goddesses.
2.2.2. Their head/chief god was Enlin, the Sky god.
2.2.3. Other notable gods include: Ishtar- the goddess of love and fertility, Tiamat- the god of sea and chaos and Sin- the moon god.
2.2.4. Every village and city had their own god.
3. Government and Leaders
3.1. Shang Dynasty
3.1.1. The Shang Dynasty started in the 17th century B.C. They were later conquered by the Zhou.
3.1.2. The ruler of the dynasty was known as the "Son of Heaven" and had to rule with the Mandate of Heaven.
3.1.3. The first important historical figure of the Zhou dynasty was King Wen. He started the undermining of the Shang Dynasty.
3.1.4. The following king, King Wo, led an army against the Shang forces. However, many soldiers were unhappy with the rulers of the Shang Dynasty and switched sides over to King Wo's army. This led to the king of the Shang Dynasty locking himself away and setting the room on fire.
3.2. Sumerians
3.2.1. They were split into many city states. Each one contained the city and the farmland surrounding it. They were very independent from each other and constantly fighting.
3.2.2. The temple was in the middle of public and political life. It distributed, receives and stored food and goods.
3.2.3. People brought the priests, who were their leaders, what they grew in return for what they needed to survive. This was very close to Communism.
3.2.4. The kings were seen as the patron gods of their cities.
4. Geography and Agriculture
4.1. Shang Dynasty
4.1.1. People lived off of land in the Shang Dynasty. They permanently lived on farms instead of constantly moving around. People of the Shang were skilled workers in bone, jade, ceramics, stone, wood, shells, and bronze, plus discovery of shops were found on the outskirts of bore palaces.
4.2. Sumerians
4.2.1. A dense population grew by the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in the centuries 5000 BC. Cities started to appear in 3500 BC. The landscape made it easy for farming societies to feed a class of people who did not have their live revoke around agriculture. And agriculture is only possible in the dry climates. Craftsmen, priests, scribes, administrators, rulers and soldiers made civilization possible.
4.2.2. The mushy land near the sea and the soil by the rivers made farming very productive. They were made up of rich mud brought down by the rivers from the mountains. The water deposited into the wide areas making irrigation channels.
5. Science and Technology
5.1. Shang Dynasty
5.1.1. They Used bronze to fashion weapons, parts of chariots, and ritual vessels. Then towards the end of their era they started using iron to form better and stronger weapons.
5.1.2. They Shang dynasty developed a system of writing consisting of over 3,000 symbols. Each of the characters are made out of two parts. One part telling you the meaning and the other telling you the pronunciation.
5.1.3. They had bronze weapons, daggers, spears, and armor. They also invented the harness and the spoked whee, which lead to the two-horse chariot.
5.1.4. The Shang's developed the decimal system and a 12 month calendar with 365 and a quarter days.
5.1.5. Bronze weapon
5.2. Sumerians
5.2.1. The Sumerians contributed to many technological advances. For example, the irragation system, the plough, the sal, clay bricks, the potters wheel, writing, accounting and glass.
5.2.2. They developed sceintific advances as well. they made observation of the natural world. They found lists of animal, plants, and minerals, geographical features, like rivers, ountains, cities, and people. We also disovered that plans of cities.
5.2.3. The Sumerians developed a number system which was based on 60. Which was 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hour day, and a 360 degree circle. Their calendar was based off of seven days, and their number system had a place marker in modern mathematics.
5.2.4. The Sumerians developed theorems on how to measure the area of several shapes and solids, and came close to an accurate measure of the circumference of circles. They also fully understood square roots and cube roots.
5.2.5. Sumerian mathmatic system
6. Art & Education
6.1. Shang Dynasty
6.1.1. Bronze working became more common during the Shang dynasty. Jade, along with bronze, shows the highest achievement of Bronze Age material culture. The Bronze Age began at about 2000 B.C.E
6.1.1.1. Shang Bronze
6.1.2. In the Shang Dynasty, tortoise shells and bones were used for inscriptions for teaching and learning.
6.1.3. The Shang culture were not only good with bronze, but pottery, jade carving, and ivory carving. They used some of these techniques to teach with, as well.
6.1.4. Art during the Shang dynasty primarily had a functional or ritual purpose. They're work was usually found in tombs or burial contexts.
7. Economy and Trade
7.1. The Sumeians
7.1.1. The Sumerians had a very Self-Efficant economy. Also, the temple had a very large role in economic activity.
7.1.2. Crafts-men, potters, metal smiths, weavers, spinnters, carpenders and emplyes of the temple would come to the temple to trade their goods.
7.1.3. The Sumerians traded food surplus and crafted goods for mineral resources. Then later in history, the Sumerian merchants traded with Syria, Asia Minor, and the Indus Civilization, in the east
7.1.4. Donkeys and Camels were organized for trade caravans. But, for overland trade they used oxen. Also most bulk goods were transproted by river.
7.2. Shang/Dynasty
7.2.1. The Shang Dynasty's economy was based off of agriculture. Along with that, most of their society were peasants working on farms.
7.2.2. The workers in the economy were the peasants. The peasants worked on the land, but the land was controlled by the lords, where the peasants gave a large amount of their to them. The peasants also had to build and repair dykes, they had to dig ponds.
7.2.3. The Shang kingdom was in the middle of a network of a long-distance trade route. They traded turtle shells for divination and jade for ornamental objects. . The traders were thought to be fitted in the category of the royal court and/or the royal servants
7.2.4. The other workers in the economy were called the lords. They administered the land and spent their time training for war. They also advised the king in government matters. The next step in helping the economy were the king and his court.
8. Social Structure & Family Life
8.1. Sumerian
8.1.1. The family life of the Sumerians had great importance. The man was the head of the family..
8.1.2. Women of the Sumerians were only there to be wives, mothers, and housekeepers. Soon after puberty a woman could be married.
8.1.3. The Sumerians were ruled by a kingship, and also had a social pyramid.
8.1.4. The men with power, status, or royalty, were a high class and some of their wives could act as individuals outside the family, although it rarely occurred.
8.2. Shang Dynasty
8.2.1. The Shang people were ruled by an aristocracy and their kings were the political, military, and religious leaders. This was the highest level on the social pyramid.
8.2.2. The military, the second level on the Shang social pyramid, were honored for their skill.
8.2.3. The third level on the social pyramid were the artisans and craftsmen. This class often worked with bronze, making weapons and pottery.
8.2.4. The fourth, and final level, were the peasants. They were the poorest and mainly farmed and sold crops for profit.
8.2.5. The Shang people were classified into four different classes. The four social classes were the king and aristocracy, military, artisans and craftsmen, and peasants.
8.2.6. Shang Dynasty Social Structure & Family Life