1. Government and Leaders
1.1. Shang/Zhou
1.1.1. The Zhou Dynasty overthrew the Shang in order to have rule over China. And to justify this, the Zhou claimed they were given the Mandate of Heaven, the divine right to rule over China.
1.1.2. The Shang dynasty had a very strong government ruled by a king. The king's power also extended with smaller kingdoms through the rulings of his brothers and nephews.
1.1.3. Eventually as the Zhou royal family grew over time, different parts of the Zhou civilization became known as principalities, ruled by a different person of th Zhou family.
1.1.4. The hierarchical system of power worked very well in expanding the kingdom's borders. This motivated ambitious military leaders into expanding into other lands and receive land for their efforts.
1.2. Sumerians
1.3. The kingdoms of Sumer were organized into city-states and the kings ruled each city-state of the gods.
1.4. Priests ruled before 3500 BC. They attended the gods who really ruled.
1.5. Gilgamesh Uruk was one of the most famous priest-kings.
1.6. Lawmaking in Sumer was done by a two-housed legislature, who enforced the laws. The Upper-House, composed of the elders. The Lower House, that was composed of free male citizens, that were also soldiers.
2. Geography and Agriculture
2.1. Sumerians
2.1.1. Sumeria is located in Mesopotamia in the Fertile Crescent. Mesopotamia lies between the Tigris and Euphrates River, which were crucial in shaping the world's oldest known civilization.
2.1.2. All of Mesopotamia had very few natural boundaries. The land was perfect for farming, which led to conflict about who should live on it.
2.1.3. However, the climate wasn't ideal for farming because it barely rained and the rivers flooded at the worst times, such as harvest times.
2.2. Shang/Zhou
2.3. The Shang Dynasty formed along the Western bend of the Hwang He River.
2.4. The river eventually started to flood and because of that it caused the society and government to strengthen.
2.5. The Shang Dynasty was the first true civilization of China.
3. Social Structure and Family Life
3.1. Sumerians
3.1.1. The priests were the highest in the pyramid, responsible for the gods' happiness, and told people how to conduct themselves.
3.1.2. Warriors, nobles, lower level priests, and government officials comprised of the upper class, along with the general affluent society, second place to the priests.
3.1.3. The middle/freeman class consisted of people with high paying jobs, but weren't as rich as the upper class. They had food and money, but it was harder for them to live in comfort. This class included merchants, traders, and artisans who earned money in their skill.
3.1.4. The slaves were the very bottom and were owned by the upper class citizens as punishment for the crimes they have committed.
3.2. The Shang Dynasty had six social classes on the pyramid (from highest to lowest); The king, the nobles, the artisans, the traders, the farmers, and the peasants.
3.3. Burials are a way that distinguish between social classes within the Shang. The elite were buried in elaborate pit tombs with various objects of wealth for a possible use in the afterlife.
3.4. Within the Zhou, kings and priests were at the top of the pyramid, and made up the ruling class. The bottom (named in order) was comprised of the working class; scholars, farmers, craftsmen, and traders.
3.5. Shang/Zhou
3.6. Nobles, priests, the king/emperor and his family all lived in greatly. They lived in palaces, decorated colorfully with painted tiles and bronze candlesticks.
3.7. On the outskirts lived the craftsmen ans merchants, they were treated poorly and lived in mud huts.
3.8. Even farther away lived the farmers, they were the lowest class. Treated the worst they were simply know as peasants.
4. Arts and Education
4.1. Sumerians
4.1.1. Sumerian art is mainly about supporting and exploring the relationships between people and the gods, and plants and animals.
4.1.2. Clay was common and stone was not, which gave each sculpture a very soft, round look because it's hard to make any sharp edges while working with clay. The Sumerians kept this look even when they started working with stone.
4.1.3. Cylinder seals were another form of art that could fit in a purse or be put on a string as a necklace. However, it was used the same way we use a signature, which is to show we are who we say we are. Because it was your signature, it was important that your signature was complicated and that no one could fake it.
4.2. Shang/Zhou
4.3. Zhou people kept making the bronze sacrificial jars that they had made under the Shang emperors. However, the shapes of the jars became more complex, and as more people learned to write, more inscriptions were made into the jars.
4.4. They also kept on making jade ornaments/decorations. Eventually they became more complex with the carving on them and their techniques.
5. Science and Technology
5.1. Sumerians
5.1.1. The Sumerians found a way to predict the movements of several planets, the moon, and stars.
5.1.2. The Sumerians were some of the first people to develop the concept of the wheel, which took form of the potters' wheel.
5.1.3. These people divided a circle into 360 degrees, giving us our modern way of measuring shapes.
5.1.4. The Sumerians also divided each day by 24 hours, each hour by 60 minutes, and each minute by 60 seconds.
5.2. Shang/Zhou
5.2.1. The Shang dynasty developed many new things with bronze, such as weapons, armor, tools, and bronze ritual vessels.
5.2.2. The Zhou period improved upon the design of a crossbow. This period also developed the navy ship, which imitated massive fortresses.
5.2.3. Kites, improved written script, medical records, and reports were established during the Zhou period as well.
5.2.4. The Shang dynasty was the first to unite a large part of China under one king, develop the decimal system, to use horse drawn chariots, and create a 12 month calendar based on the moon's cycles with 365 1/4 days.
6. Economy and Trade
6.1. Sumerians
6.1.1. Obsidian was found in Anatolia, lapis lazuli from NE Afghanistan, beads from Dilmun (modern Bahrain), and many seals inscribed with the Indus Valley script were a major sources of trade.
6.1.2. The Epic of Gilgamesh provides evidence of trade between far away lands of goods like wood, scarce in Mesopotamia, specifically cedar from Lebanon.
6.2. Shang/Zhou
6.2.1. Shang agriculture was the only part of Shang economy considered too common for bronze tools, which were used for wines made from rice and millet, which were offered in these bronze cups as a sacrifice to the gods of the harvest.
6.2.2. In the Shang society, while most people were farmers, there were also nobles, soldiers, bronze workers, sculptors, architects, painters, potters, priests, and slaves. This made for a very agricultural, artistic, and religious society.
6.2.3. Agriculture in the Zhou society developed faster than in the Shang because of the development of bronze tools.
7. Religion
7.1. Sumerians
7.1.1. The Sumerians based their religion on aspects of the natural earth.
7.1.2. The term "an-ki" translated means "heaven-earth." A substance know as "lil" translates to "air" or "breath." "lil" is know to be the substance between earth and the heavens. Surrounding the "an-ki" was the Primeval Sea that to them, gave birth to the "an-ki" and which eventually gave rise to life.
7.1.3. They Sumerians believed that when a person died they descended into the nether or underworld. Then their soul was judged by Utu, and if they had a good soul they would live a life of happiness. The Sumerians mostly believed that the nether/underworld was a very gloomy and uninviting place.
7.1.4. The Sumerians believed that their role in the universe was to serve the gods.