1. Social Structure and Family Life
1.1. Sumerians
1.1.1. The Sumerians had a distinct social hierarchy.
1.1.2. At the top of the Sumerians hierarchy were kings and priests, then large landowners and wealthy merchants, next were artisans, farmers and laborers, and at the bottom were slaves who were usually captured in battle.
1.1.3. In the Sumerians society a few upper-class women received educations and served as priestesses in temples.
1.1.4. In the Sumerians society the majority of women stayed home to watch the house and care for the children.
1.2. Shang/Zhou
1.2.1. The king of Shang ruled out to all the distant parts of the kingdom and also had a large army at his disposal.
1.2.2. The Shang and Zhou armies were responsible for preventing rebellion as well as fighting opponents from outside China.
1.2.3. The Shang people spent the majority of their time in the fields tending to crops.
1.2.4. The Shang had much free time, they participated in leisure activities such as hunting for sport, the wealthy enjoyed collecting expensive objects made of bronze or jade.
2. Religion
2.1. Sumerians
2.1.1. The Sumerians believed that civilization was the result of the gods’ triumph of order over chaos.
2.1.2. The Sumerians practiced polytheism, the worship of many gods.
2.1.3. The Sumerians worked very hard to please their gods. They built temples where they offered up food and drink to the gods and they held ceremonies.
2.1.4. The Sumerians believed that gods controlled all natural forces including wind, water, and storms etc.
2.1.5. Temple
2.2. Shang/Zhou
2.2.1. Shang tombs contained valuables made form bronze and jade.
2.2.2. Each tomb was full of hundreds of sacrificed prisoners of war, they were buried with their rulers meaning that the Shang most likely believed in the afterlife and that the rulers would need servants and his riches.
2.2.3. The Shang had the idea of ancestor worship, they often got advice from their ancestors from using bones of animals and turtle shell called "oracle bones"
2.2.4. The Shang had ritual meals where the family would eat a meal with the ancestors in mind and they believed that the steam from the food would nourish their ancestors in the afterlife.
2.2.5. Tomb
3. Science and Technology
3.1. Sumerians
3.1.1. The Sumerians essentially invented time in their sexigesimal system of counting which created the 60- sec and 60-minute hour.
3.1.2. The Sumerians created the first schools during the Ur III Period.
3.1.3. The Sumerians developed the horse-drawn chariot for warfare from modifying ideas from the nomads.
3.1.4. The Sumerians invented the wheel, which they used both to make pottery and to build a variety of vehicles.
3.1.5. The Wheel
3.2. Shang/Zhou
3.2.1. The time of the Shang and Zhou was known as the Bronze Age because of their use of bronze for making things such as weapons, chariots and ritual vessels.
3.2.2. Zhou created roads and canals, allowing for better transportation.
3.2.3. Iron weapons created by the Zhou helped to strengthen the Zhou army. Also the Zhou created new weapons such as the catapult.
3.2.4. The Shang we able to start creating huge, stable structure such as tombs
3.2.5. Iron weapon
4. Arts and Education
4.1. Sumerians
4.1.1. Art
4.1.2. The Sumerians writing system was adopted and modified by other contemporaneous Mesopotamian people such as the Akkadians and the Babylonians.
4.1.3. The Sumerians language was the first language to be written down in history.
4.1.4. The Sumerians writing originally started as pictographs and slowly started to evolve into symbols that reflected their spoken language. By 2500 B.C. their writing began to become more triangular shaped symbols. These symbols were engraved into stylus tools that could then be stamped into wet clay.
4.1.5. The Sumerians developed a math system based on the number 60.
4.2. Shang/zhou
4.2.1. Art
4.2.2. The Zhou people used piece-mold casting to shape bronze by first making a mold where they could engrave designs in clay before firing it. Then they directly poured the bronze in the mold. This method was only used by the Zhou people at the time and allowed for sharp precise designs.
4.2.3. The Shang were the first culture in China to have a fully developed writing system.
4.2.4. Shang artists created highly decorative bronze vessels and objects.
4.2.5. The Shang created a precise calendar based on the cycles of the moon.
5. Geography and Agriculture
5.1. Sumerians
5.1.1. Many materials in Mesopotamia were scarce so most of the Sumerians buildings were made from mud and bricks.
5.1.2. Each city had one large temple in the center that rose to the chief god.
5.1.3. The cities continuously fought over land and water as they grew larger.
5.1.4. The cities were surrounded by fields and a massive wall for defense.
5.1.5. Map
5.2. Shang/Zhou
5.2.1. China had a geography that helped civilizations greatly with long rivers, fertile soils, temperate climates, and isolated valleys.
5.2.2. Annual floods left the Shang and Zhou with rich soil around the plains for agriculture.
5.2.3. Climate is cool and dry making it suitable for growing grains such as wheat and millet.
5.2.4. The Shang and Zhou were mostly protected from invasions by mountains, hills and desert.
5.2.5. Shang Map
6. Government and Leaders
6.1. Sumerians
6.1.1. The Sumerians split into many city-states which consisted of an inland city surrounded by miles of farmland. Those city-states were incredibly independent and warfare between them was common.
6.1.2. The Sumerians temples stood at the center of the public's lives both religiously and politically. This was because the city's god was considered to control the productive land.
6.1.3. The Sumerians common people brought what they grew to the temple in return for what they needed to live from the priests.
6.1.4. The circumstance in which the Sumerians government worked called for scribes and accountants. From this emerged the first bureaucracies.
6.2. Shang/Zhou
6.2.1. The Zhou acted as an imperial power over most of central China.
6.2.2. Shang Kings were surrounded by a court or a gathering of wealthy nobles, who performed rituals. These rituals were intended to strengthen and keep the kingdom safe.
6.2.3. The Zhou dynasty conquered the Shang dynasty. The Zhou dynasty took ruling in
6.2.4. The political system of the western Zhou was characterized by the establishment of numerous regional states mainly in East China.
7. Economy and Trade
7.1. Sumerians
7.1.1. The Sumerians obtained many of the materials needed for their buildings and Art through trade
7.1.2. The Sumerians lacked in many raw materials such as wood and metal, most of their materials for building were obtained through trade.
7.1.3. They exchanged with people from Southwest Asia. They traded woven textiles for metal, timber and stone.
7.1.4. Men held political power and made laws while women took care of the home and children.
7.2. Shang/Zhou
7.2.1. The Shang's economy was primary based on agricultural.
7.2.2. The Zhou learned how to use iron which became the backbone of their economy.
7.2.3. The Zhou introduced coins to China.
7.2.4. The Zhou created roads and canals, allowing for better transportation which helped increase trade