Asia Flashcards
Asian scholars maintain that Asians are racially different to other humans. The basis for this is Peking Man, who was excavated in 1927, and found to be form around 750,000BC, but was destroyed in WWII.
Denisovan cave - bones found here proved there were separate human species in Siberia. Some asians have Denisovan DNA, providing a basis for chinese theory. 40,000 BP
Red Deer cave skull- The Red Deer Cave People were the most recent known prehistoric population that do not resemble modern humans. Fossils between 14,500 and 11,500 years old were found
Plant remains are recovered and seperated from the soil using flotation to understand the development of agriculture and state formation
Plant domestication was independently invented. In China this focused on rice and millet, the remains of which are occasionally found today, preserved through arid conditions.
Millet and Rice domestication took place in separate areas- Millet in the Steppe area and Rice in the Yaghtzee River
Wild rice to domesticated rice: Oryza rufipogon - a perennial of permanent pools
Domesticated in the Yangtze, c. 5000 BCE to: Oryza japonica Oryza nivara - an annual grass on monsoon-filled seasonal puddles
Hybridised with O. japonica in Northern India, c. 2500 BC to: Oryza indica
Wild rice and domesticated rice, and characteris*c spikelets, recovered from flota*on
Tianluoshan (c.5000–4200 BC) after the 2007 excavations by the Zhejiang Province Institute of Archaeology - the earliest evidence of domesticated rice
The eariieist paddy fields? Caoxieshan (Jiangsu, China), excavated by Suzhou Museum in 2008-
Peiligang culture c. 7000 -5000 BC
Yangshao culture, c 5000 – 3000 BC-
Jiangzhai Neolithic Settlement - Enclousures for stock and storage pits for grain. 5000-4000 BC.
Longshan culture, c 3000 – 2000 BC - Jade wares, burnished fine wares, very sophisticated pottery
Jiahu culture 7000 BC, psuedoalphabets?
Eleven characters found at Dinggong in Shandong, China on a pobery sherd, Longshan culture, 3000 BC
Bronze Age Dynastic China Xia Dynasty c. 2070 – 1600 BC Linked possibly to the Eritou culture….-
Xia culture - 21st to 16th century BC
Shang Dynasty (c. 1600 – 1100 BC)
Early and Middle Shang culture- 16th -13th century BC
Wang Yirong was a director of the Chinese Imperial Academy, best known as the first to recognize that the symbols inscribed on oracle bones were an early form of Chinese writing.
Inscribed ox scapula (c. 1200 BC) and Oracle-bone inscription (c. 1200 BC) showing early chinese characters
Western Zhou Dynasty (1046 – 711 BC)
- The Shang had been weaken by constant warfare with neighbours
- Succession of new line of rulers from a nomadic tribe in the west
- Capital city founded in Xi’an
- The Zhou adopted much of the Shang lifestyle, technology and arts
- Adopted administrative system including feudalism
- Different religion to the Shang – warship sun and stars
- Human sacrifice was banned
Eastern Zhou Dynasty (711 – 211 BC)
- Capital moved east to Honan (near modern Loyang)
- Zhou emperor lost power to feudal lords
- Arising of various states and alliances against each other
- Warfare between rival states
- By 600 BC iron was widely used
- In 400-200 BC – development of institutions to enhance the power of the central authority, which led to absolutism
- Changes in manner of warfare – used professional soldiers, army led by paid officer, decreased role of chariot
Warring states period (7th century - 221 BC) - high productivity and intellectual development but society was broken down
Shows the method of pottery and bronze production using sophisticated molds
Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC)
Qin Shi Huangdi who is guarded in his grave by the Terracota army (210-209)
- the first Emperor who unified China
- completely abolished feudalism and divided the empire into 36 provinces
- sponsored extensive network of roads and canals to encourage trade
- standardised weights, measurers and currency
- constructed the Great Wall in the north
- banned private weapons possession
- buried scholar alive and burned books
- introduced cruel punishment
- Jomon pottery may be the world’s oldest pottery, and dates range from 13,000 - 3000 BP in Japan
- incipient Jomon pottery, with cord marking, c. 12000 – 8000 BCE
Sannai Maruyama - settlement in Japan with huts and storage pits - these may also be holes which posts used to sit in. There was also signs of deliberate burial of pottery and artefacts. 3900 BCE.
Reconstructed large pillar supported buildings - may have been watchtowers in Sannai Maruyama
Middle Jomon vessels 2500 - 1500 BC
Jomon Dogu figure c. 1000 - 300 BC
Shakōki-dogū
First form of currency. Spade money, 1046-245. Zhou dynasty,
Human faced fish decoration bowl, 5000–4000 BC, Banpo village, Shaanxi • The Yangshao culture was a Neolithic culture that existed extensively along the Yellow River in China.
• Shang dynasty - Bronze human head with gold leaf (c. 1300-1100 BC)
- The Odai Yamamoto I7
- Jōmon-periodarchaeological site in Japan.
- Excavations in 1998 uncovered forty-six earthenware fragments which have been dated as early as 14,500 BC (ca 16,500 BP); this places them among the earliest pottery currently known.
