Evidence of man’s quest for civilization

by Amal Hewavissenti

Continued from last week....

Early Chinese civilization was characterised by a succession of dynasties, that is to say, ruling houses in which the leaders typically belonged to the same family. Occasionally, the dynasties, which coexisted, would complete with each other for power as would rival rulers within individual dynasties, but on the otherland, Chinese culture remained relatively unchanged throughout the rise and fall of these dynasties.

Chinese legends speak of a famous leader named Huang Di, who founded Chinese Civilization on the banks of Yellow River valley about 2700 B.C.

The early Chinese dynasties typically shares some common features. They were ruled by “warlords” who lived inside royal compounds with their families and attendants, which customary arrangement reflected the rigid social structure that separated the ruling class from the artisans, soldiers, farmers, and others who served them.

Economy was based on agriculture, particularly the raising of cereal crops and the ancestral worship was a practice central to their beliefs because a ruler’s authority was believed to have sprung from his ancestors.

The Xia and the Shang

Chinese legends speak of a famous leader named Huang Di, who founded Chinese Civilization on the banks of Yellow River valley about 2700 B.C. Later, about 2200 B.C. a harsh ruler named Yu the Great, founded China’s first dynasty, the Xia who were eventually succeeded by the Shang dynasty. It absolutely was highly militarized and had the capability of mustering an army of 10,000 men or more when needed.

Like the Sumerian civilization, the Shang dynasty was a patchwork of smaller States and was an elaborate “Kin organisation” that ran through society and obligated people to serve the ruler when called upon. Its people were expert metalsmiths who produced fine bronze vessels. One of the earliest Shang capitals was Ao, close to the Yellow River, where the ruler lived in a compound surrounded by earthen walls, isolated from the encompassing farming villages. It is interesting to note that deceased Shang rulers were buried in deep pits along with their chariots, hundreds of superb bronze vessels, and jade artifacts with numerous sacrificial victims.

The Shang was overthrown by the Zhou dynasty, whose influence spread far into Southern China. Eventhough the Zhou consisted of multiple States that constantly battled with one another, the period of their rule was marked with varied major innovations. After 700 B.C., walls of rammed earth were built around cities for protection, iron working revolutionized military affairs and agriculture and commerce expanded with the development of the first Chinese coinage.

Another important breakthrough was the creation of the first Chinese coinage. Another important breakthrough was the creation of the philosophical and religious doctrines of Taoism. Taoism provided the Chinese with a concept of order and harmony in the universe and subsequently it had a profound effect on China’s artistic traditions and ideas of effective government.

The political disputes among the Zhou were cancelled out when the ruthless leader of the Quin State unified China into a single State after overthrowing Zhou reign. The new leader, Shi Huangdi, built an extensive road system and set about constructing a vast wall of mud brick and rammed earth that stretched across the countryside to keep out nomadic invaders.

The successive dynasties fortified and prolongated this wall which eventually became the Great Wall of China. Later, the Han empire expanded foreign trade along an extensive route called Silk Road, linking China with the West and Hans readily embraced Confucianism which virtually promoted the idea of a centralised monarchy and an educated supremo to run the State.

The dramatic inventions made during this period were the wheelbarrow, paper and crank handle. The infirm imperial rule caused the centrally controlled empire to break a part and three hundred and fifty years of political chaos followed as the country cut itself from the western countries.

The Khmer

By A. D. 100’s people in the Mekong Delta, (Vietnam) traded extensively with China’s Han dynasty and, beginning about 500, the greatest political power in the region was absolutely wielded by the Khmer. The Khmer, like many ancient South East Asian peoples, were influenced by Indian culture and they adopted Indian belief in Hinduism, and Buddhism as well as Indian styles of art and architecture.

The Khmer established an empire centered on the city of Ang Kor, located in a fertile region of current Cambodia. The dynamic Khmer monarch, Jayavarman II developed a highly centralised form of government and promoted the idea that he solely represented divine power. Khmer monarchs labelled themselves “Varman” (Protector) and a series of rulers erected colossal temple complexes in Ang Kor including “Ang Kor Wat”, one of the most magnificent temples in the empire.

These immense religious complexes, larger in scale than the Egyptian Pyramids, are considered nonparel masterpieces of international architecture. These huge building projects overstressed and enfeebled the empire which, consequently fell prey to the Thai armies.

The Americas - Mesoamerica

Civilisation in the Americas arose first in Mesoamerica, a name given by historians to a territory in Central America that stretches from Central Mexico to western Costa Rica. The second was in South America snuggled in the shadows of the Andes mountains in what is currently Peru. At a time when ancient Egypt was at the peak of its power and prosperity, the first complex roots of civilisation in Mesoamerica appeared in the lowlands by the Gulf of Mexico, at least 3,500 years back.

The Olmecs established an array of kingdoms in Mexico, along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, around 1500 B.C. Their homeland was extremely rich in fish and other animals that were prominently featured in a sophisticated style of art that eventually spread throughout Mesoamerica.

The Olmec rulers viewed themselves as links between the human world and the supernatural realm and the lords built great mounds and pyramids surrounding plazas to impress their followers with their overwhelming power. At places like San Lorenzo and La Venta, huge carved heads depict these rulers, whose identity is still unknown while Olmec’s simple form of writing, which remains largely undeciphered, was probably the first developed in the Americas.

The Maya

Classic Maya civilisation emerged about A.D.300 which consisted of an everchanging pattern of city states that rivalled ferociously with one another eventhough they shared a common language and a set of religious beliefs. Great cities, such as Calam Kul, Copan, Palenque and Tikal were ruled by powerful royal families who were assumed to be divine powers building their cities as symbolic representations of the Maya world. The religious powers of the rulers and their expertise in the battle led to constant warfare among the city states. Maya civilisation was based primarily on sophisticated swamp agriculture and the traders imported volcanic glass for mirrors and tool making while the feathers of birds and other products were exported. They were so successful at water management that their population exploded during centuries of good rainfall and the number of nobles increased with the pressure on the food supply which grew to the point that there was political unrest. The ancient Maya civilisation collapsed in the South but survived in the North until it was conquered by the Spanish in the 1500’s.

Teotihuacan

Maya cities such as Tikal were strongly influenced by Teotihuacan, a powerful highland state which developed from a series of villages into a city on the edge of the Basin of Mexico. Early rulers drew up an ambitious masterplan for the city which was unchanged over many centuries - a masterplan which marked a vast ceremonial complex of pyramids and plazas dominating the north end of the city. A broad avenue, known today as the Street of the Dead, intersected with another avenue that ran from East to West and on the intersection stood a temple and a huge market. The civilisation experienced an abrupt collapse by consequence of severe drought or conquest or for some reason still unknown.

Andean civilizations

By around 2500 B.C., large villages flourished along the coast of Peru. Later these villages had developed into mini kingdoms located in valleys, where mountain floodwater could be used to irrigate crops of maize, beans etc and where elaborate ceremonial centres, built around adobe pyramids housed the leaders who supervised increasingly complex irrigation works.

A second culture developed in the highlands around Lake Titicaca on the border between Peru and Bolivia where small ceremonial centres grew rapidly. Their prosperity depended much on trading textiler, wool and fish with the coastal kingdoms and new religious ideas spread from a shrine in the Andes foothills of Central Peru, where priests communicated with the supernatural realm. They created an elaborate, highly distinctive art style that spread with the new religious ideas and gave Andean Civilization a basic unity although it consisted of many separate political States. For nine hundred years, a small number of royal families, headed by warrior priests ruled over thousands of irrigation farmers in the desert valleys but these rulers employed military force and a strict belief system that involved human sacrifice and the worship of the sun and the moon. Much of what is known about these rulers comes from archaeological excavations of royal burials in the modern village of Sipan and the major royal capital was a complex of huge pyramids which was destroyed by catastrophic rains and major droughts.

The Incas

About 1438, a brilliant warrior of the Inca tribe near the modern city of Cuzco conquered his neighbours and set about transforming his kingdom into a major State which was expanded to Ecuador in the North and to Amazon Basin to the East. The Incas were brilliant conquerors and administrators who linked their domains which consisted of six million people, with extensive road systems throughout all kinds of terrain. By the early 1500’s, the Inca Civilization was in dramatic decline because thousands of people had died from smallpox and other diseases introduced by the Spanish in the North and disputes arose over royal succession with no suitable land left for each new ruler to conquer.

The empire was in a state of Civil War when Spanish adventurer Francisco Pizarro and a small band of soldiers landed in Peru in 1532. Historians confirm the conquest of capital city by the Spanish a year later and soon the world’s last pre-industrial civilization collapsed as a result of many other reasons still unknown.