Bronze Age Civilizations

BRONZE AGE CIVILIZATIONS


Q 1. The first civilizations which arose in the ancient world were all; in the river valleys. The Harappan civilizations flourished in the Indus Valley, the Mesopotamian flourished in the valley of Tigris and Euphrates, the Egyptian civilization arose in the valley of Nile and the Chinese civilization arose in the valley of Hwang Ho.

The river valleys were the primary choice for the flourishing of early civilizations because the conditions were most favorable, there was a continuous flow of water as these rivers were mainly snowed. The rich soil deposited by the rivers was favorable for cultivation. Man by now had learnt to produce more and more types of food grains and in abundant quantity so much so that the richness of the soil provided him the most favorable condition for settled life. He also used the know how of building canals, land dykes and used the flood water for his agricultural purposes. The rivers also provided an easier means of transportation from one place to another. The building of canals and providing relief from floods led man to live an organized life.


Q 2. In what ways were the Bronze Age civilizations similar?

Ans. The discovery and the use of metals proved to be an great leap in the history of mankind in the course of time man learnt to use and mix different kinds of metals and one of them was bronze. The invention of Bronze gave a new life to the civilizations and this metal started being used on a large scale. This is the reason the first age civilizations are called bronze age civilizations. The four civilizations were unique in their own way but they had many things in common. They developed an organized political and social system, trade, commerce, religious beliefs, writing art etc. The food production also increased because of the introduction of the plough and better irrigation systems. The building of canals and dykes needed large scale co-operative effort which could not be done by a small village; this gave rise to a different kind of social setup where many communities formed under a central authority. The large scale production of food and its storage gave rise to different forms of art, music and also many inventions in science and math. This also led to the cities while the responsibility of food production remained in the village. The cities became the centers of all modern activity like trade and commerce and other social aspects. In every civilization we find similarities though they are unique in their own way.

Q 3. Cite evidences to show that Bronze Age civilizations were well advanced over the Neolithic cultures.

Ans. During the Neolithic age, man had not made advances in the area of food production, he had barely enough food to life on. Though community life was developing, man was still a food gatherer. There was no class differentiation and everyone performed the same kind of work and lived an equal life. With the advent of advanced food production on large scale, civilizations arose giving rise to class differences and differences in the rights. The community which was a close knit one enlarged into a small state and later on the area expanded. There was more amount of professionalism in every field be it art, science, food production etc. The class differences created unholy differences amongst human beings, though Bronze Age civilizations had many disadvantages, the advantages were many when compared to the fast rate towards which man progressed towards modernity and it was on the base of these civilizations that today’s civilizations stand.


Q 4. With which of the four civilizations, and in what way do you associate each of the following terms?

Ans.

Oracle : Chinese civilization . The people of the chinese civilization wanted to frame future plans based on the priest’s saying about the future. This was mainly because of the natural calamity that could occur on and off. The priest would be approached and he would be asked a number of questions and the priest would give the answers with the help of tortoise shells or bones of cattle. The priest would make holes in the said bones and when fire would be applied, it would crack. The nature of the crack told the future.

Silk : associated with Chinese civilization. Silk was discovered in china and it became a prime industry responsible for foreign trade in china. This cloth was primarily used by the royals and strong evidences show that the Shang Dynasty used it on a large scale.

Behistun : Mesopotamian civilization. This is basically an inscription which was written on a high rock about 100 meters high. Henry Rawlinson discovered this script and worked for nearly twelve years to decipher it.

Great Bath : Indus valley civilization. It is one of the great landmarks of Harappan and Mohenjodaro civilizations. This must have been the place of religious bathing where people would take bath and then enter the temples. A great flight of steps lead to the bath with changing rooms surrounding it.

Mummies : Egyptian civilization. The mummies are the bodies of the dead which the Egyptians preserved in a particular way. The Egyptians believed that there was life after death and so took great care in preserving the bodies of the dead. The bodies would be embalmed and wrapped in special linen and then buried with articles of his daily use.

Ziggurat : associated with Mesopotamian civilization. It was basically the hill atop of which the temple of God was built. This would usually be found in the centre of the city or the town and could be seen from all sides and from any place in the city. The ziggurat provided a sense of protection among the people of the valley.

Babylon : Mesopotamian civilization. It was the region to the north east of Sumer. This was the place from where Hammurabi rules during this civilization.

Seals : Indus valley civilization. The excavation of the seals in Mesopotamian civilization confirms the fact that both the civilizations had direct trade links. The seals were unique with intricate designs and must have been used on government orders or trade receipts.

Sexagesimal : Mesopotamian civilization. The people of Mesopotamia developed a style of counting which is termed as sexagesimal. They wrote the numbers 1-9 by making a sign for 1 and repeating it as many times as necessary. Similarly they repeated the sign for 10 to represent the multiples of 10. They had the same symbol for 60 as for 1 though it was written much bigger.

Sphinx : Egyptian civilization. The Egyptians believed about the life after death and the great Pharoas build pyramids where they would be buried after their death. The sphinx is also one such example where the structure is like the body of a lion and the head of a man. The sphinx has been carved out of a single solid stone.

Hammurabi : Mesopotamian civilization. He was one of the greatest rulers to rule during the said civilization. He united the whole area of what is today’s Iraq into one single kingdom, he also gave a code of laws which covered every aspect of life and brought about a certain amount of discipline in the community. The laws were made acceptable to the people because his edict shows him standing before his God and he is getting direction about the laws.

Cheops : The best known remains in Egypt are the three pyramids of Giza built by Khufu (Cheops in Greek) Khafra and Menkawre beginning in about 2500 BC during the fifth dynasty. It is still not understood how the Egyptians were able to build such huge stone structures with simplest means of their times.

Q 5. Why was it natural for the people to concern themselves with calendars? In what respects did the calendars of the early civilizations differ?

Ans : The river valley people especially the Mesopotamians and the Egyptians were the first to evolve the idea of a calendar. They were inspired by the following factors while devising a calendar.

1. Agriculture was their main occupation which depended on the changes in the season. In order to understand these changes they felt the need of inventing a calender.

2. It also helped them to foresee the dry and rainy periods, which affected their farming operations.

3. They had to save their settlements from devastating floods which occurred every year.

4. They used the help of stars and planets to prepare a calendar of their own.
TYPES OF CALENDERS

Calenders were generally of 2 types: Solar calendar and lunar calendar. The calendar which was calculated on the movement of the sun is called the solar calendar. It is more accurate than the lunar calendar which is based on the movement of the moon. The lunar calendar is 11 days less than the solar calendar. The Mesopotamians adopted the lunar calendar while the Egyptians and the Chinese adopted the solar calendar.

The main features of these calendars were:

1. The Mesopotamians had a lunar year which was about 11 days short of the solar year. This deficiency was made up by adding a whole month after every few years. But in spite of these errors the calendar itself was a great achievement because they divided the day into 24 hours an hour into 60 minutes and a minute into 60 seconds.

2. The Egyptian calendar was based on the solar system with 12 months each comprising of 30 days. They based this arrangement in the period between the arrival of the floods which was exactly 365 days apart. Their year comprised of 360 days and 5 days were reserved for festivals. They also observed a bright star which they named Sirius. It was the last to appear on the horizon before the floods reached Cairo.

3. The Chinese calendar was a combination of solar and lunar calculations. The months were lunar comprising o 29 – 30 days while the year was based on solar and comprised of 365 days and ¼ days correctly.


Q 6 Describe the scripts used by the Mesopotamians, Egyptians and Chinese?

Ans The form of writing which was used by Mesopotamians was first developed in Sumer and they conveyed their ideas through signs, symbols and pictures. Over the period of time, it soon developed to a particular form of communication or a particular idea being denoted by a particular picture. This form involved a lot of difficulty as ideas could not be communicated fully and that is the reason symbols were invented. These symbols stood for ideas, names and words. The Sumerians further developed it by basing it on phonetic way or representing their ideas through language. This is called cuneiform. Many clay tablets have been found to confirm the Sumerian script.

The script used by the Egyptians is known as hieroglyphic meaning sacred writing. It consisted of 24 signs each of which stood for a single consonant. Vowels were not used. Thus, raising the number of symbols used to 500. The writing soon became an art and the writers formed an important section of the society. The Egyptians used reed pens on leaves of a plant called papyrus from which the word paper has come into being.

The Chinese script was first thought to have been evolved from the Sumerian script but in truth it is an ideographic script in which each sign represents an idea. The script has not changed much over the period of generations. The same technique of using silk or bamboo strips and writing with the help of a brush is still being used.

Q7. Why are we less sure about many details of the Harappan Culture than about the civilizations of the nile and tigris-euphrates?

Ans The archaeologists, historians have been successful in deciphering the script used by the Nile or Tigris-Euphrates civilizations though lots of hard work sometimes time amounting to nearly 12 years has been spent in trying to know more about these scripts.
Huge amounts of tablets or rock inscriptions also help the archaeologists in coming to know about the above civilizations. The language or script used by the Harappans was basically pictographic and that is the reason, the historians have found it difficult to decipher the script used by the Harappan valley civilization though efforts are in full swing to decipher the scripts and will not be long before we come to know more about the Harappan valley civilizations.


Q8. Why do we feel sure there was trade among the people of the early civilizations?

Ans : There is enough evidence to prove that trade existed between the people of early civilizations because the many excavations have proved the fact that there existed trade relations because many articles or use of a particular civilization have been found in another civilization e.g. the seals, jewellery, pottery used by the harappan culture have been found in the Mesopotamian excavations. During the period of these civilizations man had come to know the importance of foreign trade and that is the reason the heads of the states encouraged better products which were exported or imported by any particular civilizations thus confirming the fact that trade did exist during the early civilizations.