The Importance Of Ancient Chinese Civilization In Ancient China

Decent Essays
Having money and power seems to be a commonality seen among important figures throughout history. In ancient China, the money and power one had directly correlated to social structure. Through Ancient Chinese civilization, the social standing one held not only affected their living conditions and occupation but also continues to be a factor in how they are buried and remembered.
As seen with many cultures, there seems to be a turning point from when the Chinese civilization turns to become more complex. During the middle Neolithic period from 4500 to 2700 BC, there appeared to be this shift in the society to becoming a more complex society and the appearance of the social hierarchy (Scarre & Fagan, 2016). It is during this time that the gap
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The disparity between a grave of an elite and a grave of a common person can be seen by comparing the graves found at Anyang. Archeologists uncovered 1,200 graves at Anyang but there were a select 13 that stood out due to their size, shape and content (Scarre & Fagan, 2016). These 13 graves were more extravagant than the other graves found at Anyang suggesting they these graves represented the elite of the time. Similar to how the ruling class surrounded themselves with people while they were alive, many graves of kings were surrounded by sacrificial victims who were killed during this time to be buried with their king. In one of the royal tombs at Anyang, as many as 600 people were found to have been sacrificed with their ruler (Scarre & Fagan, 2016). Along with the tombs at Anyang showing disparity in size and importance of the deaths of the elite, the tombs of the Yuan dynasty also portray this societal gap. A cemetery that is estimated to belong to a Mongol Nobel family was discovered in 2000 by the uncovering of 13 skeletons spread out through six separate tombs. The extensive tombs were multiple chambers, usually and most commonly made up of at least two chambers. One of the chambers was larger than the other; this chamber normally held the remains of a male while the other smaller chamber held …show more content…
Both pages have good overarching information about the rise and fall of the different dynasties and specific large wars. There was little to no information specific to social class in these specific dynasties. Overall, the information that was present seemed to match with other peer reviewed scholarly sources, but was the bare minimum. This proves that Wikipedia is a good starting point to get basic questions about chronology of events and dates of certain events, but not great for in-depth research of specific research. In order for Wikipedia to be helpful in research for this paper, there needed to be more information about the burials and housing of the elite in comparison to the common people. Through archeological digs and other research done on this time period, the information that is lacking on the Wikipedia page can be found with research

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