Exam in Ancient Cultures - Assignment Example

full Ancient Cultures (Q & A and essay) 30 July Section total = 35 points Taj Mahal was a marble mausoleum built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to honor his third wife named Mumtaz Mahal who was a Persian princess; it contained the tomb of Mumtaz who died during childbirth. The Taj Mahal is located in the city of Agra in India (2). 2. Terra cotta warriors are clay sculptures of actual soldiers and their horses who had served under Chinas first emperor, Shih Huang Ti (also spelled Qin emperor Shi Huang Di). They were buried with the emperor to guard him from his enemies even in death (5). 3. Two female pharaohs are Hatshepsut (or Maatkare) and Nefertiti (2). 5. The world was to end on December 21, 2012 based on Mayan calendar (1). 8. Three great rivers are Nile River (ancient Egyptian civilization), the Yellow River (ancient Chinese civilization), and the Indus River (ancient Indian civilization). (3). 9. The Lord of Sipan was the name given to the first of several Moche mummies that were discovered in 1987 located at Huaca Rajada in Sipan, Peru (3). 10. Chocolate was considered important in ancient Mesoamerica because the people believed it to be a gift from their god Quetzalcoatl (God of Wisdom) and the cacao seeds were also used as a currency and aphrodisiac among the peoples of the American continent (5). 11. Five Egyptian gods are Atum, Tefnut, Nut, Isis, and Osiris (5). 12. One is the Mitchell-Hedges skull and the second is the Mayan skull (2). 13. Moai are the extremly large monolithic stone sculptures found at Easter Island in the Polynesian part of Chile. The stone carvings represent departed ancestors (3). 16. The large drawings are called as Nazca Lines found in the Nazca Desert located in the Pampas de Jumana in southern Peru created between 400-650 A.D. (4). Section 2: (Long essay – life in ancient China) I imagine myself to be a woman during the Sung Period (960-1279 A.D.) in ancient China. The Sung Period followed the Tang dynastic period (618-907). The Sung Period is the time when Chinese civilization can be considered at its peak with a lot subtlety and mastery, of refinement and restraint. These positive features can be found in the artifacts of the time, in painting, calligraphy, silk tapestries, and porcelain products that portray a measure of civility. The Sung Period was a time of great changes in Chinese society as reforms were implemented throughout the empire. The basic features of a great civilization were already in place but the reforms heightened the social, political, economic, and cultural structures that would normally take time for imperial authorities to implement. Chinese society was stratified to royalty, the scholars, the soldiers, and the common people but there was order and stability. The printing press was invented around this time and so book became cheap. Books of all sorts proliferated and women read not only the Confucian classics and Buddhist texts but also short stories, poety, and anecdotes as literacy spread among the lower classes. Women at this time in Chinese history were subordinated to men but the women during the Sung were surprisingly given enough leeway and flexibility with regards to property matters. Daughers were given shares of the estate like their sibling brothers and widows had strong property rights The cult of widow fidelity was emphasized by preventing widows from re-marrying but women who brought properties or assets into marriage retained control over use and disposal. Life for me started to worsen and deteriorate during the later stage of the Sung Period as bad practices were introduced such as footbinding, female infanticides, and widow suicide. Many Sung women simply married into a domestic life and had no public exposure or career. I can not divorce my husband although he can have concubines (Ebrey 7). The Sung dynasty collapsed later on due to the steady inroads and incursions of the expanding Mongol race. Ancient North America: (No. 4) – the Anasazi Indians were a tribe of native or red Americans who once lived in the southwest corner of Colorado. This part of the state had one of the worst environments ever, with very little rainfall and harsh winters. In this area are lots of hidden canyons which sheltered the cliff dwellings of the Anasazi Indians. Each dwelling is stacked two to three rooms high with intricate ventilation systems to make the heat bearable. Their dwellings were magnificent considering the primitive tools available at that time. They were called the “Cannibals of the Canyon” because of human bones that were discovered just a few miles west from their Mesa Verde homes. Excavation sites at Cowboy Wash which is a flat and expansive floodplain (near the Sleeping Ute Mountain) showed clear indications of these human bones being cannibalized such as having been cut with a tool to remove the meat and then cooked, the cuts were made at the juncture of bones (where tendons joined the bone), and most bones bore marks of butchering such as being scraped and scorched in a fire. At least thirty more excavation sites near the same area yielded the same pieces of evidence pointing to the Anasazi having engaged in cannibalism although all these evidences were circumstantial in nature but this is also understandable since no one left written records of what actually happened in this area in those pre-historic times. There are plenty or various theories speculating on the nature of this cannibalism whether it was due to hunger from the extreme drought, harsh environmental conditions, or simply an act to terrorize other tribes. In less than a hundred years, the settlements at Mesa Verde were simply completely abandoned. Cannibalism occurred in a relatively short period of time only, between 1125 to 1150 A.D. if based on accuracy of carbon dating of the human bone remains and plenty of bone fragments. The Anasazi people had a highly-developed society, precise engineering skills, elaborate style of architecture, modern farming methods, and delicate art like the pottery artifacts. Nobody knows what happened to them as the settlements were abandoned in a civilization collapse. Ancient South America: (No. 1) – a mummy is any dead human or animal body that has been preserved by intentional means as a form of burial and respect for the dead or due to exposure to the natural elements (some preservative chemicals, low humidity, extreme cold, or very dry air or complete lack of air) such that further decay by bacteria is prevented. For purposes of this discussion, mummies are those which had been intentionally preserved for various reason depending on the ethnic culture in which mummification was practiced. The “ice mummies” of ancient South America are actually human sacrifices the Inca civilization made to appease their gods they believed resided at the coldest mountaintops. In most of these cases, the so-called “ice mummies” were actually healthy people who were then buried or entombed alive, hence many of these mummies were found remarkably preserved at the peak of their former lives. The artifacts found at these icy graves or tombs had shed light on the ancient Inca people, in particular their religious ceremonies and spiritual beliefs. These items made the “ice mummies” important because these helped archaeologists reconstruct an ancient Inca life based on the items found at these icy funerary sites at the top of the Andes. A lot of these sacrificed mummies were to honor their Sun God named Inti (Clark para. 4). Ancient Mesoamerica: (No. 3) – the Aztecs conquered and ruled a vast empire in the ancient pre-Columbian period by using a variety of means. Primary of these methods was the threat of a massacre if neighboring tribes will not submit to their authority and pay tributes. In this regard, the Aztec was actually a tribute empire which created immense resentment among the subjugated tribes who were forced to pay the tributes as a form of tax for protection. The Aztec empire was also based on loose alliances with compliant tribes who saw it was better to cooperate than oppose the almighty Aztecs whose empire was the most powerful in the Mesoamerica region at the time but their empire lasted for about a hundred years only. Their territory extended from Mexico to Guatemala up to Honduras and El Salvador. The arrival of the Spaniards under Hernando Cortes marked the downward turning point of the Aztec Empire from which it never recovered. The Aztecs mistakenly believed that Cortes was their god Quetzalcoatl who was predicted in their oracles will return as white man and so they deferred to Cortes despite his small army. The Spaniards were able to overthrow the Aztec by the use of guile and duplicity in their negotiations, together with forming secret alliances with the enemies of the Aztecs such as the Tlaxcalans who were only too happy to provide crucial back-up forces during the Spanish military campaigns against the Aztecs. The superiority of Spanish weaponry provided the crucial difference in how a small army was able to defeat a very large empire. Superior military technology like helmets and metal body armor allowed a few hundred Spanish soldiers to defeat thousands of badly-equipped native warriors who were easily terrified of the Spaniards use of horses in military tactics. The Mesoamerican allies of the Aztecs revolted upon seeing an opportunity to ally themselves with the Spaniards. The Aztec empire was administered badly on alliances dependent on tributes (Adams 11). Section 3: (Aztec human sacrifices) – there is some credence to the theory that Aztec human sacrifices were exaggerated by the Spanish conquistadors in order to cover up their own injustices and atrocities committed against the native populations in their drive for gold, glory, and God (3Gs). The Aztecs did perform human sacrifices but these were limited only to special occassions such as a bountiful harvest, to appease their gods, to mark the death of the emperor, to deflect natural calamities like extreme droughts, earthquakes, or to drive away the evil spirits during lunar or solar eclipses. These sacrifices were few and done usually to mark auspicious events but certainly not in the thousands as commonly depicted in history books and literature. The Western view of the Aztecs as bloodthirsty people was probably due to the Spanish motives of propagating the Catholic religion and wean the natives from their religion. “So easily do writers catch the spirit of injustice from the conquerors” (Keen 257). Works Cited Adams, Stasy. Reasons for the fall of the Aztec Empire. Berlin, Germany: GRIN Verlag, 2011. Print. Clark, Liesl. “Ice Mummies of the Inca.” PBS-NOVA, 24 Nov. 1998. Web. 30 July 2014. . Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. The Inner Quarters: Marriage and the Lives of Chinese Women in the Sung Period. Berkeley, CA, USA: University of California Press, 1993. Print. Keen, Benjamin. The Aztec Image in Western Thought. Piscataway, NJ, USA: The Rutgers University Press, 1990. Print. Due: July 31, 2014 @ 10:45 a.m. Read More