Hour 3 | 1700 - 1200 BCE
The Late Bronze Age · Shang Dynasty · Origin of Chinese Characters · Legend of Atlantis · Minoans · Mycenaeans and the Minotaur · Kingdom of Kerma · Poverty Point · Pyramids in Louisiana · The Austronesian Expansion · The Longest Open-Ocean Voyage · What Makes “A People?”
The world in 1700 BCE was a tapestry of diverse cultures. Many people were living in small nomadic communities and many people were living in giant empires. It was the height of what historians refer to as the Bronze Age. We will take a world tour to the Shang Dynasty in China, the Minoans on the island of Crete in the Mediterranean, the Kerma civilization in Sudan, Poverty Point in the United States, and the Austronesian Expansion across Islands Southeast Asia. We’ll see pools of wine, volcanoes, minotaurs, shipwrecks, ringing rocks, epic ocean voyages, and pyramids in North America!
We start in China as the, possibly mythical, Xia Dynasty ends with the corrupt Emperor Jie.
We get the story of the corrupt, depraved King Jie and his pool of wine from the Lienü Zhuan (Exemplary Women of Early China). This was written during the Han Dynasty by a scholar named Liu Xiang. Interestingly very similar stories are told about Shang dynasty King King Zhou Xin.
The Shang Dynasty.
The script on the oracle bones is related to modern Chinese scripts.
Transfer of a dynasty and the Mandate of Heaven.
Was this Mediterranean volcano the cause of the weather disruptions referenced in the Bamboo Annals?
This time period also saw the height of Minoan civilization on the island of Crete, the island later believed by the Greeks, to be the birthplace of Zeus.
Shipwreck carrying goods from all over the bronze age world.
Scientists use ice cores and tree rings to date the Volcano. Here is a news article covering the same info.
The iconic Minoan frescos are found as far as Egypt.
Their script, linear A, is remains mostly undeciphered.
The culture seems to center around a giant palace at Knossos.
Like many other “myths”the world over, the story of King Minos and the Minotaur has threads of historical reality woven through it.
The Mycenaeans used the writing system of the Minoans to write there own language. This is referred to as Linear B.
Kingdom of Kerma in Nubia.
Ancient rock art in Sudan shows cattle played a vital role in ancient Nubian cultures.
Copper use in Kerma.
Many pictures of the Deffufas of Kerma here. The Deffufas likely served as the religious centers of the city.
Watch beginning at 5:30 to see the rock gongs. Another video of rock gongs - these are in Nigeria.
During these same years over in what’s now the United States, a group of people constructed Poverty Point, a series of earthen works we still don’t understand fully.
Poverty Point is a UNESCO world heritage site.
The largest of the works at Poverty Point is the pyramid known as Mound A.
New studies shed light on the engineering of the mounds.
Clay balls were used to heat underground ovens. These “Poverty Point Objects” or PPOs are the only artifact that seems to have traveled away from Poverty Point.
The last event we looked at was the world changing Austronesian expansion out of Taiwan.
The Austronesian Language family covers half the globe.
The voyage from Luzon to the Mariana Islands was the longest trip out of sight of land humans had ever taken.
Ancient paintings of sea turtles in the Mariana Islands.
Within the larger Austronesian geographical area, a smaller area becomes known as the Lapita culture.
Among other principle artifacts, they are known for their red slip pottery. Other examples here.
Two neat tools for comparing country sizes. We are so incorrectly programed by our flat maps!
Dive Deeper
Browse the main books, articles, lectures, and interviews we relied on to make this episode.
Nature, “Discovery of a Tsunami Deposit from the Bronze Age Santorini Eruption at Malia (Crete): Impact, Chronology, Extension”
Publication Name, “Ancient DNA Sheds Light on the Peopling of the Mariana Islands”
Science Direct, “Copper at Ancient Kerma: A Diachronic Investigation of Alloys and Raw Materials”
Southeastern Archeology, “Multi-method Geoarchaeological Analyses Demonstrates Exceptionally Rapid Construction of Ridge West 3 at Poverty Point”
Tides of History, “Human Sacrifice, Oracle Bones, and Shang China: Interview with Professor Rod Campbell”
Tides of History, “Ancient Nubia and the Kingdom of Kush Interview With-Dr. Geoff Emberling”
Tides of History, “The Polynesians and the Pacific: Interview with Professor Patrick Vinton Kirch”
The Ancients, “The Legacy of the Minoans”
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Episodes
- Jan 24, 2023 Hour 1 | 3,300,000 - 4000 BCE
- Jan 23, 2023 Hour 2 | 4000 - 1700 BCE
- Jan 22, 2023 Hour 3 | 1700 - 1200 BCE
- Jan 21, 2023 Hour 4 | 1200 - 800 BCE
- Jan 20, 2023 Hour 5 | 800 - 575 BCE
- Jan 19, 2023 Hour 6 | 575 - 480 BCE
- Jan 1, 2023 Season 2
