Ancient history week 3a

Ancient History- Week 3

After the Tower of Babel, some of the people crossed over the mountains into China. Because of the difficulty of the trip, many did not cross over after them.

The group of people married among themselves and became a strong race. The Chinese culture is

one of the oldest pure ancient civilizations that exists.

Because it was isolated from the rest of the world, they have a very distinct culture

of art, writing, music and living.

The Chinese ruled by

dynasties. It is a family who

obtains powers and keeps it,

sometimes for centuries.

One of the first dynasties was the Xia Dynasty. They ruled for 400-500 years.

The next ruling dynasty was the Shang Dynasty.

A lot more is known about them.

They started written language—very different

from ours.

They had 50,000 characters in their alphabet! Can you

imagine singing that song?

They used bronze and had horses to drive chariots.

They began the making of silk after finding the

silkworm.

They kept this silk secret for over 3,000 years. They used this secret for trading with other countries.

In the ancient times, people built Ziggurats as temples and

places of worship.

In Egypt, there was a king named Khufu. He decided to build a pyramid.

A pyramid was the size of 10 football fields and as tall as a 40 story building.

Most were built along the Nile River.

It was a monumental accomplishment to build the first Great Pyramids.

It took lots of work by many, many people.

The Pyramids are one of the 7 wonders of the world today!

The Kings and Queens built these pyramids because they didn’t understand the afterlife.

They believed they needed to preserve themselves as best as possible at death in order to experience a good afterlife.

They “took” many possessions with them including slaves and animals!

The Pyramids had burial chambers

for the kings and their treasures

Inside the pyramids were small chambers for the bodies. Secret passages led there to reduce the chance of robbery