Essay on Chinese history
The role of archaeology in changing and enriching our knowledge of Chinese history is hard to overestimate. On the one hand, archaeologists and historians receive unlimited resources for their scientific research. On the other hand, common people also get access to the enigmatic world of the bygone times.
For example, the earliest Chinese vessels made of bronze tell much about the people who lived in the Yellow River valley about two thousand years before Christ. The complexity and elegance peculiar to the first simple wine cup testifies that the level of Chinese development in the second millennium B.C. was unsurpassed and seldom achieved by other cultures. The state of culture studied by other important archaeological findings proves that the first Chinese civilization culminated due to a strong centralized government. It has been also found out that the society was discretely stratified; architecture was elaborate with palaces prevailing; the system of writing was distinctive; religious rituals were numerous, and art forms were sophisticated. What is more, bronze was actively used even when the Iron Age began, and the majestic vessels made of bronze show how high technical accomplishments of the Chinese were. The vessels of exclusive beauty and complexity were applied during religious rituals and indicate wealth and honor of the Chinese rulers.
Further on, the effect of life-sized terracotta figures buried with the Qin ruler is even more petrifying and challenging our knowledge of Chinese history and art. In the second century B.C. the lands of China were united together under the leadership of the First Emperor of Qin (Wilkinson 183). The latter constructed his own mausoleum employing about 700,000 laborers, and an army of about 7,000 clay warriors were buried with the Emperor. In this way, archaeology brings to life those who lived thousands of years ago and makes them talk with us in a whisper.
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