Recent comments in /f/history

felplanhalva t1_ir0qwml wrote

Reply to comment by BarKnight in Gold coins hidden in 7th Century found in wall by BarKnight

Oh there is. Most of the structures we find (note: find, we find new sites every year) are buried underground because of dirt accumulation and natural growth of nature.

Not even the Great Sphinx, which is massive, was above ground. Even some pyramids in Egypt had to be excavated.

We find new things every year, even in Egypt (one of the most researched sites in the world).

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pheisenberg t1_ir0qq86 wrote

Reply to Bronze Age China - Shang dynasty [1600 ~ 1045 BC] by gimhae_pyeongya

According to John Kay, the Shang were one polity of many in that day. They weren’t a unified state yet, they were a collection of allied settlements bound by family ties and ritual. There were other settlements of different communities interspersed with Shang sites, perhaps similar to how 5th century Britain was spotted with ex-Roman, Anglo-Saxon, and Norse villages.

But Kay also says Chinese writing today traces back to the Shang writing system, as well as some other cultural elements such as bronze working. So they were especially influential, if arguably not quite “Chinese” yet.

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