Shang Dynasty
The Shang Dynasty is seen as the beginning of China's Dynastic Period, they were the successor state to the Xia Dynasty which established itself as the first kingdom in china. The Shang Ruled from approximately 1760 - 1122 B.C.E. though the exact time frame is still debated heavily. The earliest known Chinese writing was found on "Oracle Bones" throughout the Shang Dynasty's former territory. Bronze works from the Shang are still being excavated to this day and are considered sophisticated for their time.
The exact extent of the Shang Dynasty's territory is debated heavily. New excavations are challenging the current theories of their maximal extent; what is known for sure is that their Kingdom encompassed a large portion of the Chinese plains and heavily concentrated around the Huang He River (Yellow River).
The largest and most likely final "permanent" capital was Located in Yin, in the vicinity of the modern city of Anyang; the city was founded by Pan Geng in roughly 1400 B.C.E.
The principle supporting crops for this vast kingdom were millet and rice which had spread into the region around 3,000 B.C.E.
The Shang Dynasty fell at their defeat to their former vassal the Zhou in 1122 B.C.E at the battle of Chaoge; sparking the beginning of the Zhou dynasty.
Notes:
This project took a LOT longer than I had originally thought, I had to do a ton of research into the names of the excavations as well as the issue of the border dispute. There are nearly 10 different leading theories as to their maximal extent, hence I put some of the southern and western borders in dashed lines representing the unknown status of the region.
I really enjoyed making this historically accurate map because of the immense difference in time that's occurred since then. 1700 B.C.E. was 3,700 years ago and how far we've progressed since these Bronze Age kingdoms.
This map was inspired by cyowari 's fantastic map Link Here
This map was completed in 10th of May
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Originally Posted by Voolf
