DBQ Sources: Early Complex Societies
WORLD HISTORY PROJECTORIGINS/ LESSON 3.5ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: EARLY COMPLEX SOCIETIESUnless otherwise noted, this work is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Credit: “DBQ Sources:Early Complex Societies”, OER Project, https://www.oerproject.com/1PurposeUse a variety of primary and secondary sources to deepen your understanding ofthe impact of early complex societies.ProcessAnalyze the following sources. If you are using these sources to respond to an essay prompt, you should underlineor highlightany evidence that will support your claim. You can also use theQuick Sourcing Tool.Document 1Source:Standard of Ur, found in a royal tomb in southern Mesopotamia, c. 2600–2300 BCE. The top image is the “Peace” side while the bottom image is the “War” side. Public domain.
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT ORIGINS / LESSON 3.5ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: EARLY COMPLEX SOCIETIES2Document 2When the god Marduk sent me to rule over men, to give the protection of right to the land, I did right ... and brought about the well-being of the oppressed ...5. If a judge try a case, reach a decision, and present his judgment in writing; if later error shall appear in his decision,and it be through his own fault, then he shall pay twelve times the fine set by him in the case, and he shall be publicly removed from the judge’s bench, and never again shall he sit there to render judgment.6. If any one steal the property of a temple or of the court, he shall be put to death, and also the one who receives the stolen thing from him shall be put to death ...22. If any one is committing a robbery and is caught, then he shall be put to death ...196. If a man put the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out ...Source:“The Code of Hammurabi.” Translated by L.W. King. Yale Law School, Lillian Goldman Law Library, 2008. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/ancient/hamframe.asp. Hammurabi was a Mesopotamian king who ruled over the Old Babylonian Empire from 1792 to 1750 BCE. The Code of Hammurabi is one of the oldest legal codes in the world.
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT ORIGINS / LESSON 3.5ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: EARLY COMPLEX SOCIETIES3Document 3See for yourself with your own eye. The occupations lie before you.The washerman’s day is going up, going down. All his limbs are weak, [from] whitening his neighbors’ clothes every day, from washing their linen.The maker of pots is smeared with soil. ... His hands, his feet are full of clay; he is like one who lives in the bog. ...The watchman ... spends a night of toil just as one on whom the sun shines.The merchants travel downstream and upstream. They are as busy as can be, carrying goods from one two to another. They supply him who has wants. ...The carpenter who is in the shipyard carries the timber and stacks. If he gives today the output of yesterday, woe to his limbs! The shipwright stands behind him to tell him evil things. His outworker who is in the fields, his is the toughest of all the jobs.He spends the day loaded with his tools, tied to his tool box. When he returns home at night, he is loaded with the tool box and the timbers, his drinking mug, and his whetstones.The scribe, he alone, records the output of all of them.Source:Lichtheim, Miriam. Ancient Egyptian Literature: A Book of Readings, Volume II: The New Kingdom. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976. This anonymous Egyptian text known as the Papyrus Lansing was written between 1350 and 1200 BCE. This document served as both a text for student scribes to practice copying and an encouragement of their choice of profession.
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT ORIGINS / LESSON 3.5ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: EARLY COMPLEX SOCIETIES4Document 4In the twelfth month of the first year ... Yi Yin sacrificed to the former king, and presented the heir-king reverently before the shrine of his grandfather. ...He said, “Oh! Of old the former kings of Xia worked hard at their goodness, and then there were no calamities from Heaven. The spirits of the hills and rivers alike were all in peacefulness; and the birds and beasts ... all enjoyed their existence according to their nature. But their descendant did not follow their example, and great Heaven sent down calamities ... Our king of Shang brilliantly displayed his skillfulness; for abuse he substituted his generous gentleness, and the millions of people gave him their hearts. Now your Majesty is entering on the inheritance of his goodness; all depends on how you begin your reign. To set up love, it is for you to love your relations; to set up respect, it is for you to respect your elders. The beginning is the family and the state ... Source:The Sacred Books of China, The Texts of Confucianism. Translated by James Legge. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1885. This is part of the Classic of History, a collection of documents that include both Chinese history and legend from 2357 to 731 BCE. The excerpt below was originally written during the Zhou Dynasty (1046–256 BCE) and describes advice given by government minister Yi Yin to a young Shang Dynastyking upon the death of the new king’s father.
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT ORIGINS / LESSON 3.5ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: EARLY COMPLEX SOCIETIES5Document 52:3 The Master said, “If the people be led by laws, and uniformity sought to be given them by punishments, they will try to avoid the punishment, but have no sense of shame. If they be led by virtue ... they will have the sense of shame and moreover will become good.”2:5 Mang E asked what filial piety was. The Master said, “It is not being disobedient.”2:19 The duke Gae asked, “What should be done in order to secure the submission of the people?” Confucius replied, “Advance the upright and set aside the crooked, then the people will submit. Advance the crooked and set aside the upright, then the people will not submit.”12:2 Rang Yong asked about humaneness. The Master said, “When going abroad, treat everyone as if you were receiving a great guest; when employing the people, do so as if assisting in a great sacrifice. What you do not want for yourself, do not do to others. There should be no resentment in the state, and no resentment in the family.”Source:Legge, James, ed. The Chinese Classics: Vol. 1: Confucian Analects, the Great Learning, and the Doctrine of the Mean. London: Trubner & Co., 1861. Below are some selections from the thoughts of Confucius (c. 551–479 BCE), a Chinese philosopher. These teachings were collected by Confucius’s students and followers from c. 475 to 221 BCE.
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT ORIGINS / LESSON 3.5ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: EARLY COMPLEX SOCIETIES6Document 6At a time when the state seems pervasive and inescapable, it is easy to forget that for much of history, living within or outside the state—or in an intermediate zone—was a choice, one that might be revised as the circumstances warranted. A wealthy and peaceful state center might attract a growing population that found its advantages rewarding. This, of course, fits the standard civilizational narrative of rude barbarians mesmerized by the prosperity made possible by the king’s peace and justice—a narrativeshared by most of the world’s salvational religions ...This narrative ignores two capital facts. First, ... it appears that much, if not most, of the population of the early states was unfree; they were subjects under duress. The second fact, most inconvenient for the standard narrative of civilization, is that it was very common for state subjects to run away. Living within the state meant, virtually by definition, taxes, conscription, [forced] labor, and for most, a condition of servitude; these conditions were at the core of the state’s strategic and military advantages. When these burdens became overwhelming, subjects moved with [willingness] to the periphery or to another state. Under premodern conditions, the crowding of population, domesticated animals, and the heavy reliance on a single grain had consequences for both human and crop health that made famines and epidemics more likely. And finally, the early states were warmaking machines as well, producing hemorrhages of subjects fleeing conscription, invasion, and plunder. Source:Scott, James C. The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia. New Haven, CT: Yale University, 2009. James Scott is the Sterling Professor of Political Science and Professor of Anthropology at Yale University. He is also the co-Director of the Agrarian Studies Program at Yale.
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT ORIGINS / LESSON 3.5ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: EARLY COMPLEX SOCIETIES7Document 7Source:Fortress and pyramids at Teotihuacan, Mesoamerican city, Mexico, c. 100 BCE to 250 CE. © Getty Images.