The Dawn of History in China
Tides of History
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Introduction
In the middle of the second millennium b c, societies in what is now china entered the bronze age. Less important than metal working itself was the drastic increase in scale that went along with this. Bigger cities, more powerful elites and direct forerunners of the dynasties ruled in times covered by written documents. And everything stretching for huge distances around it, would serve for ritual sacrifices to the ruler's ancestors. The men held the clay mould steady, their faces beaded with sweat from the infernal heat inside the workshop,. They waited while their compatriots slowly took the crucible full ofm bronze away from the blazing fire.
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