Jade Cong

00:05:11
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld8kHvz1yN4

Résumé

TLDRThe video discusses the origins of history, emphasizing that it begins with writing and the significance of the Neolithic Revolution, which occurred around 10,000 BCE. This period marked a shift from hunter-gatherer lifestyles to settled agricultural societies, allowing for stability and the eventual development of writing around 3,000 BCE in various cultures. The Liangzhu culture in China is highlighted for its advanced jade craftsmanship, particularly the cong and bi objects, which are believed to hold symbolic meanings related to power and spirituality. The conversation reflects on the challenges of interpreting these artifacts due to the absence of written records, suggesting that they may represent early human attempts to understand their relationship with nature and the cosmos.

A retenir

  • 📜 History begins with writing.
  • 🌾 The Neolithic Revolution transformed human society.
  • 🏞️ Early civilizations emerged in river valleys.
  • 🪨 Liangzhu culture is known for exquisite jade artifacts.
  • 🔍 Interpretation of preliterate cultures is challenging.
  • 🌌 Jade objects may symbolize power and spirituality.
  • 🌱 Agriculture allowed for stable communities.
  • 🛠️ Nephrite jade is extremely hard to work with.
  • 🔄 Cong and bi shapes may represent Earth and heavens.
  • 🧠 Artifacts reflect human attempts to understand nature.

Chronologie

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:11

    Dr. Zucker and Dr. Harris discuss the origins of history, emphasizing that it begins with writing, marking the transition from prehistoric to historic cultures. They explore the Neolithic Revolution, which began around 10,000 BCE, when humans transitioned from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to settled agricultural societies due to advancements in farming and animal domestication. This period allowed for greater stability and control over nature, leading to the development of early civilizations in various river valleys, including Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and China. Dr. Harris highlights the Liangzhu culture in China, known for its sophisticated jade objects, particularly cong and bi, which were found in graves but lack written records, leaving their meanings open to interpretation. The discussion touches on the craftsmanship of these jade objects, their symbolic significance, and the potential connections to later Chinese cultural symbols, though the exact meanings remain speculative.

Carte mentale

Vidéo Q&R

  • What marks the beginning of history?

    History begins with writing.

  • What is the Neolithic Revolution?

    The Neolithic Revolution refers to the transition from hunter-gatherer societies to settled agricultural communities around 10,000 BCE.

  • Where did early civilizations develop?

    Early civilizations developed in great river valleys, such as Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and China.

  • What is the Liangzhu culture known for?

    The Liangzhu culture is known for its sophisticated jade objects, particularly cong and bi.

  • What materials did the Liangzhu people use for their objects?

    They used nephrite jade, which is extremely hard and difficult to carve.

  • What do the jade objects from Liangzhu represent?

    The jade objects likely represent faces and may symbolize power, nature, and spiritual beliefs.

  • Why is it difficult to interpret the meanings of Liangzhu artifacts?

    There are no traces of writing from the Liangzhu culture, making interpretations speculative.

  • What is the significance of the shapes of cong and bi?

    Some scholars suggest that the shapes may symbolize Earth and the heavens.

  • What challenges do historians face when studying preliterate cultures?

    Historians face challenges due to the lack of written records, leading to reliance on artifacts and theories.

  • How did the Neolithic Revolution change human society?

    It allowed humans to control nature through agriculture, leading to stable communities and the development of civilization.

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Sous-titres
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Défilement automatique:
  • 00:00:00
    (jazz music)
  • 00:00:06
    Dr. Zucker: Where does history begin?
  • 00:00:07
    Dr. Harris: History begins with writing.
  • 00:00:09
    That's how we use the term "prehistoric", before writing.
  • 00:00:12
    Dr. Zucker: But of course we're not satisfied
  • 00:00:13
    with only knowing literate cultures.
  • 00:00:16
    We want to push back further and understand
  • 00:00:18
    the cultures that are preliterate.
  • 00:00:20
    In order to invent writing, you have to have a society,
  • 00:00:23
    you have to have some stability.
  • 00:00:25
    We find that at the end of the neolithic period.
  • 00:00:27
    Dr. Harris: The neolithic period begins
  • 00:00:29
    around 10,000 BCE, when we have human beings
  • 00:00:33
    who can settle down because they've figured out
  • 00:00:36
    how to domesticate animals, they figured out
  • 00:00:38
    how to farm, how to raise crops, and that brings
  • 00:00:41
    some stability.
  • 00:00:42
    They don't have to live
  • 00:00:43
    a hunter-gatherer existence anymore.
  • 00:00:45
    Dr. Zucker: This is known as the Neolithic Revolution.
  • 00:00:48
    Dr. Harris: And it really was a revolution.
  • 00:00:49
    It completely changed human beings' way
  • 00:00:52
    of relating to nature.
  • 00:00:54
    We could, for the first time, control nature
  • 00:00:56
    to some degree.
  • 00:00:57
    Dr. Zucker: This takes place after the end
  • 00:00:58
    of the last ice age and it may have to do
  • 00:01:01
    with the environment becoming more hospitable.
  • 00:01:03
    We see this Neolithic Revolution in areas
  • 00:01:06
    all over the world that were disassociated
  • 00:01:08
    from each other.
  • 00:01:09
    Dr. Harris: Sometime around 3,000,
  • 00:01:13
    many of those cultures also developed writing.
  • 00:01:15
    Dr. Zucker: Writing is seen as one of the hallmarks
  • 00:01:17
    of civilization and we see the development
  • 00:01:20
    of what we recognize as civilization.
  • 00:01:22
    That is, early cities, farming techniques, writing,
  • 00:01:26
    developing in the great river valleys around the world.
  • 00:01:30
    Most famously, in Egypt, in Mesopotamia,
  • 00:01:33
    in the Indus Valley, and in China.
  • 00:01:35
    Dr. Harris: There are several areas in China
  • 00:01:38
    that had sophisticated neolithic culture.
  • 00:01:41
    One in particular is called Liangzhu.
  • 00:01:43
    This culture developed around what is today Shanghai
  • 00:01:47
    and Yangzi River.
  • 00:01:48
    Dr. Zucker: Right at the delta of the Yangzi River.
  • 00:01:50
    Dr. Harris: Just like Egypt developed right around
  • 00:01:51
    the delta of the Nile and ancient Mesopotamia developed
  • 00:01:55
    between the Tigris and Euphrates River.
  • 00:01:57
    It made sense.
  • 00:01:58
    These were places where you could irrigate crops.
  • 00:02:01
    Dr. Zucker: In fact, the Liangzhu people seemed
  • 00:02:03
    to have become expert rice growers and were able
  • 00:02:06
    to create a surplus, which allowed them not to worry
  • 00:02:09
    about eating, not to worry about feeding themselves.
  • 00:02:12
    It allowed at least certain elements of society
  • 00:02:14
    to begin to develop in more sophisticated ways.
  • 00:02:17
    Dr. Harris: Liangzhu culture was especially known
  • 00:02:19
    for producing beautiful jade objects,
  • 00:02:22
    specifically something that we call cong.
  • 00:02:24
    Square, hollow tubes that are decorated with lines
  • 00:02:30
    and sometimes circles that represent faces.
  • 00:02:33
    Some of them are short and some of them seem
  • 00:02:35
    to be stacks that are quite tall and we're looking,
  • 00:02:38
    actually, at several examples here at the
  • 00:02:40
    British Museum.
  • 00:02:41
    Dr. Zucker: These were found in graves.
  • 00:02:43
    Sometimes there were many cong in graves.
  • 00:02:46
    There were also objects called bi.
  • 00:02:48
    These are round disks, also with holes in the center.
  • 00:02:51
    We have no idea what any of this means.
  • 00:02:54
    This is a culture where we have found no traces
  • 00:02:56
    of writing.
  • 00:02:57
    It's possible that they were preliterate or it's possible
  • 00:03:00
    that they wrote on a material that didn't survive,
  • 00:03:03
    but the result is all of the ideas that surround
  • 00:03:05
    these objects are theories.
  • 00:03:07
    Dr. Harris: Because they clearly represent faces,
  • 00:03:09
    whether they're monster faces or animal faces
  • 00:03:12
    or human faces, this clearly meant something.
  • 00:03:15
    Dr. Zucker: And there's a great degree of regularity
  • 00:03:17
    and specificity.
  • 00:03:18
    Now this jade is true jade, or nephrite,
  • 00:03:21
    and it is extremely hard.
  • 00:03:22
    This culture did not have tools that were harder
  • 00:03:25
    than this nephrite.
  • 00:03:27
    That is, they couldn't carve it.
  • 00:03:28
    Dr. Harris: You can't incise into it.
  • 00:03:30
    You can't take a knife and cut into it.
  • 00:03:32
    It's just too hard.
  • 00:03:33
    Dr. Zucker: You can't even really scratch it.
  • 00:03:35
    So when you look at these objects that are so precise,
  • 00:03:38
    it's almost impossible to imagine
  • 00:03:40
    that they were produced by rubbing sand.
  • 00:03:43
    Dr. Harris: Some of the lines are very, very fine
  • 00:03:45
    and run parallel to each other.
  • 00:03:48
    It's important to think about the care with which
  • 00:03:50
    these objects are made.
  • 00:03:52
    Dr. Zucker: They are clearly symbols.
  • 00:03:53
    There's a uniformity, there's an intentionality,
  • 00:03:56
    there's a clarity, and there is tremendous effort.
  • 00:03:59
    Though we don't speak this language, we recognize it
  • 00:04:02
    as the product of a human mind.
  • 00:04:04
    Dr. Harris: A human mind that was trying
  • 00:04:06
    to say something about power, perhaps,
  • 00:04:10
    about our relationship to nature,
  • 00:04:13
    about the spiritual world, about what happens
  • 00:04:16
    after death.
  • 00:04:17
    The kinds of questions that human beings ask
  • 00:04:19
    all the time still.
  • 00:04:20
    Their verticality, the repetition of these parallel lines,
  • 00:04:25
    it's hard not to think about these in relationship
  • 00:04:27
    to issues of power.
  • 00:04:29
    Dr. Zucker: Some scholars have suggested
  • 00:04:31
    that the rectilinear quality of the cong is a symbol
  • 00:04:34
    for Earth.
  • 00:04:35
    That the round interior is a symbol of the heavens,
  • 00:04:38
    of the sky, of the sun.
  • 00:04:40
    These are symbols that develop later in China
  • 00:04:43
    and it's very seductive to link this neolithic culture
  • 00:04:47
    with later bronze age cultures.
  • 00:04:49
    Dr. Harris: To read that definition back into time,
  • 00:04:52
    it's definitely tempting.
  • 00:04:53
    Dr. Zucker: It is possible that this is the origin
  • 00:04:56
    of those symbols, but we can't really know.
  • 00:04:58
    (jazz music)
Tags
  • history
  • Neolithic Revolution
  • writing
  • Liangzhu culture
  • jade objects
  • civilization
  • agriculture
  • prehistoric
  • artifacts
  • symbolism