Hello, my name is Mrs. Tipping, and I am really looking forward to learning with you today all about the earliest civilizations, the Indus and the Shang.

So shall we get started? Let's go.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to describe what archaeologists have found out about the Shang dynasty from looking at their bronze dings.

Before we start, I'd like to introduce you to some keywords.

We'll be using these keywords during the lesson, so it might be a good idea to write these words down.

The keywords we'll be using today are: ding, sacrifice, ancestor, status.

I'm going to say those again and I'd like you to repeat them after me.

Ding.

Sacrifice.

Ancestor.

Status.

Good job.

Now let's think in more detail about what these keywords mean.

Here are the definitions for each of our keywords.

A ding is an object that can hold food, be used for ceremonies or for display.

A sacrifice is something given to a god or an ancestor as an act of worship.

An ancestor is a person who was in someone's family in past times.

A person's rank or importance compared to others is their status.

Pause the video here to make a note of these keywords, and when you're ready to continue, press play.

These are the learning cycles that we'll be working through together in today's lesson.

What is a ding? What do bronze dings tell us about the Shang? In the first learning cycle, we'll explore what a ding is.

Historians know lots about the Shang dynasty.

Why do you think this is? Hmm.

Well, this is because lots of the objects that have been found have written symbols on them, which can be read.

And this is different to the written symbols on the Indus Valley Civilization, as nobody has been able to understand those yet.

Another reason why historians know so much about the Shang dynasty is that so many objects made of bronze have been found, including lots of bronze dings.

Have a look there, that photo of bronze objects that were found in a tomb.

There's quite a few of them there, isn't there? Now the dings can give historians clues about the Shang dynasty.

Dings have lots of similarities.

Have a look at these photos here of the three different bronze dings.

What similarities can you see between these different bronze dings? Have a good look.

Pause the video here, take a moment, and press play when you are ready to continue.

So looking at those similarities, well, they're all bronze, they're all highly decorated, and they have handles, legs, and a bowl shape.

So they have lots of similarities, don't they? What do you think they were used for? Hmm, that's an interesting question.

Pause the video here and have a quick discussion with your partner.

What do you think these bronze dings were used for? Press play when you are ready to continue.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding here.

Can you select all the features of bronze dings? Legs, decorated, handles, bowl shape.

So select all the features of bronze dings.

Pause the video here, select those, and then press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? What did the bronze dings have? What were their features? Well, they had legs, they were decorated, they had handles, and they were a bowl shape, so they had all of these different features.

Bronze dings were clearly very important to the people of the Shang dynasty.

Historians believed that they were used to offer food and sacrifices to the gods they believed in, or to their ancestors.

A sacrifice is something given to a god or an ancestor as an act of worship.

They could light a fire under the ding to cook the food inside it and use the handles to carry it somewhere like a temple so they could offer the food as sacrifice.

Each bronze ding is decorated differently, but the decorations are similar to each other as they usually have written symbols and the facial features of animals on them.

These do not look like any animals we know of that are real.

They might have been carved onto the bronze so that the animal face could protect the sacrifice being offered to the gods or ancestors.

So have a look there.

You can see there's an ear, some eyes, and some horns.

That doesn't quite look like an animal we recognise.

So it's a bit of an imaginary animal.

How beautiful those decorations are, and it would've taken such a long time.

Let's take a moment to pause here.

Who has told us what a ding is and who has told us what a sacrifice is? So Alex says, "An object that can hold food, used for ceremonies or for display." Izzy says, "Something given to a god or an ancestor as an act of worship." So who is telling us about a ding, Alex or Izzy? And who has told us about a sacrifice, Izzy or Alex? Pause the video here and have a think, and then press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? Well, Alex has described a ding, and Izzy has described a sacrifice.

Well done if you were able to spot those.

This brings us to our first learning task.

Can you complete this label so it could be displayed in a museum? This is a.

It is made of.

These usually have.

These were used for.

So we have a photo here of a bronze object.

I want you to complete this label so it can be displayed in a museum.

So complete each of those sentences.

So pause the video here.

Give yourself enough time to complete this label and press play when you are ready to continue.

How did that go? Shall we take a look at an example? So this is a ding.

It is made of bronze.

These usually have decorations, legs, handles, and a bowl shape.

These were used for offering food sacrifices to the gods or ancestors.

Well done for completing that learning task.

This brings us to the second part of our lesson.

We're going to take a look at what bronze dings tell us about the Shang.

Bronze is not found in the ground like some other metals.

It had to be created from heating two metals, copper and tin, and then mixing them together once they were melted.

The boiling-hot metal mixture then had to be carefully poured into a specially made mould.

Then it was left to cool down and it would form a new bronze shape when taken out of the mould.

This shows that the people of the Shang dynasty were very intelligent and skilled to be able to make bronze, which was much stronger than copper and tin.

Have a look at that illustration there.

It shows the bronze being poured into moulds.

So once the copper and tin were mixed together, when they'd been melted, they were poured into these moulds, and that made bronze.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Which is the correct explanation of how bronze is made? It is dug from the ground and carved into bronze.

Stone and metal are mixed to make bronze.

Two metals are melted together to make bronze.

So pause the video here, have a discussion with your partner.

What is the correct explanation of how bronze is made? And press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that two metals are melted together to make bronze, you are absolutely right, well done.

The people of the Shang dynasty also created very complicated moulds to pour the bronze into, to make bronze dings.

These were expensive to make, and the more dings a person owned, the richer they were.

The number of dings that someone had showed their high status.

A person's rank or importance compared to others is their status.

Someone like the king would have the most bronze dings as they had the highest status.

Look at that photo there of a bronze ding.

How intricate that mould must have been to have created that.

Look at all those different shapes on the legs, and then that detail on the handles.

Hundreds of bronze dings were found in the tomb of Fu Hao, which shows us that she was very important and had a high status too.

Remember, a person's rank or importance compared to others is their status.

Have a look there.

That's a photo of bronze dings that were found in Fu Hao's tomb.

Let's take a moment to pause here and check our understanding.

Is this statement true or false? Everyone in the Shang dynasty owned lots of bronze dings.

Is that true or false? Hmm.

What do you think? If you said that's false, you are absolutely right.

Now looking at these two statements here, which would help to justify your answer? They were very expensive and showed that the person had high status.

They were very cheap and showed that the person had a low status.

Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner.

Which of these two statements would help to justify your answer? And press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said they were very expensive and showed that the person had a high status, you are absolutely right, well done.

Making sacrifices to the gods and ancestors was very important to the people of the Shang dynasty because they believed that their ancestors watched over them and could help them in life.

Have a look there, that photo of a carving of a Shang dynasty mother spirit, so a god in which they believed in.

It was very important to the people of the Shang dynasty to remember their ancestors and keep them happy.

They would ask the ancestors to bless their decisions in life.

If the ancestors were happy, they believed this meant they would have a very good life.

You can see there a photo of a carving of a Shang dynasty ancestor.

These carvings are quite intricate, aren't they? Let's take a moment to pause here and check our understanding.

Select the missing keyword.

The Shang dynasty offered to their gods or ancestors.

So what is the missing keyword here? Is it ancestors, dings, sacrifices? Pause the video here, have a moment to think, and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said, the Shang dynasty offered sacrifices to their gods or ancestors, you are absolutely right, well done.

This brings us to our final learning task.

I'd like you to write one paragraph to describe what historians have found out about the Shang dynasty from looking at their bronze dings.

You could include these words: dings, expensive, status, religion, ancestors, sacrifices.

So there's a photo of a bronze ding.

Can you remember all that you've learned about them? And write one paragraph to describe what historians have found out about the Shang dynasty from looking at their bronze dings.

So pause the video here.

Make sure you have a pen and some paper and you give yourself enough time to write that paragraph.

And when you are ready to continue, press play.

How did that go? Were you able to include some of those words? Well, let's take a look at an example, shall we? So your answer could include: historians have found out that bronze dings were very important to the Shang dynasty.

These were expensive to make and showed that someone had a very high status if they owned lots of them.

The bronze dings were important for religion in the Shang dynasty.

They were used to cook food in and offer it as sacrifices to the gods or ancestors.

They believed that if they kept their ancestors happy, then they would have a good life.

Well done if you were able to write a paragraph with some of those ideas in there describing what historians have found out about the Shang dynasty from looking at their bronze dings.

Well done for completing that learning task.

Before we finish this lesson, let's summarise what we've learned about bronze dings.

Bronze dings were very important in the Shang dynasty and showed that a person had a high status if they owned lots of them.

The bronze dings are bowl-shaped, have legs, handles, and are decorated, often with facial features of animals and written symbols.

They were used to offer sacrifices to their gods and ancestors.

The Shang dynasty people believed that if their ancestors were kept happy, then their lives would be very good.

Thank you for joining me in this lesson today.

I hope to see you in the next one.

See you next time.