The Shang Dynasty was the first-known advanced group of towns, cities or villages in China that were all under the same ruler and had the same religion, form of writing, and military [Thus constituting a civilisation. ] . It was located in what is now the Henan province. Everything that is known about it was discovered from multiple excavations where towns, palaces and tombs were uncovered. Although it is possible that a dynasty named Xia came before it, there is no concrete evidence that the Xia Dynasty existed, making the Shang Dynasty the first oriental civilisation that we know is not mythical.
The Shang Dynasty started in about 1600 BC and was taken over by the Zhou Dynasty in around 1050 BC. The Shang Dynasty was made up of about ten cities. Around eight of these were located along the Yellow River, while the others were along the Yangtze. The Shang capital started out in Anyang, a city southwest of what is now Beijing, but was moved to Zhengzhou in around 1100 BC. All cities were built around a central palace or temple that was elevated so that everyone could see it, with houses leading up to it on streets in
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