Back to History Shang dynasty was an aristocratic culture which waged war with the help of horse-drawn chariots and bronze weapons according to its oracle bone divination records. The Shang cities were walled with rammed earth. The rulers of Shang appear to have been shamans of a sort, entrusted with ancestor worship, which included the offering of sacrifices.
Ancestor worship is stilled continued in traditional families.
Shang dynasty also invented the first written language in China. It comprises 5,000 characters which include simple graphs, more complex signs for abstract ideas and phonetic symbols. Massive Shang graves revealed that the coffin of the deceased was accompanied by sets of ritual bronzes wrapped in silk and filled with offerings of food and wine, chariots complete with horses and drivers and, in some cases, dozens of human sacrifices. These human sacrifices are believed to be prisoners of war.