Page 337 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

1U1| me Argosies
in temporary villages while the blackened ruins of the great

brick cities stood deserted. In central India some semblance of
the Meluhhan civilization survived precariously, but all connec­
tion with the west had ceased. Ships no longer sailed the Indian
Ocean between Mesopotamia and the east, and the civilized
world ended at the Straits of Hormuz.

Some 2,350 miles, the distance from San Francisco to
Pittsburgh, separates Memphis on the lower Nile from Harappa

on the upper Indus. Approximately the same distance, in the

A BRONZE VESSEL OF THE SHANG DYNASTY, OF THE TYPE KNOWN AS
“hsien.” it is a double vessel, a “steamer”; THE TRIPOD BASE,
STANDING OVER THE FIRE, WOULD BE FILLED WITH WATER, AND THE
STEAM, RISING THROUGH THE PERFORATED BOTTOM, WOULD COOK
THE FOOD PLACED IN THE UPPER PORTION. SIMPLER VESSELS OF POT
TERY OF THE SAME TYPE WERE MADE FOR HOUSEHOLD USE, THIS
ELABORATE BRONZE VERSION WOULD BE USED TO PREPARE CEREMO­
NIAL MEALS FOR ANCESTOR SPIRITS.