00:00 China's late Neolithic societies experienced extreme social differences, leading to the rise of the state and the invention of civilization.

04:13 China's influence on the eastern part of Eurasia is crucial to understanding the agricultural systems, political ideologies, and cultural origins of the region, despite the fact that China was not a unified state during the Neolithic and Bronze Age.

08:20 The rivers in China, particularly the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers, played a crucial role in the development of Neolithic cultures, including the domestication of plants and animals, population expansions, and the origins of major language families in East and Southeast Asia, while also presenting significant risks and disruptions due to flooding and shifts in climate.

12:18 By around 3000 BC, the Neolithic societies along the Yellow and Yangtze rivers in China experienced rapid population growth, the proliferation of settlements, the emergence of elites and political units, and the development of more sophisticated settlement hierarchies, marking the late Neolithic and New Age.

16:44 In China's late Neolithic period, there was a significant increase in social differentiation, with some people being treated differently based on factors such as ancestry, tasks performed, ethnic origin, and gender, leading to visible differences in burials, settlements, and access to resources.

21:06 Human sacrifice was a common practice in the Shang dynasty, as evidenced by the thousands of people sacrificed for ritual purposes and the archaeological evidence, which suggests that these sacrifices were part of heavily ritualized building and foundation rituals.

25:11 The burial customs in ancient China varied across different regions, with elaborate graves for the elite and nothing for the majority of the population, indicating social differentiation and the chasm between rulers and ruled in the emergence of China's first states.

30:06 States in ancient China were not just a result of evolution in a single region, but rather a product of developments in multiple places, with late Neolithic society being more extensive and complex than previously thought, and the collapse of these societies led to the emergence of the precursors of the later Chinese state.

34:11 Large fortified sites like Towsi in ancient China were highly stratified, with distinct divisions between the elite and commoners, and their layout and structures were likely designed to legitimize the rulers' authority through their association with astronomy, ritual, and ancestral rulers.

38:17 The large fortified sites in ancient China eventually declined and disappeared, possibly due to flooding and internal conflicts, marking the end of the first age of China's states.