The Ancient City

The Ancient City

The Ancient City

• Reading: Flanagan Ch 2

Why study historic cities?

• Gives us examples of cities other then our own

• Brings us to consider the fundamentals of what makes a city

Emergence of Urban Form

• Connected to transition of humans from hunting & gathering to settled agricultural life

Emergence of Urban Form

• Settled agricultural life:

• Old world: begins c. 10,000 years ago (YBP)
• New world: begins 2,000 YPB

Emergence of Urban Form

• Old World:

• 5,300-5,500 YBP Mesopotamia, Indus valley

• New World:

• 1,700 YBP

First Cities

• Mesopotamia: Southern Iraq, Tigris & Euphrates rivers: Ur,

• Indus valley: Harrapa, Mohenjo-Daro etc.,

First Cities

• Cities emerge after long pre-urban period of settled agricultural life

• Cities emerge before writing

Exception: Catal Huyuk

• urban almost 10,000 YBP

• pre-agricultural

• 5-10,000 population

• based on mining and trade in obsidian

First Cities

• Very rapid emergence of sophisticated urban civilizations

• writing
• complex buildings
• skilled craftsmen
• luxury items
• long-distance trade

First Cities

• Small by modern standards

• 10,000 was a big one

• Ancient monster cities:

• Classical Athens: 300,000
• Classical Rome: 650,000

Why were they so small?

• Large cities require:

• large empire to feed and supply them
• complex, but effective organization
• significant military forces

World Urban Population

First Cities

• Distinguished by urban forms of social organization

• numerous people in specialised non-rural occupations
• social stratification & differences in status
• emergence of urban social organization

First Cities

• Key issue is urban social organization

• Can be fairly rural in setting:

• Mayan cities

First Cities

• Stark social contrasts:

• god-King, priest
• craftsmen
• slaves

First Cities

• Places where power was projected

• social
• religious
• military
• economic

• Connected with monumental structures

• helped to project the power?

• Giza

• Bayon, Cambodia

First Cities

• Connected to the emergence of states

• projection of political power
• urban control over rural populations

First Cities

• need to control rural territories

• obtain food, slaves
• collect “taxes”

Classical Greece

• Complex long-distance trading networks

• Expensive iron technology vital to warfare

Classical Greece

• Kings relied on wealthy farmers, merchants to provide the army

• Power of kings diminished, power fell into the hands of farmers & merchants

• Democracy

Theories of Urban Origins

• Childe theory

• Trade theory

• Wittfogel’s Hydraulic theory

• Pivot and Four Quarters

Childe Theory

• V Gordon Childe

• Technology allows

• accumulation of surpluses
• increased production

• Leads to more complex social organization

• cities

Trade Theory

• Braidwood

• Cities emerge out of complex trading routes

• Catal Huyuk

Hydraulic Theory

• Karl Wittfogel

• First cities emerge in agricultural regions dependent on irrigation

• City states developed as means of organizing irrigation schemes, agriculture

• OK in Mesoptamia, doesn’t work in Egypt

Pivot & Four Quarters

• Paul Wheatley

• Religious activity is the key factor

• Cities emerge as key control points, temple locations, centres receiving religious tributes

• Works, especially in China, Mesoamerica, but annoys the Marxists

Synoecism

• Rural area gradually evolves into an urban one

• If rural develops urban social organization

• Gradually transformed

• ancient Athens, Rome
• rural district surrounding fortified temple/refuge site

Urban Origins

• Probably many ways in which cities can emerge