1. Cities and Civilization

2. Earliest urban “hearths”
Turkey
Mesopotamia
Egypt
Indus Valley
Yellow River valley, China
Mesoamerica
Andean America
E. and S. Africa BC BC AD AD

4. Simplified version

5. Diffusion of urbanism
By urbanism we mean a way of life, a set of institutions, a kind of social organization
Invented various times and places
Diffused from each of these places to other places

6. Civi… Civic, civilization, civilize, city, civility
These English words reflect the long association between ideas of urban life and a refinement of thought and behavior
All derive from Latin
Rulers of the Roman Empire saw city building as the way to spread civilization

7. What is the essence of this?
Socio-spatial dialectic
People are shaped by their environments
People shape their environments
By living in a “world of strangers” where people have varied roles
Individuals have the opportunity to broaden their worldview and refine their awareness of themselves and the world
Knowledge and artistic expression is developed farther than is possible in rural society
Urban culture is a distinct kind of culture wherever it occurs, although it also varies from place to place
Sometimes urban culture and society is called “urbanism”

8. Civil-izing viewed in retrospect
Urban life does not necessarily uplift the human spirit
The city becomes a second wilderness with its own predators & prey
Culture distracts and titillates us as often as it uplifts us
As we adapt to “second nature” we forget about our dependence on “first nature”

9. What does this sculpture “tell” us?
Found in excavation of Teotihuacan
Says two things about the division of labor
Says something about cultural development
Labor specialization leads to the development of skills as varied as stone-carving and acrobatic performance

10. Original Social Hierarchy in City
TINY MINORITY
God-King
Priests (doubled as administrators)
Technicians (e.g. surveyors, engineers)
Artisans & performers
Merchants
MAJORITY
Subjects (mostly peasant farmers)
Conquered peoples
Slaves

11. Purpose of the city?
The city was invented not once but many times, and served various needs
Defense against outsiders
An immediate concern of agriculturalists surrounded by pastoralists and other less sedentary peoples
Defense of property as much as of life
Ceremonial Center
Monumental architecture
Residences of priests and scribes
Place for conducting periodic ceremonies and rituals
Management of resources
Creation of irrigation systems, granaries, etc.
Collection of taxes/tribute for distribution to members of the court (sometimes after sacrifice to the gods)
Distribution of stored food to subjects in times of famine

12. Characteristics of Early Cities
Early cities emerge at different times in different places (meaning of “early” varies)
Populations ranging from a few thousand to more than 100,000, but generally in the 7,000-20,000 range
Generally have Citadel with monumental architecture (temples, palaces)
Often surrounded by a city wall
Often have some form of record-keeping

13. Defensive Sites

14. “Pueblo Bonito” Chaco Canyon, NM
Built in stages beginning around 919 AD by the “Anasazi” people
5 stories in height along back wall, up to 600 rooms in use
occupants?
Access to rooms through central courtyard, which contained two great religious gathering places called kivas and was lined by over 35 smaller kivas

15. Mesa Verde, Colorado Early city or fortified village?
Largest cliff dwelling (Cliff Palace) had room for only people
Essentially a village

16. Mesa Verde

17. Urbillum, Irbil, Erbil, Arbela, Arabilu
Under control of Sumerians, Persians, Macedonians, Ottoman Empire, Kurds & Iraq
Site continuously occupied for 8,000 years (underground water source)
Has been a city for 4,300 years!
Enormous “tell” has not yet been excavated

18. Defensive elements
“Protection” of Neolithic villagers may have been akin to blackmail (Lewis Mumford)
Eventually, however, the village with a hunter at the heart might grow and evict or incorporate neighboring people
The city tended toward empire from its earliest days

19. Assyrian conquest, 9th c. BC
Women and children celebrate outside their walled-city as the dead float by
City has always required defending
Perhaps people were not psychologically and culturally prepared for the regimentation and social stress of urban life; they took out suppressed aggression on other groups

20. Assyrians taking captives from a 9th c
Assyrians taking captives from a 9th c. BC engraving (source: Society of Ancients:

21. Carcassonne: a medieval walled city
Old Roman foundations, new construction from 11th c.
Permanent population remained small: 9,500 by 14th c.
Also see virtual Carcassonne on the web at

22. Carcassonne
Outer wall
Main gate
castle
Inner wall

23. An Intimidating Approach

24. Between the Walls

25. Mont Saint-Michel
France

26. Cosmo-Magical Order
Paul Wheatley argues that knowledge of weather and climate was considered part of religion, and priests or god-kings became important figures at the center of an agriculturally-based urban society
Regular “grid-iron” layout was not originally designed for practical purposes
Cities like Teotihuacan, Roman colonies, and China’s Forbidden City were aligned with the cardinal directions (axially) in an attempt to make them eternal and powerful
The city, especially the citadel, was believed to be the center of the universe and axiality demonstrated that idea visually

27. The “Citadel” Found in many early cities Takes various forms
A compound of grandiose structures, often walled off from rest of city
Functioned as:
place of ceremony
home for semi-divine leaders and their “court”
storage place for food reserves

28. “Mohenjo-Daro” (mound of the dead)
Harappan culture (Indus valley, in what is now Pakistan)
Peak around 2000 BC
About 35,000 residents
Assembly halls, giant granary, towers, and cistern (bath?) in the citadel
Planned
Axial layout
Covered sewers

29. Harappan cities (artist’s conception)
Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, University of Wisconsin - Madison

30. Ziggurats (Mesopotamian temples)
A place for the performance of religious ceremonies by the Mesopotamian priests, including sacrifice of animals, fruit, and even beer!

31. Mayan Temples
Place where priests carried out ritual human sacrifices of virgins, children or prisoners before throwing down the bodies

32. The Forbidden City, Beijing

33. The Forbidden City, Beijing (1420 AD)
An administrative and ceremonial center off limits to ordinary Chinese

34. “Teotihuacan” (Mexico)
Emerged as urban center around 0 AD
Lasted for more than 600 years
Influenced most of Mesoamerica
60-80,000 inhabitants
Apartment buildings, wide avenues, huge pyramids

35. “Avenue of the Dead,” Teotihuacan

36. Architectural Detail, Teotihuacan

37. Karl Wittfogel’s hydraulic civilization model
Semi-arid river valleys of Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Indus and the Yellow River all “rewarded” irrigation
To achieve effective irrigation required coordination of crews to dig canals, clear waterways, keep track of field boundaries, etc.
Cities grew in these areas because the environment enabled city building and constrained population growth in the absence of social organization

38. Karl Wittfogel’s hydraulic civilization model
Agricultural surplus fed non-farmers, making labor specialization possible
Tool-makers
Laborers
Farmers
“engineers”
Record keepers (scribes)
Supreme leader (Pharaoh)
Did this encourage the rise of despotic leaders as part of the political culture in these area, as Wittfogel argues?

39. In short The origins of the city suggest what the city became:
A place of specialized roles, knowledge and creativity
Human endeavors from religion to engineering and everything in between
A particular kind of culture “urbanism”
The earliest cities had elements that most cities no longer have
Defensive perimeter (wall)
Citadel: religious and governmental buildings clustered together
Layout reflecting spatial symbolism of a “cosmo-magical order”