Cities of the World: Regional Patterns and Urban Environments, Seventh Edition by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

HISTORICAL EVOLUTION

What is past is prologue: Understanding the past helps explain how present-day urban patterns came to be. Perhaps no other geographical region in the world presents such long-standing connections with urbanism as the region commonly referred to as the Middle East. Solidly anchored in the tricontinental junction known as the Fertile Crescent are the roots of the Western city. Our word “urban” still carries the names of the world’s first truly urban places, Ur and Uruk, in southern Mesopotamia. These early settlements, dating from at least five millennia BCE, offered protection, security, and the ability to trade and control resources. Ideas about urban development and planning originated here and spread as byproducts of commerce and conquest, along with other innovations, such as writing and recordkeeping systems. The world’s second oldest urban hearth, the Nile River valley, also lies in this region.

As small settlements in the Fertile Crescent and the Nile valley grew into city states, their growth was stimulated by social stratification and the production, storage, and distribution of agricultural surpluses. Cities were distinguished from the countryside by offering the best life had to offer, at least for powerful elites and their clients. The oldest cities in the world, though most often classified as proto-urban, were born during the Neolithic period. They are all associated with the beginnings of agriculture. Their locations form a triangle with one vertex in Iraq, one in Palestine, and one in Turkey. In lower Mesopotamia (the “land between the rivers”) were the cities of Ur, Uruk, Eridu, Kish, and others. As truly urban places, they emerged in the fourth millennium BCE. They were the largest cities in the world until the rise of Babylon. Only archaeological tells remain, but these forerunners of the modern Middle Eastern city set off a chain reaction in urban innovation that continues to this day. Earlier than this, however, in Palestine, on the other side of the Fertile Crescent, ancient Jericho boasted a wall and watchtower as early as nine millennia BCE. Deep within an arid rift valley, this “city of palms” is located next to a gushing spring, not far from the wadi (riverbed), which brings runoff from the Judean Hills into the sun-drenched Jordan River Valley. On the Anatolian plateau, just to the north of the Fertile Crescent, stands the excavated city of Çatal Höyük, which dates to about 6500 BCE. It was located on a small river in the Konya Plain, today a rather desolate area of Turkey. It had an estimated 50,000 inhabitants, and in its day was probably one of the largest and most sophisticated settlements in the world because of the successful domestication of wheat and other staples. Çatal Höyük, Jericho, and Ur all illustrate how civilization and urbanization evolved hand in hand.

The Iranian Plateau and the Mediterranean basin gave birth to indigenous empires that were some of the world’s earliest. The Sumerians developed advanced irrigation systems and the first forms of writing. The exquisite art and monumental architecture of the Egyptians is unparalleled.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.