Urbanism
April 1
V. Gordon Childe:
The Urban Revolution
- Close relationship between city and the state, according to Childe
- 10 criteria for early states; size and large population; full-time specialists; agricultural surplus; monumental architecture; long-distance trade; writing; ruling elites and class-based; taxation; control of labour; some traits present in non-cities, and some cities don’t have these traits
- Chris Gosden and Aggregation: urbanism as a process; part of aggregation: linked to power (sacred and secular); not necessarily social inequality; competing lineages; example of Talianky, a Neolithic aggregation site on the Russian Steppe
- Catalhoyuk: 9100 to 7700 years ago; in central Turkey; farmers, but also rely on hunting animals; like Abu Hereyra and Natufian, people practice sub-floor burial; no indication of social inequality; households are the centre of production
Urbanism in Mesopotamia:
- Tigris and Euphrates rivers (modern-day Iraq); first sites agreed to be cities; structures built out of reeds and mud; fertile soils allowed for large-scale agriculture; process of urbanization begins ca. 7000 years ago; Ubaid culture; term used by archaeologists to describe this period of time, first temple centres; temple centres; region-wide belief system; control of ritual, trade, and irrigation; no settlement hierarchy
- Eridu: one of the most important temple centres; kingship was first given to the humans at this site
Urbanization in Mesopotamia:
- 6000 years ago: city-states; Uruk: the first city; 20 000 – 40 000 people (very densely populated); authority over smaller cities and towns in region; temples become massive land-holding establishments; palace (Ensi); city council (selected a new king when needed
- Cuneiform: earliest form of writing; possibly invented in Uruk itself; could be used to write several different languages; since characters represented syllables; mostly used for administrative purposes
- Hammurabi’s Code (3800 years ago): first written law code in the world; talks about perjury, robbery, marriage, adoption, ownership of slaves, costs for hiring an ox, etc.; shows authority of Mesopotamian kings
- Epic of Gilgamesh: one of the first, if not the first, works of literature; written in Cuneiform on 12 clay tablets; tells the story of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, whom God sends to humble Gilgamesh; they become friends, then Enkidu’s death leads Gilgamesh to search for eternal life
- Cylinder Seals: appear around 6000 years ago in Uruk; stone seals rolled across mud/clay; become very elaborate over time; display stories/myths/historical events
- Ruling Class: pronounced social inequality in Mesopotamia; large tombs in the cemetery at Ur
Urbanization/Ruralization
- Around 80% of the population of Mesopotamia lived in cities
- Indus Valley (Harappan) Civilization (2600 – 1900 BC): near Pakistan-India border; sites from Iran to Delhi; much larger area than Egypt or Mesopotamia; 5 large Indus Valley cities, 2/3 to be discussed in lecture
- Melluhan: sea trade between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley, documented as old as 5000 years ago; Mesopotamian texts refer to Melluhan (Indus Valley civilization) as an important trade partner
- Mohenjo Daro: 4000 – 5000 years old (starts to emerge as a major urban centre ca. 4500 years ago); largest city of the Indus; series of neighbourhoods/compounds (each neighbourhood was walled; some suggestion that each was founded at slightly different times); acropolis/citadel (westernmost mound; may have been used for public gatherings, may be some sort of wealthy lineage associated with it); 2 and 3 storey buildings; constructed public wells and toilets; both inside and outside houses; particular emphasis on trade and production of goods; elites appear to gain prestige/wealth because of their role as merchants
- Indus cities: very elaborate drainage system; thousands of years before Rome
- Chert Weights: cubical weights in gradual sizes; show up in all settlements; largest weight is 100x the weight of the smallest; may have been used for controlling trade, or collecting taxes
- Mohenjo Daro: The Great Bath: some of the earliest water tanks in the ancient world
- Harappa and Mohenjo Daro: granaries: no evidence for storage of agricultural surplus; believed to be a large public building, of unknown purpose
- Indus Valley Rulers: no evidence for monuments to elite power; no depictions of warfare; few graveyards, and graves do not contain many goods; elites distinguished through where they live, and through seals; writing system not known; appear to have access to materials to make ornaments; such as shells or beads; compounds: competing families; merchants, controlling trade and manufacture of goods; religion
- Dholavira: some structures may be interpreted as palaces; still very different from Mesopotamia or Egypt
Urbanism in China
- Xia Dynasty (3800 years ago, near the Yellow River); Erlitou seems to be the biggest of the city-states that emerged; seems to be on top of the hierarchy; acts almost like a capital; bronze-making plays a large role; site of Erlitou includes large palace complex at its core; evidence of craft production; not many people living in these cities; evidence for increasing warfare, increased trade, regional/shared ideology, and movement of people
- Shang China: capital at Anyang; territorial state; city itself still not densely populated
- Oracle Bones, writing, and bronzes; oracle bones wound up on the antiquities market, were traced back to a deposit; some of the earliest Chinese texts; used to communicate with ancestors; controlled by kings and elites
- Shang Tombs: royal tombs at Anyang; only one such tomb found unlooted; contained many artifacts, as well as human sacrifices
- Indian Ocean as conduit for people and things: sea connections between the civilizations mentioned above
Great Zimbabwe
- Sub-Saharan African state; trade with cities on Indian Ocean starting 1000 AD; wealth based on trade of gold and ivory; one of 200 of these sites; built with stone architecture; no mortar used; enclosures appear to be residences of elite lineages; no evidence for elaborate burials, or writing system; may have held between 10 000 – 20 000 people; Shadrek Chirikure and Innocent Pikiyari: enclosures are houses of successive rulers; Shona political succession; succession alternates among ruling houses; each ruler rules from own house; apartheid-like system in colonial Zimbabwe; colonial rulers believed Great Zimbabwe was built by peoples from the Middle East; this was supported using propaganda; several soapstone figures found, including one of a bird, which now appears on Zimbabwe’s flag
Urbanism in West Africa
- Bassey Andah (late 20th century); studied farming and urbanism in West Africa; critical of colonial context of archaeology in Africa; archaeology as a means of developing African consciousness; argued that towns followed a distinct African trajectory; earliest towns were local developments, and showed little evidence for social inequality, despite being densely populated
- West African Urbanism: Yoruba; Benin city; Ghana; possible emerging settlement hierarchy; process of urbanization may have begun around 3000 years ago, with the above cities emerging by the 10th century
Urbanism in the Americas:
- Caral: modern-day Peru, about 6200 years old, evidence for maize domestication; not the only such site, rather one of several; such sites often described as proto-urban
- Mesoamerica: the Olmec; settlement hierarchy organized around regal-ritual centres; control of trade; elites living there, not many non-elite residents
- Zapotec: Monte Alban (2500 years ago): transformed mountaintop; evidence for specialized administrative structures; residential areas sprawl around central area; up to 17 000 inhabitants at its peak; most cities have a sacred ceremonial precinct
- Teotihuacan Culture: large urban centre emerges approx. 2000 years ago; largest city to Mesoamerica prior to Aztec Tenochtitlan; up to 80 000 people living in it, possibly more; could have held up to 100 000 people; trade, particularly in obsidian; 2.5km route through Teotihuacan, referred to as the “Avenue of the Dead”, as named by the Aztecs; Teotihuacan was the city of the gods to the Aztecs; evidence of obsidian workshops, as well as human sacrifices, likely war captives
- Classic Maya, 250 to 900 CE: Teotihuacan leaders established some Mayan cities, such as Tikal; depopulation of the countryside; most people living in the city; possible farming in the city, based on layout
Urbanism in North America (pre-colonial):
- Cahokia (approx. 10 000 people at its height); centred around a flat-topped, 4-sided pyramid, with a central plaza; founding of Cahokia linked to ritual as well as agriculture