Editing City (section)

=== Ancient times ===
{{Further|Cities of the Ancient Near East|Polis|City-state|Late Antiquity#Cities}}
{{redirect|Ancient city}}
[[File:Artgate Fondazione Cariplo - Betti Oreste - Veduta della Roma imperiale.jpg|thumb|A modern depiction of [[Ancient Rome]], the first city in the world to reach one million inhabitants]]
[[Tell es-Sultan|Jericho]] and [[Çatalhöyük]], dated to the [[eighth millennium BC]], are among the earliest [[proto-cities]] known to archaeologists.<ref name="Perlman16" /><ref>Southall (1998), p. 23.</ref> However, the [[Mesopotamia]]n city of [[Uruk]] from the mid-fourth millennium BC (ancient Iraq) is considered by most archaeologists to be the first true city, innovating many characteristics for cities to follow, with its name attributed to the [[Uruk period]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art |date=Oct 2003 |title=Uruk: The First City |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/uruk/hd_uruk.htm |access-date=5 March 2022 |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |archive-date=1 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200401115230/https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/uruk/hd_uruk.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Uruk (article) |url=https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/big-history-project/agriculture-civilization/first-cities-states/a/uruk |access-date=5 March 2022 |website=Khan Academy|archive-date=5 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220305140202/https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/big-history-project/agriculture-civilization/first-cities-states/a/uruk |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=What Science Has Learned about the Rise of Urban Mesopotamia |url=https://www.thoughtco.com/uruk-period-mesopotamia-rise-of-sumer-171676 |access-date=5 March 2022 |website=ThoughtCo| archive-date=5 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220305135740/https://www.thoughtco.com/uruk-period-mesopotamia-rise-of-sumer-171676 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the [[fourth millennium BC|fourth]] and [[third millennium BC]], complex civilizations flourished in the river valleys of [[Mesopotamia]], [[India]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ring |first1=Trudy |title=Middle East and Africa: International Dictionary of Historic Places |date=2014 |isbn=9781134259861 |page=204|publisher=Routledge }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Jhimli Mukherjee |last=Pandeyl |title=Varanasi is as old as Indus valley civilization, finds IIT-KGP study |work=[[The Times of India]] |date=25 February 2016}}</ref> [[China]],<ref>{{Cite magazine |title=Where was the first city in the world? |url=https://www.newscientist.com/question/first-cities-built/ |access-date=2023-05-22 |magazine=[[New Scientist]]}}</ref> and [[Egypt]]. Excavations in these areas have found the [[ruins]] of cities geared variously towards trade, politics, or religion. Some had large, [[Urban density|dense populations]], but others carried out urban activities in the realms of politics or religion without having large associated populations.

Among the early Old World cities, [[Mohenjo-daro]] of the Indus Valley civilization in present-day [[Pakistan]], existing from about 2600 BC, was one of the largest, with a population of 50,000 or more and a [[Sanitation of the Indus Valley Civilisation|sophisticated sanitation system]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kenoyer |first=Jonathan Mark |title=Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-19-577940-0 |edition=2nd |location=Karachi and New York|editor-last2=}}</ref> [[Ancient Chinese urban planning|China's planned cities]] were constructed according to sacred principles to act as celestial [[Macrocosm and microcosm|microcosms]].<ref>Southall (1998), pp. 38–43.</ref>

The [[List of ancient Egyptian towns and cities|Ancient Egyptian cities]] known physically by archaeologists are not extensive.<ref name="Smith2002" /> They include (known by their Arab names) [[El Lahun]], a workers' town associated with the pyramid of [[Senusret II]], and the religious city [[Amarna]] built by [[Akhenaten]] and abandoned. These sites appear planned in a highly regimented and [[social stratification|stratified]] fashion, with a minimalistic grid of rooms for the workers and increasingly more elaborate housing available for higher classes.<ref>Moholy-Nagy (1968), pp. 158–161.</ref>

In Mesopotamia, the civilization of [[Sumer]], followed by [[Assyria]] and [[Babylon]], gave rise to numerous cities, governed by kings and fostered multiple languages written in [[cuneiform]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Adams |first=Robert McCormick |url=https://isac.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/uploads/shared/docs/heartland_of_cities.pdf |title=Heartland of cities: surveys of ancient settlement and land use on the central floodplain of the Euphrates |date=1981 |publisher=University of Chicago press |isbn=978-0-226-00544-7 |location=Chicago and London |pages=2 |quote=Southern Mesopotamia was a land of cities. It became one precociously, before the end of the fourth millennium B.C. Urban traditions remained strong and virtually continuous through the vicissitudes of conquest, internal upheaval accompanied by widespread economic breakdown, and massive linguistic and population replacement. The symbolic and material content of civilization obviously changed, but its cultural ambience remained tied to cities. |author-link=Robert McCormick Adams Jr. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181113035705/https://oi.uchicago.edu/sites/oi.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/shared/docs/heartland_of_cities.pdf |archive-date=2018-11-13 |url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Phoenicia]]n trading empire, flourishing around the turn of the [[first millennium BC]], encompassed [[List of Phoenician cities|numerous cities]] extending from [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]], [[Cydon]], and [[Byblos]] to [[Carthage]] and [[Cádiz]].

In the following centuries, independent [[city-state]]s of [[Ancient Greece|Greece]], especially [[Classical Athens|Athens]], developed the ''[[polis]]'', an association of male landowning [[citizenship|citizens]] who collectively constituted the city.<ref name="tws2Y21">{{Cite book | last = Pocock | first = J.G.A. | title = The Citizenship Debates | publisher = The University of Minnesota | series = Chapter 2 – The Ideal of Citizenship since Classical Times (originally published in ''Queen's Quarterly'' 99, no. 1) | year = 1998 | location = Minneapolis, MN | page = 31 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=i6U7CTuCJLYC&pg=PA31 | isbn = 978-0-8166-2880-3 | access-date = 11 November 2015 | archive-date = 9 June 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160609220358/https://books.google.com/books?id=i6U7CTuCJLYC&pg=PA31 | url-status = live }}</ref> The [[agora]], meaning "gathering place" or "assembly", was the center of the athletic, artistic, spiritual, and political life of the polis.<ref name="InternationalDictionary">{{cite book |title = International Dictionary of Historic Places: Southern Europe | last1=Ring |last2=Salkin |last3=Boda | first1=Trudy |first2=Robert |first3=Sharon | publisher = Routledge|date = 1996 | page = 66 | isbn=978-1-884964-02-2}}</ref> [[Rome]] was the first city that surpassed one million inhabitants. Under the authority of [[Roman Empire|its empire]], Rome transformed and [[List of cities founded by the Romans|founded]] many cities ({{lang|la|[[Colonia (Roman)|Colonia]]}}), and with them brought its principles of urban architecture, design, and society.<ref>Kaplan et al. (2004), pp. 41–42. "Rome created an elaborate urban system. Roman colonies were organized as a means of securing Roman territory. The first thing that Romans did when they conquered new territories was to establish cities."</ref>

In the ancient [[Americas]], early urban traditions developed in the [[Andes]] and [[Mesoamerica]]. In the Andes, the first urban centers developed in the [[Norte Chico civilization]], [[Chavín culture|Chavin]] and [[Moche (culture)|Moche]] cultures, followed by major cities in the [[Huari culture|Huari]], [[Chimu]], and [[Inca]] cultures. The Norte Chico civilization included as many as 30 major population centers in what is now the [[Norte Chico (Peruvian region)|Norte Chico region]] of north-central coastal [[Peru]]. It is the oldest known civilization in the Americas, flourishing between the 30th and 18th centuries BC.<ref name="Shady1997">{{cite book |last=Shady Solís |first=Ruth Martha |author-link=Ruth Shady |title=La ciudad sagrada de Caral-Supe en los albores de la civilización en el Perú |url=http://sisbib.unmsm.edu.pe/Bibvirtual/Libros/Arqueologia/ciudad_sagrada/caratula.htm |access-date=3 March 2007 |year=1997 |publisher=UNMSM, Fondo Editorial |location=Lima |language=es |archive-date=7 February 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090207051615/http://sisbib.unmsm.edu.pe/Bibvirtual/libros/Arqueologia/ciudad_sagrada/caratula.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Mesoamerica saw the rise of early urbanism in several cultural regions, beginning with the [[Olmec]] and spreading to the [[Maya city|Preclassic Maya]], the [[Zapotec civilization|Zapotec]] of Oaxaca, and [[Teotihuacan]] in central Mexico. Later cultures such as the [[Aztec]], [[Andean civilization]]s, [[Maya peoples|Mayan]], [[Mississippian culture|Mississippians]], and [[Pueblo]] peoples drew on these earlier urban traditions. Many of their ancient cities continue to be inhabited, including major metropolitan cities such as [[Mexico City]], in the same location as [[Tenochtitlan]]; while ancient continuously inhabited Pueblos are near modern urban areas in [[New Mexico]], such as [[Acoma Pueblo]] near the [[Albuquerque metropolitan area]] and [[Taos Pueblo]] near [[Taos, New Mexico|Taos]]; while others like [[Lima]] are located nearby ancient [[Peru]]vian sites such as [[Pachacamac]].

From 1600 BC, [[Dhar Tichitt]], in the south of present-day [[Mauritania]], presented characteristics suggestive of an incipient form of urbanism.<ref name="Monroe, J. Cameron 2017">{{cite journal|author=Monroe, J. Cameron|title="Elephants for Want of Towns": Archaeological Perspectives on West African Cities and Their Hinterlands |journal=Journal of Archaeological Research|date=2018 |volume=26 |issue=4 |pages=387–446|doi=10.1007/s10814-017-9114-2}}</ref><ref name="MacDonald, Kevin 2015">{{Cite book|title=The Cambridge World History.|last=MacDonald|first=Kevin|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2015|editor-last1=Barker|editor-first1=Graeme|editor-last2=Barker|editor-first2=Candice|location=Cambridge, United Kingdom|pages=409–513|chapter=The Tichitt tradition in the West African Sahel}}</ref> The second place to show urban characteristics in [[West Africa]] was [[Dia, Mali|Dia]], in present-day [[Mali]], from 800 BC.<ref name="Monroe, J. Cameron 2017" /><ref name="MacDonald, Kevin 2015" /> Both Dhar Tichitt and Dia were founded by the same people: the [[Soninke people|Soninke]], who would later also found the [[Ghana Empire]].<ref name="MacDonald, Kevin 2015" />

Another ancient site, [[Jenné-Jeno]], in what is today [[Mali]], has been dated to the third century BCE. According to Roderick and Susan McIntosh, Jenné-Jeno did not fit into traditional Western conceptions of urbanity as it lacked monumental architecture and a distinctive elite social class, but it should indeed be considered a city based on a functional redefinition of urban development. In particular, Jenné-Jeno featured settlement mounds arranged according to a horizontal, rather than vertical, power hierarchy, and served as a center of specialized production and exhibited functional interdependence with the surrounding hinterland.<ref>McIntosh, Roderic J., McIntosh, Susan Keech. "Early Urban Configurations on the Middle Niger: Clustered Cities and Landscapes of Power," Chapter 5.</ref>

More recently, scholars have concluded that the [[civilization]] of Djenne-Djenno was likely established by the [[Mandé peoples|Mande]] progenitors of the [[Bozo people]]. Their habitation of the site spanned the period from 3rd century BCE to 13th century CE.<ref name="Vydrin">{{cite web |last1=Vydrin |first1=Valentin |title=Mande Languages |url=https://oxfordre.com/linguistics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.001.0001/acrefore-9780199384655-e-397 |website=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics |year=2018 |publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.397 |isbn=978-0-19-938465-5 }}</ref> Archaeological evidence from Jenné-Jeno, specifically the presence of non-West African glass beads dated from the third century BCE to the fourth century CE, indicates that pre-Arabic trade contacts probably existed between Jenné-Jeno and North Africa.<ref name=Magnavita>{{cite journal|last=Magnavita|first=Sonja|title=Initial Encounters: Seeking traces of ancient trade connections between West Africa and the wider world|url=http://afriques.revues.org/1145?lang=en|journal=Afriques|year=2013|volume=04 |issue=4|doi=10.4000/afriques.1145|access-date=December 13, 2013|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Additionally, other early urban centers in West Africa, dated to around 500 CE, include [[Aoudaghost|Awdaghust]], [[Koumbi Saleh|Kumbi Saleh]], the ancient capital of Ghana, and [[:de:Marandet|Maranda]], a center located on a trade route between Egypt and Gao.<ref>''[http://markuswiener.com/book_reviews.html?products_id=93&products_name=History%20of%20African%20Cities%20South%20of%20the%20Sahara History of African Cities South of the Sahara] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080124191535/http://markuswiener.com/book_reviews.html?products_id=93&products_name=History%20of%20African%20Cities%20South%20of%20the%20Sahara |date=2008-01-24 }}'' By Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch. 2005. {{ISBN|1-55876-303-1}}</ref>