CHAPTER 9

The First Cities

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 Introduction

• This chapter explores the:

– development of the first cities in the Jordan Valley, the Konya Plain, and
Mesopotamia
– economic and religious features of the cities of Jericho and Catalhoyuk
and their development, and of the cities of Babylonia
– lessons for innovation and urban development from the first cities.

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 Jericho: Introduction

Archaeological evidence suggests that the first city in the world

was Jericho (Tell es Sultan) during the period 8400 to 7300 B.C.
• Size and setting
– Jordan Valley fertile area with water, crops, and wild game
– population about 2000
– small volume of trade insufficient to support population.

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 Jericho: Defense

• Formidable system of defense

– wall 7 meters tall, 3 meters thick, surrounded 10-acre site
– ditch surrounding wall 9 meters wide and 3 meters deep
– tower at least 8 meters tall and 9 meters in diameter.

• Implications of fortifications
– unknown stores of wealth
– agricultural surplus to support building and maintenance of fortifications
– persistent raiders and effective defense, given assault technologies
– defense as public good.

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 Jericho: Fortifications

Given the substantial labor cost associated with its fortifications,

the residents of Jericho apparently had something to protect.

• Why did Jericho put so much effort into fortification?

• Why does the huge productivity effort behind Jericho’s
fortification remain a mystery?

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 Catalhoyuk: Introduction

Catalhoyuk was a city in the sixth and seventh millennium B.C

• Size and setting
– Konya plain, now part of Turkey
– population about 5000.

• Discuss the food economy of Catalhoyuk.

• Discuss the religious activities of Catalhoyuk.

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 Catalhoyuk: Production of Obsidian Tools

The people of Catalhoyuk were involved in the highly

sophisticated and specialized production of products made of
wood, stone, and obsidian.

• What was the production process for obsidian tools in

Catalhoyuk?
• What does the production of obsidian tools that required a
high skill level imply about the industrial capabilities of
Catalhoyuk?

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 Catalhoyuk: Interregional Trade

Two archeological discoveries have generated speculation that

Catalhoyuk was a sort of regional trading center, the largest city
in a system of cities that traded with each other and with people
outside the region.
• Interregional trade
– Catalhoyuk imported wood and copper.
– Smaller settlements nearby suggest that Catalhoyuk may have been a
regional center, part of a system of small cities.
– Catalhoyuk exchanged its craft products for products produced far afield.
– Flint from Syria, shells from the Mediterranean, and bitumen from the
Dead Sea have been found in the city’s ruins.

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 Catalhoyuk: Architecture

• Rationale for city

– religion: small scale (household) temples and worship
– defense: houses stuck together, roof entries, high windows.

• Could the provision of defense as a public good be partly

responsible for the development of Catalhoyuk?
• How was the architecture of Catalhoyuk different from the
massive fortifications of Jericho?

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 Babylonia: Introduction

Starting in the middle part of the fourth millennium B.C, several

cities developed in southern Mesopotamia (also known as
Babylonia), near the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in present-day
Iraq.
• The population of Uruk, the largest city in Babylonia, reached
50,000 at the end of the fourth millennium B.C.
• Other cities developed nearby, including Ur, Erudi, and Kish,
each with tens of thousands of people.

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 Babylonia: Ecological Setting

Babylonia had a number of rich and varied ecosystems, including

alluvial plains, rivers, and grasslands.
• The ecosystems were suitable for variety of food production:
farming, fishing, hunting, grazing.
• Water from the rivers was easily diverted into irrigation canals.
• The first rudimentary irrigation canals date back to 5500 B.C

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 Babylonia: Specialization and Trade

Given its ecological setting, Babylonia was a perfect candidate

for specialization and trade.
• Consider the following questions:
– How did the varied ecosystems generate comparative advantages for
Babylonians?
– How did Babylonians overcome obstacles of barter and illiteracy to
develop extensive trade and trading cities?

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 Babylonia: Religious Beliefs

The Sumerian religion adopted in Babylonia was based on the

belief that the gods determined the fertility of flora and fauna.
• 2400 gods, each responsible for a part of the ecosystem
• separate gods for crops, domesticated animals, hunting
• gods responsible for continuing the “miracle” of nature
• role of humans
– feed and clothe gods so gods could focus on managing the ecosystem
– offer gods huge volumes of goods, which were ultimately consumed by the
priests and other religious officials.

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 Babylonia: Religious Offerings
and Temple Enterprises (1 of 2)
• Religion as public good
– gift to gods improved eco-management and increased productivity
– free-rider problem: each contributor gets tiny fraction of benefit.

Discuss the Babylonian response to the free-rider problem.

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 Babylonia: Religious Offerings
and Temple Enterprises (2 of 2)
The temple was the dominant force in the economy. The
temple’s output—the sum of output from a wide variety of
temple enterprises and contributions from private enterprises—
was distributed in several ways.
• gods and temple personnel
• worker rations
• welfare (transfers to people incapable of working)
• interregional trade.

Why was the temple involved in so many economic activities?

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 Babylonia: Transactions and Writing
(1 of 2)
• Writing was developed by the priests to track transactions:
– freed people from reliance on human memory and honesty
– initially increased reliance on temple economy
– allowed traders to rely on permanent and verifiable records, promoting
private enterprise.
• Bullae were earliest attempt to record transactions:
– closed clay containers that held counters for products exchanged
– had to be broken to make a count
– required a unique seal for each person involved in exchange.

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 Babylonia: Transactions and Writing
(2 of 2)
• Pictograms were symbols used to represent objects:
– etched in wet clay tablets that were baked or dried in the sun
– 1500 symbols, one for each product in economy
– unique personal symbol for each person.

• Phonetic system used symbols to represent sounds (syllables)

rather than objects:
– objects represented by sequence of symbols
– number of symbols decreased to 400
– eventually, combined straight lines and wedges (cuneiform script).

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 Babylonia: Development of Writing

• Writing was developed by the priests and initially used to track

temple business
– words for “priest” and “accountant” refer to same people
– used exclusively for commerce between 3100 and 2600 B.C.

• About 2600 B.C, writing began to be used for hymns, prayers,

myths, and transmittal of wisdom.

How did the development of writing contribute to urban

development?

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