Evaluating the Driving Factors of the Earliest Cities in the Near East, post-farming (original) (raw)
2020
The Ancient Near East (A.N.E.) is the first hub where agricultural techniques were adopted into early hunter-gathering lifestyles, binding the people to the land through sedentism, glimpsed, through the first farming villages. This led A.N.E., from ~4000 BCE, to become the first home of cities. How did agriculture lead to the “domestication of the human species” (Cauvin,1978,77)? The answer perhaps lies in changing ideology and separation from the natural world which facilitated farming and more importantly sedentism. Furthermore, changing geography, climate, religious and social theories helps understand the formation of early cities such as Uruk, Tell Brak and Eridu. And ultimately what defines a city.
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