History of Urban Form Chapter 1 - PDF

1 - The Early Cities In the historical evolution of the first urban civilizations and their cities it is possible to discern three main phases. Each of these involved 'radical and indeed revolutiona ry innovations in the economic sphere in the methods whereby the most progressive societies secure a...

1 - The Early Cities In the historical evolution of the first urban civilizations and their cities it is possible to discern three main phases. Each of these involved 'radical and indeed revolutiona ry innovations in the economic sphere in the methods whereby the most progressive societies secure a liveli- hood, each followed by such increases in population that, were reliable statistics available, each would be reflected by a conspicuous link in the 1 population graph'. The first of these phases covers the whole of the Palaeolithic Age, from its origins, at least half a million years ago, until around 10000 BC, followed by the proto-Neoli thic and Neolithic Ages. These in 1. Childe, What Happened in History, 1964. Childe is turn lead to the fourth phase, the Bronze Age.., starting_bctween..3520 still a valuable general reference, but see also C Red· man, The Rise of Civilisation: From Early F.,,_s to alli!..3Q.D..o..BC..andJasting for some 2,ooo_years. During this last period Urban Society in the Middle East, 1978; AB Knapp, The tQLfu:s ~ilizatio ns were firmly_established. History and Culture of Ancient Western Asia and Egypt, In his most valuable book The First Civilisations: The Archaeology oftheir 1988; C Renfrew, Before Civilisation: The Radio-Carbon Revolution in Prehi$toric Europe, 1976; M Brawer, At/as Origins, Dr Glyn Daniel states that 'we now believe that we know from of the Middle East, 1988. archaeology the whereabout s and the whenabout s of the first civilisa- 2. It must be kept in mind from lhe outset that tions of man -in southern Mesopotam ia, in Egypt, in the Indus Valley, archaeologists are continuing to rewrite the pages of humankind' s early history. The two earlier editions of in the Yellow River in China, in the Valley of Mexico, in the jungles of History of Urban Form were written in the knowledge of Guatemala and Honduras, and the coastlands and highlands of Peru. archaeological evidence that removed the title 'Father We will not call them primary civilisations because this makes it dif- of Town Planning' from the fifth-century BC Greek architect-planner, Hippodamus of Miletus. and passed ficult to refer to Crete, Mycenae, the Hittites, and Greece and Rome as it back in history to the unknown Harappan priestly other than secondary civilisations and this term secondary seems to planner who, around 2150 BC in the Indus Valley of western India, laid out the first of that civilization's plan- have a pejorative'm eaning. We shall talk rather of the first , the earliest ned new cities. However, see the concluding section of civilisations, and of later civilisations'. Figure 1.2 gives the locations of this chapter for the intriguing archaeological questions these seven original urban civilizations and relates them to the earliest posed by the Harappans having arrived alongside the 2 Indus with a fully formed urban planning system. known, or assumed, agricultural regions. Where did they come from? Because that is where there As shown by the time chart (Figure 1.1 ), the seven civilizations are the most likely remains of still earlier planned cities. occurred at markedly different times. The first three - the Mesopota- In this edition the major archaeological reassessment of the 1970s and 1980s concerns the nature of the city in mian,.J.hugypliao.....an d the Indus Valley - are the so-c~lled 'dead: Ancient Egypt, in particular not only the elevation of 9tltures, out oLwhich there evolved, in direct line of descent, the Greek, Kahun to urban status from that of a worlcmen's village encampment. but also its claim to have been the first R~fill.and Western Europear1Christiancivilizations-:-~opota rnia is use of the gridiron system of town planning. Otherwise ~lso of fundamental importance for its formative influence on the evolu- gaps continue to be filled in the record. notably that of tion of urban settlement in the Arabian Peninsular, where Islamic the desertion of Roman London and its r&-establishment by the Anglo-Saxons (see Chapter 31. culture ocigin~ted in the seventh century AD.3 3. For a new analytical description of the traditional Although occurring much more recently than Chinese civilization, Islamic City, see in this chapter for the pre-Islamic Ara- bian introduction, and Chapter 11. the fourth oldest, the three American cultures - Mexican, Central  Ill~ I\ >RY Ot' l ' RB.\:'t FOR~I Slillll.\ n ,·ricHl.rnd (\-rU\ i.in_-:..u-r ul,n d r.,d: hn~t.,I~~: ~h-:_stn>~-rd by ~p_a nish r-- , -,_Ul.111111 tli',i'-1 __ t ,.;,,.,,1,:.1.I,;;; Jurin~ ~he- d, t·~,l£~r !- !_~r~, c-rrJ.'. Chin., i,· thr f.i.,_ci11.1ti11~ ('Xl'Cption. from its ori.~ins in the Ydlow "-"('r tw~in ,lurin~ 1hr 1.u~ third 111ilk11ni11m BC. i1~ rultu!:£...h ~~_la~trd AO BC "' thc- l\, rntkth cxntury ,, itfu,ut P :.!.!."a!H' lll in1e·rrupt1on. Fur1!1crmorc, ,lunn~ thr ri~hth ,·cntun·.-\D - one tif its aks of ~owrr ancl__l_!!!_l_'!,£_ncc - Chi·n~u~'b:in ~7~ihz..uit:;;l W.lS ~tro( un___ ~o_J~p~n. _where until thrn '-"''" t!.~rnti,,11} agrifuhural ~~_LcmentsJ!ad ex1s~r! 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