Last year I read “Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age” by Annalee Newitz. It didn’t make it on my favorite books list, because I only gave it four out of five stars. Non-fiction generally moves much slower than fiction, so it is less likely to get five stars from me. Five stars usually means I couldn’t put it down and was eager to read as much as possible.
Four Lost Cities is not a “can’t put it down” kind of book. But it was an interesting exploration of what is known about four ancient cities. Annalee Newitz explores the rise and fall of four ancient cities, each the center of a sophisticated civilization. First she looks at the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in Central Turkey which was a city from 7500 to 5600 BCE. The second section of the book examines the Roman vacation town of Pompeii on Italy’s southern coast, which was a city from 450 BCE until Vesuvius erupted in 49 CE. The third section of the book deals with the medieval megacity of Angkor in Cambodia, 1150 – 1430 CE. The fourth explores the indigenous metropolis Cahokia, which stood beside the Mississippi River where East St. Louis is today from 1050-1350 CE.
Each section of the book is divided into three chapters. Newitz talks about how the city developed, how people lived in the city during its apex, and why the city was abandoned. By using this structure, it is easy to see how unique each of these places and societies were.
The reason I am writing about this book today is because of the central question of the book: what does it take for a people to change from a rural to an urban existence? This question has stuck in my head as I think about the move from rural to urban life in the United States over the last century. It also leads to other interesting questions for urban life today.
But think about that central question for a minute. Why would rural or nomadic people decide to move from a scattered, family-centered life to an urban life surrounded by other people?
Newitz never explicitly lists the requirements for moving from rural to urban environments, but there are six items that I extracted from her book. These are the things that have to be developed in order for people to live in a city. First, farming. In order to have a high concentration of people in one place, you have to have farmers that provide food for the people in cities. In these ancient cities, the farmers lived just outside the cities, so food could be easily transported. Farming really started to take off around 9500 BCE with the Neolithic founder crops.
Second, domesticated animals. Domesticated animals include pets, livestock, and beasts of burden. These are the animals that live with people for mutual benefit. Domestication occurred almost concurrently with farming because many of these animals needed the food that farming provides. Dogs were the earliest domesticated animals, around 13,000 BCE. Goats, sheep, and cattle were domesticated around 9,000 BCE. Horses and camels were domesticated around 4,000 BCE.
Third, people who lived in these original cities had a shared religion and values. They had to see the world in similar ways in order to live in such close proximity. They gave their fidelity to their values over and above that of an extended family group.
Fourth, these shared values led to a shared purpose, usually what Newitz calls “monumental architecture.” In order to worship their gods they needed a lot of people to build a temple or a mound. In order to elevate their play time, they needed many people to build huge playing fields. The architecture took different forms but the shared purposes were similar.
Fifth, the people had to be willing to submit to a government. They had to give up the individual freedoms they enjoyed in extended family groups to follow laws and order. This shared government is essential when there are a lot of people. The majority of people living in an area, including enslaved individuals, had to submit to the rules and laws of the city in which they lived.
Finally, the last necessity for living in a city is job specialization. In rural areas most people can be self-sufficient farmers. In cities, different people take on different jobs to benefit the majority of people. One person will be a blacksmith, another a jeweler. Instead of weaving cloth for the family group, people will buy their cloth from a weaver. Individuals become specialists instead of generalists.
Those are the six things necessary to live in a city. What do you think? Is there anything you would add to the list?
Four Lost Cities was an interesting book to read and I have been thinking about these six things that are necessary for urban life since I read it. As Tom and I drive through cities, or live in one, or shop in one, I look for the farmers, the animals, and the architecture. I think about the shared values, job specialization, and government. Reading the book has made me more thoughtful about the cities I see and I wonder how long they will last.