ARCH 354 CULTURE OF CITIES

ARCH 354CULTURE OF CITIES LECTURE 2 Origins of cities 3000 BCE to 1000 BCE Prof. Dr. NaciyeDoratlI

TODAY’S MENU Origins: 3000 BCE to 1000 BCE Sanctuary, Village, Stronghold The Crystallization of the City Ancestral Forms and Patterns The Nature of the Ancient City

TO REMEMBER • The Stone Age • Paleolithic Age • Mesolithic Age • Neolithic Age • The Copper Age • The Bronze Age • The Iron Age

Sanctuary, Village, Stronghold To be able to lay a new foundation for the urban life: - Understanding the historic nature of the city; - its original functions; - functions that emerged from these functions; - earlier structures.

Sanctuary, Village, Stronghold Easiest way would be looking for the physical remains, which have been found by the archeologist. If we look only for the bones, tools and weapons and ignore inventions like language and rituals, it would be not present the full picture.

Sanctuary, Village, Stronghold Social life shared with many other animals for existence The camp, the cache, the cave Hamlet, shrine, village city

Sanctuary, Village, Stronghold MOVEMENT SETTLEMENT HUMAN LIFE The two modes can be traced back to the evolution of living things. Animal Kingdom Vegetable Kingdom

Sanctuary, Village, Stronghold Stability & Continuity comes forward from our animal past. The way of living of many animals, like fishes, birds etc, can be considered as prototypes of the most primitive kind of human settlements: - The hamlet - the Village.

SIMILARITIES WITH ANIMAL LIFE • The Social functions of the beehive (BEES) or the ant-hill shows many similarities to the social functions of the cities that we shall put forward later. For example: • Division of labor; • The differentiation of casts (SOCIAL DIVISION); • The practice of war; • The institution of royalty; • Domestication of other species; • Employment of slaves etc.

THE MOST PRIMITIVE URBAN BEGINNINGS In addition to the similarities to animal’s way of living, CEREMONIOUS CONCERN for the DEAD has been one of the most important features for the mankind. Early man had shown respect for the dead. Mid Paleolithic Period (when early man was wandering around for food gathering and hunting) The dead were the first to have a permanent dwelling: A CAVE, A COLLECTIVE BARROW. These places were landmarks to which the living man had returned at certain times. In a sense it can be claimed that the city of the dead is the forerunner of every living city.

THE MOST PRIMITIVE URBAN BEGINNINGS There is another part of the environment to which the Paleolithic man periodically came: the CAVE. Caves (covered with paintings) have been special ritual centers, which were used for Ceremonial Purposes. In these ancient Paleolithic sanctuaries, the first hints of civic life before the permanent villages can be detected. These were ceremonial centers. In addition to the caves, there has also been great stones, sacred groves, monumental trees, holy wells etc., which had been visited by Paleolithic man occasionally. These fixed landmarks and holy meeting places call together, periodically or permanently, those who shared the same magical practice or religious beliefs. Mecca, Rome, Jerusalem etc. still recall and carry on these original purposes.

Stonehenge in England

ORIGINS OF CITIES & PRACTICAL NEEDS • Camp Sites: • THE PURE SPRING WITH ITS YEAR ROUND SUPPLY OF WATER; • SOLID HILL TOPS (accessible but protected) • As the city takes form, much more will be added to practical need. • When they were gathered in/around a specific place, IT IS A BEGINNING OF a succession of CIVIC INSTITUTION (TEMPLE, ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY, THEATRE TO UNIVERSITY.

ORIGINS OF CITIES Even before a city is a permanent settlement of man, it begins as a meeting place to which people periodically came and gone. MAGNETS before the CONTAINER. The first germ of the city: the ceremonial meeting place (serving the pilgrims). Attraction with its ‘spiritual’ or supernatural powers.

DOMESTICATION AND THE VILLAGE When people were hunting and food gathering, they need a large area for small number of people (10 people / square mile). Until man learned to smoke and salt his meat, he must live from day to day, keeping to SMALL & MOBILE GROUPS, not tied to a fixed habitation. The first condition for an sufficient, reliable food supply arose in the MESOLITHIC PERIOD (15.000 YEARS AGO) Mesolithic hamlets are the first examples of settlements with agricultural production (they grow fruit-bearing trees) and domestic animals: pigs, ducks, goose, dogs etc.

DOMESTICATION AND THE VILLAGE • The Second Stage (the process of settlement, domestication): 10-12.000 years ago • Systematic gathering and planting of the seeds of certain grasses. • Taming of the other seed plants • Utilization of herd animals: the ox, the sheep, the horse. Increase • FOOD • PULLING POWER AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION • COLLECTIVE MOBILITY

CHANGING GENDER ROLES Due to these changes the role of women has changed. In other words, the dominant role of hunting and fighting man has shifted to women (growing their children, domestic animals, taking care about the plants etc.) With the great enlargement of the food supply as a result of cumulative domestication of plants and animals, woman’s central role in the new economy was established.

IMPORTANCE OF WOMAN’S PRESENCE • Functions belonging to women: • Security, receptivity, enclosure, taking care and raising of children (domestic animals) • It was felt in the physical structures. • Structural expression in every part of the village . house and oven . bins . cistern (water reservoir) . storage pit (hole/well) • A generalization: A house and a village (later the town) has/REFLECTS strong influence of woman. • In Egyptian hieroglyphics ‘house’ or ‘town’ stand as symbols for ‘mother’.

DOMESTICATION DOMESTICATION TWO IMPORTANT CHANGES: • PERMANENCE & CONTINUITY IN RESIDENCE; • CONTROL & FORESIGHT OF PROCESSES GENERATED BY NATURAL FACTORS AND FORCES. I WOULD ADD TO THIS: CHANGING ROLES / INCREASING OF THE IMPORTANCE OF WOMAN During this phase: • As it was possible to take more care about the young, number of people living together increased. • Long period of agricultural and domestic development • SURPLUS OF FOOD & MANPOWER • MORE COMPLEX SOCIAL CO-OPERATION • URBAN LIFE POSSIBLE

CONTRIBUTION OF THE VILLAGE • Mesopotamia and the Valley of the Nile (9000 – 4000 B.C.) • Mud huts (mud- and –reed construction; cramped in size) • Around the villages garden plots (rectangular in shape) • A village can be considered as the embryonic structure of the city in physical and social terms: • Physical: houses, shrine, cistern, public way, a meeting place etc. • Social: Council of Elders (performing like laws and governments of later periods)

CONTRIBUTION OF THE VILLAGE “Neolithic farmers could of course, and certainly did, live together in permanent villages, though, owing to the extravagant rural economy generally practiced, unless the crops were watered by irrigation, the villages had to be shifted at least every twenty years.” (Gordon Childe, 1950) 16-30 houses, with a few hundred inhabitants.

CONTRIBUTION OF THE VILLAGE

CONTRIBUTION OF THE VILLAGE Once the main Neolithic inventions and institutions established, village life might continue for thousands of years. Last departure came with PLOW CULTURE & SUBSTITITION OF METAL TOOLS FOR STONE.

CONTRIBUTION OF THE VILLAGE About 5,000 years ago the discovery of irrigation and cultivation combined with stock-breeding and fishing in the valleys of the Nile, the Tigris-Euphrates and the Indus had begun to yield a social surplus, large enough to support a number of resident specialists who were themselves released from food-production. Water-transport, supplemented in Mesopotamia and the Indus valley by wheeled vehicles and even in Egypt by pack animals, made it easy to gather food stuffs at a few centers.

CONTRIBUTION OF THE VILLAGE The actual emergence of the city came as a result of accumulations of previous Paleolithic and Neolithic periods. In the new proto-urban milieu (setting, environment), the male became again a leading figure; woman took the second place. The tools that have been produced by woman had been replaced by more efficient plow. It was possible to transform the whole landscape (opening of canals and irritation works). This change has also influenced the human relations within the community. In the city, new ways took the place of ancient customs. Struggle, domination, mastery and conquest were the new themes.

THE CRYSTALLIZATION OF THE CITY • The city came as a definite emergent in the paleo-neolithic community. • The old components of the village were carried along and incorporated into the new urban unit. • The human composition of the new unit became more complex. • In addition to hunters, peasants and shepherds, other primitive types entered into the scene: The miner, the woodman, the fisherman (each brought their tools, habits etc.) (Invention of metal, bronze later iron) • Later, the engineers, boatman and the sailor have arisen from these more generalized primitive backgrounds. • Other occupations developed: the soldiers, bankers, merchants and the priest. Consequently: • Mobilization of manpower; • Command over long distance transportation • Intensification of communication over long distances (in space & time).

THE CRYSTALLIZATION OF THE CITY Invention of the written records, the library, the archive, the school and the university (during later periods) is the one of the earliest and most characteristic achievement of the city. A city: techniques, politics and religion (among which religion played a very important role) For protection the earliest cities were fortified and it was ruled by a king (having control over everything) The king was a sort of mediator between heaven and earth (supernatural forces and factors were important). Most of the time the king was appointed by priesthood. There was a fusion between secular and sacred power.

THE CRYSTALLIZATION OF THE CITY The erection of a great temple, architecturally and symbolically reflected the union between secular and sacred powers. Magnitude of the temple can be considered as a reflection of the power of both the god and the king. (religious and political power) With the king’s command, the city would become a mobilized army (held in reserve). This made the city superior to the thinly populated villages scattered around. As wars became important, weapon bearing minority took over the social leadership and political power.

ANCESTRAL FORMS AND PATTERNS Egypt Mesopotamia Palestine Iran Indus Valley Sharp contrasts can be seen. The cities came out in a few great river valleys: The Nile The Tigris-Euphrates Indus Hwang Ho

ANCESTRAL FORMS AND PATTERNS Villages possibility of farming and cattle-raising (irrigation); transportation; In the regions like Negev in Palestine, sufficient man power for building cistern and reservoirs: (possibility for settlements) Villages could be easily swept away. The city: could mobilize man power and exercise centralized control.

ANCESTRAL FORMS AND PATTERNS • From village to city: • Not only a matter of change in size and scale; but A NEW TYPE OF ORGANIZATION • It is not only the number of people in a limited area • It is the number of people that can be brought under UNIFIED CONTROL to form a highly DIFFERENTIATED COMMUNITY. • 5000 PEOPLE (as big as a neighborhood today)

ANCESTRAL FORMS AND PATTERNS • The walled citadel: Wall has been one of the essential definitions of the city (until 18th century). • Natural barrier (England, Egypt, Japan) • Walking Distance • Early cities did not grow beyond walking distance or hearing distance.

URBANISM AND MONUMENTALITY The palace and the great temple stand close within the citadel: part of the dual system of government. The wall served as both military device and an agent of effective command over the urban population. Aesthetically it made a clean break between the city and the country side. Socially emphasized the difference between insider and outsider. Safety & security.

URBANISM AND MONUMENTALITY Market: economic life of the city (2000 B.C.) At the beginning it was an open space as part of the temple precinct. It was a monopoly of the god and the priests, but not a money making corporation. Exchange was not like today at the beginning. Before the money was founded, there was BARTER SYSTEM.

TECHNICAL INNOVATIONS AND DEFICIENCES Against the modest size of the city, the scale of the citadel and its chief buildings might be very big in size, reflecting the prestige and power/ to ensure its permanence. The regular street system, row houses, the pottery pipes, the brick lined drainage channels in the streets have been found in the ruins in early cities (Ur). There was a broad street long before the invention of wheeled vehicles (for sacred procession or for marching soldiers). In the earliest cities (Ur), the narrow street was well-shaded for protection from hot sun.

The general appearance of the Mesopotamian cities looked very much like the walled North African City today: • Narrow streets/ alleys • One\ two or three storey houses • Usable roof tops • Inner courtyards • Dominant temple (Ziggurat), similar to the dominating Mosque in African city

Contemporary Glimpses of the city Nippur near Babylon (1500 B.C.) Citadel cannot be seen. Central park may be the place of the palace. The canal divides the city into two: South east the principal temple. The map does not only show the main elements of the city, but also indicates the presence of the kind of learning and ability in terms of thinking in abstraction.

Contemporary Glimpses of the city

Contemporary Glimpses of the city • BABYLON • Stand on a broad plain (an exact square: 24x24 km) • Surrounded by walls and a moat with full of water. • Many gates • City divided into two by Euphrates • Houses three-four storey • Streets running in straight lines (grid iron)

EGYPT AND THE OPEN CITY Different than the earliest cities in Mesopotamia. • Centralized absolutism • Very strong influence of religious cult • Pharaoh: sharing the gift of immortality with the gods • Stronger concentration of power than in Mesopotamia. • Second life – the most valuable • The pyramids, great temples at Luxor and Karnak shows (reflect) all these features but not the traces of cities. During later periods some traces have been detected.

ARCHETYPES OR GENES? • By 2500 B.C all the essential features of the city had taken form and had found a place for themselves in the citadel. • The walled enclosure • The street • The house – block • The market • The temple precinct with its inner courts • The administrative precinct • The workshop precinct Exist in its simplest form.

ARCHETYPES OR GENES? The city itself was a complex and powerful aesthetic symbol. In different parts of the world, better to say in different geographies they showed considerable differences. Although natural factors are important, different cultures have been far more influential on the formation of cities.

THE NATURE OF THE ANCIENT CITY • The city was a control center • Religion: Role of ruling and guiding. The form of the city has reflected this strong influence. • King/ruling elite • The citadel was the place of the rulers, who had the monopoly of knowledge and power. • This monopoly covers many functions. (Most of these functions were later taken over and collectively distributed by the municipality only after many thousands of years. • The royal monopoly held for many technological innovations, which later has been spread to the rest of the city.

THE NATURE OF THE ANCIENT CITY Division of Labor • In the city there were casts, classes, professions, trades, crafts. • Priests, soldiers, physicians etc. • Occupational and caste stratification produced an URBAN PYRAMID: • At the peak: THE KING • Merchants, craftsmen, peasants, sailors, house servants, freed men, slaves. • These divisions were distinguished and sharpened by ownership or lack of property. • Segregated economic functions and segregated social roles created equivalent precincts within the city.

Characteristic activities of the ancient city have a special quality. For example: Art and Drama • They take the roots from ancient seasonal rituals of the village. • Battle of wits • Competitive exhibition of body & skills These competitions have been accompanied by religious ceremonies.

COMMON FEATURES OF EARLIEST CITIES Childe’s 10 criteria to distinguish earliest cities from any older or contemporary village; Permanent Settlement in dense aggregations Nonagricultural Specialists (craftspeople, merchants, priests and state functionaries)

COMMON FEATURES OF EARLIEST CITIES Taxation and Wealth Accumulation (control of food production in the hinterland and the storage of the surplus) Monumental Public Buildings (symbolized the concentration of the social surplus)

COMMON FEATURES OF EARLIEST CITIES Ruling Class, that possessed absolute control over the society Writing Techniques (numerical and alphabetical notational systems for information processing)

COMMON FEATURES OF EARLIEST CITIES Predictive Science Artistic Expression (cultural forms of expression that were progressively refined, such as art and music) Trade for Vital materials Decline in importance of Kinship- family relations “In short, the large ancient city was the cradle of civilization” (Gottdiener & Hutchison, 2000)

Earliest Cities • The great urban landmarks : • Catalhoyuk • Ur • Nippur • Uruk • Thebes • Heliopolis • Assur • Nineveh • Babylon • Negev

ARCH 354 CULTURE OF CITIES