From antiquity to the present day, we have come to know this seemingly immortal theme well, its influences refracted across literature and drama whether it be Homer, Dante, John Milton, Ovid, James Joyce, or the Marvel universe! There is a reason this theme has had such wide-reaching consequences. There is something profoundly hopeful about it. Gilgamesh is defined by the pursuit of the unknown, and his bravery to face that which he did not understand and to believe in a better outcome. All of this is reflected in the extraordinary city he ruled over.
Uruk accounts for a number of the world’s firsts in the development of civilization. Among these are the origins of writing, the first example of architectural work in stone, the building of great stone structures such as ziggurat, and the development of cylinder seal.5 Most importantly, however, it is immortal in our minds because it is considered to be the first true city in the world. According to the Sumerian King List, it was founded by King Enmerkar at around 4500 BCE and was located in the southern region of Suler (modern-day Iraq).6 It began as two separate settlements, Kullaba and Eanna, which merged together to form a town covering 80 hectares; at the height of its development in the Early Dynastic period, the city walls were 9.5 km long, enclosing a massive 450 hectares, and may have housed up to 50,000 people.7
This population grouping was a major step forward for civilization and, technically, the very first instance of “urban development” we have on record. From two distinct settlements, construction, pooling resources, city planning, merging different peoples and doubling its population size, creating clear boundaries, and a lot of imagination, a city was born. It is no accident that Uruk was also the first city to develop cylinder seal, which the ancient Mesopotamians used to designate personal property or a signature on documents, clearly meeting the need for the importance of the individual in the collective community. We can all imagine the problems they faced that would call for such an innovation.
Uruk was a successful city also in that it was continuously inhabited from its founding until c. 300 CE when people began to desert the area. It clearly met the demands of its citizens for thousands of years, and although it took many hundreds of years after this for it to be excavated, Uruk has remained an immortal city in our minds. Uruk is a lesson in innovation and imagination.
Mesopotamia
By 3500 BCE, big cities were on the rise in Mesopotamia, and following on from Uruk we can look at some of the other specific challenges cities in this region faced and the innovation and urban technology they inspired.
The growth in population and city size created the same problems then that they do today, with excess garbage, human waste, and its accumulation. In smaller villages people would simply carry their waste to the edge of the village and leave it there. But with ever-expanding city walls and greater population density this became difficult, and by 2900 BCE this collective need led to the invention of individual deep-pit toilets, and by 2500 BCE there is even evidence of a bathroom at the site of Tello.8
Unfortunately, we are still struggling to transfer urban technology to underdeveloped rural areas today.
With a city and the increase in population there are a lot of people, mainly women and children, needing food and work. Mesopotamia recognized this and created a job market. This included standardization of the industries of pottery and thread-making, which up until then had been made individually with fine detail. By 3500 BCE, they were mass produced to a poor quality in what some records show as industrial-weaving factories that paid its workers in food and clothing. As is still true today, women were paid less than men.
Nonetheless, these advancements show a real ability to meet the new urban demands and ingenious industry development (Figure 2.3). Another fascinating example is found in Uruk, at around 3200 BCE, when a large religious complex was designed and took 100 years to be built, but once it was built it was immediately flattened and rebuilt.9 There is no reason for this at all, so it seems that this unorthodox project was inspired by the government in an attempt to keep the city at full employment by providing 200 years of work. The government’s dedication to its people’s wellbeing is admirable in this sense. Mesopotamia is a lesson in providing its people with both convenience and opportunity.
Figure 2.3 The remains of Mesopotamia provide key insights into the benefits of urban living. (Source: Fat Jackey/Shutterstock)
Memphis – Ancient Egypt
The Greek historian Herodotus once said, “Egypt is the gift of the Nile”, a saying that describes just how much Egypt relies, and still relies, on the Nile. Since the days of the Pharaohs, the Nile has been the main source of Egypt’s water for agriculture. The yearly flooding of the Nile was an important factor in ensuring a good harvest. The river was also an important trade route and mode of transport.
It can therefore be seen that Egyptian civilization developed along the river. The majority of Egyptian cities were located on the east side of the river, whilst the tombs and pyramids were built on the west side, mirroring the life and death cycle of the sun’s daily route. All cities and settlements were built on the edge of the desert, with relative distance to the river so they would remain dry during the yearly floods. The land close to the Nile was considered too precious to build upon and remained the place for valuable crops to be grown and harvested.
Egypt’s first Pharaoh, Menses, the source of many legends, unified Upper and Lower Egypt and established his capital just a few kilometres to the southwest of modern Cairo. Not wanting to favour Upper or Lower Egypt, Menses decided to build the new capital on the border between the two. The city was called Men-nefer, or, as the Greeks later called it, Memphis.
Memphis was one of the largest and most important cities of its day, with archaeologists predicting that as many as 100,000 people may have lived in it at the height of its power.10 As the capital, it was also the seat in which Menses ordered Egypt’s first irrigation system to be built in 3100 BCE.11 The unpredictability of the Nile caused problems ranging from excessive flooding to droughts, but it did, however, also lead to the invention of water dams – one of ancient Egypt’s greatest archaeological feats, with the foundations of this technology still in practice to this day. This allowed water from the Nile to be diverted into canals and lakes, considerably reducing the chance for water-related disasters.
The invention of water dams provided an infrastructure within the cities, such as Memphis, that lined the river’s edges that faced a high environmental disaster risk and made them more resilient, whilst also ensuring the safety and welfare of its citizens. It is an excellent lesson of cities investing in resilience and an act of quick and decisive leadership and governance.
Rome
There is a reason why Rome remains so present in our minds when it comes to talking about cities, infrastructure, equality, subjugation and slavery, television dramas, movies, and even Shakespeare. Rome is dramatic, mysterious, and unique, and it is also like any other city today. It expanded, conquered, innovated, succeeded, and failed, and like all civilizations it eventually withered away and died. In many ways, Rome is inspiring, but there are also many lessons to be learnt from it.
Rome is the perfect example of how well positioned cities are to govern on a global level. Unlike the other cities we have looked at that fold back into the region in which they were established, Rome quite literally took over the world. I say “Rome” because it was a dominating identity that remains to be our prevalent descriptor in the course of history – whether you lived in the capital or not you were a Roman; there was no country but an empire – the Roman Empire.
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