Urban Origins

Charles L. Redman

SOS 111, Sustainable Cities

Arizona State University

Issues of Concern

•The introduction of

agriculture

•The beginnings of

urban society

Why the Ancient Near

East

•Earliest occurrence

•Affected later history in

neighboring regions

•Reflects processes

and human dynamics

still operating today

Mobility

People

moved to

available

resources

Agriculture

•Planting

•Cultivation

•Harvesting

•Control of

propagation

Ecosystem Management for Human Benefit

Leveraging our Labor by employing Domestic Animals

Implication of Agriculture

Sedentism during growing season

Assembling labor for periodic needs

Managing ecosystem to maximize return

Breeding resources for maximum return

Storage of seeds for subsequent year

Gives Rise to the Village Farming Community

Resilience of the Village Farming

Community

Flexible sources of subsistence

Balance between extraction and

regeneration

Various risk minimization strategies

Cohesive social unit (perhaps most

enduring of all human history)

What were the environmental implications

of this great leap forward?

Deforestation for

fields and fuel

Extinctions due to

habitat loss,

hunting, and

competitors

Humans managing

ecosystem for their

own benefit

Redesign of

hydrology to serve

human purposes

Early Cities were densely packed

Aggregation of

people and their

activities first

into larger

villages, towns,

and eventually

cities, many of

which were

encircled by high

walls Cairo, T. Rashed

Over time the cities collapses, erodes, and is covered by a

new city to create a “Tell”

Mounds of the

Near East

Archaeologists

excavates these

mounds to reveal

ancient cities layer

by layer, each one

representing a city

Fundamental Change in

the Human-Landscape

Relationship

•The ability to produce and store

more than you can eat/use

•Concept of private property and

ascribed status

•Rationales to expand production

beyond immediate needs

•Ability of some to accumulate

these ‘surplus’ goods and

transform them into enduring

prestige items associated with

elevated status

Breakthroughs of

Urban Society

•Produce more

•Assemble more people

•Specialize in production

•Establish a sacred order

•Provide security through a

monopoly on the use of

force

Organized Military Activity

Starts with First Cities

Create a Social

Hierarchy (i.e. class

society)

•Distance people from one

another

•Results in diverse

perspectives and goals

•Heredity more than merit

Established a

shared ideology that

serves to legitimize

the emerging

differences in the

social order

A social order

that manifested

itself in great

monuments built

to demonstrate

hierarchy through

performance and

scale

A social order that

focused resources

and authority on an

elevated class that

ruled cities by 3,000

B.C. and Nation

States by 2,500

B.C.

Ur III Dynasty of

Mesopotamia 2000BC

•Perhaps the first “world”

empire

•Math and science

•Laws and literature

•Great builders and traders

Yet, an emphasis on short-term

maximization with little concern

for long-term consequences

may have degraded their

environment and led to their

collapse

Irrigation was the Key

to Mesopotamian

Success

•For the elite, greater

production was the goal

•Information on local

conditions would be filtered

by hierarchy

•Generations of excessive

irrigation led to salinization

and diminished productivity,

breakdown of authority, and

eventual abandonments

Is Urban Society Maladaptive?

Aggregation of people makes food

production more costly

Health diminishes with the advent of cities

Maintaining civil tranquility in larger groups

is a challenge

Cities have led to intense environmental

impact on nearby regions, further

increasing costs of production

Lessons from the Past

Humans are amazingly successful at self-organizing to promote their survival in the face of virtually any environmental challenge, but there are unanticipated costs

We manage our ecosystems according to our perception of the opportunities and our valuation of the alternatives, yet some impacts threaten our survival

In general, we transform biota so that their net yield for humans is increased while native biota are degraded, we still don’t know the result

More Lessons

Key to local sustainability is the balance of regeneration over extraction

Decision-making is often driven by short-term maximization without adequate concern for long-term consequences

Choice is between maintaining flexibility (often inefficient) versus over-specializing (and hence requiring more interdependence)

Message to take away: You can’t

go back!

The trajectory of the human career is irreversible

The totality of ecosystems are so complex that

former conditions cannot be replicated today

Humans and their ecosystems are rapidly co-

evolving

We must focus on what we value most and be

aware of the long-term implications of our

decisions