over 148 acres (60 hectares), the
latter city had a population of maybe
50,000 as well as crucial urban
infrastructure in the form of a
sophisticated sewage system.
Commerce And Conflict
Because trade was such an
important aspect of these early
urban civilizations, long-distance
commercial networks grew by sea
and land. These included ports, such
as Byblos (Lebanon), founded
c.3100bce, as well as Dilmun
(Bahrain) and Ras al-Junayz (Oman)
to link the eastern maritime centers,
and trading cities and colonies
across the South Asian inland
hinterland, such as Shortughai
along the Oxus River in northern
Afghanistan, c.2500bce.
Competing interests and the need
to maintain control and security
encouraged the walling of
settlements in anticipation of
large-scale conflict. The first empire
in western Asia was founded in about
2300bce by Sargon, who united the
city-states of Sumer (southern
Mesopotamia) and conquered
neighboring regions. An empire
based on the city of Ur followed.
Protected by encircling walls and
a fortress, Ur was linked to the
Euphrates River by canals, which
provided another inter-urban form
of transportation network for trade.
Later came the Babylonian empire of
Hammurabi (reigned 1790-1750bce).
With places such as Babylon, cities
became further associated with
84
learning, culture, the law, and man’s
management and modelling of nature.
Persians in 539bce.
A Babylonian clay tablet from about
600bce provides the earliest known
evidence of world mapping, though the
purpose of the map is unclear. The world
map centers on Mesopotamia, with
Babylon shown as an elongated
rectangle. Parallel lines running to and
from it represent the River Euphrates.
All these symbols are contained within a
circle that represents the ocean. If this
map could be interpreted as revealing a
sense of cultural self-confidence,
perhaps it is no coincidence that
cities also became the focus of empires
engaging in territorial conquest, helping
to expand the influence of urban
civilization and offering up a template
for successful replication.
In ancient China, then as now the
world’s most populous country, a
strong economy, built upon the
production of millet and rice,
combined with a sophisticated
administrative system that meant
the state was able to support a large
urban population. Under the Shang
Dynasty (c.1800-1027bce), there
were a number of capital cities,
notably Erlitou and Anyang. Its Zhou
successor (1027-403bce) again had
a number of capitals: it is from the
Zhou Dynasty that we have the first
documented city planning. The
principles of Zhou urban design,
which continued to underpin Chinese
grid layouts into the modern era,
were based upon a holy square system
derived from a mixture of cosmology,
astrology, geomancy, and numerology.
The stone reliefs from the palace of
Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian
Empire (c.950-612bce), depict sieges
of cities. In turn, the Babylonian
Empire under Nebuchadnezzer II
extended to Palestine, where
Jerusalem was destroyed in 587bce,
only to be overthrown in turn by the
Cities – A Global Phenomenon
During the Qin Dynasty (221206bce), there was a series of
administrative centers under the
imperial capital of Xianyang. This
was also the case in the Han era