1

The Archaeology of Early Cities

Seminar, Winter 2005. Anthrarc 683
Thursdays, 4-7
Frieze Bldg 3065

Provisional syllabus
(Final syllabus depends on seminarians’ regional and topical interests)

Description

The development and nature of cities have been critical subjects in archaeology (Childe,
Adams), sociology (Marx, Weber, Wirth, Jacobs), in classical history and archaeology
(Finley, Welles, Hammond), in geography (Sjoberg, Mumford, Ryckwert, Soja), and in
history and anthropology (Southall, Wheatley)—to name but a few contributors to these
subjects. Recently, many new studies on the archaeology of cities tend to consider “the
spatialization of social life,” “the being together of strangers,” and that cities are not
simply material or lived spaces but also spaces of the imagination and of representation.
For some, cities are potential spaces of freedom away from the conservatism and idiocy
of rural life. For others, cities must tamed and ordered and made predictable.

In this seminar we shall read from the latest theoretical literature (Monica Smith, ed., B.
Trigger, A. Smith, N. Yoffee, E. Soja, M.H. Hansen, ed.), classical studies (Finley,
Wirth), and new, specific studies of early cities (Mashkan-shapir, Zhengzhou, Tiwanaku,
Teotihuacan, Copan, Athens, Hellenistic cities, Vijayanagara, and/or others (including
historical archaeological studies, according to the interests of those in the seminar).

Requirements: weekly assignments and discussion, term-paper (that will be distributed to

the seminar members for critique).

Seminar meetings (and very provisional reading list—first attempt 11/29/04)

1. Th, Jan. 6 Introduction

2. Th, Jan. 13 The social construction of ancient cities: new readings

Monica Smith, ed., 2003. The Social Construction of Ancient Cities. Washington
DC: Smithsonian Institution Press (Chapters as assigned in seminar meeting).
 2

3. Th, Jan. 20 Views of ancient cities: foundation literature (selection)

(from Richard T. LeGates and Frederic Stout, ed., 1996 [2nd ed.], The City
Reader. London: Routledge): Childe, Mumford, Wirth

V. Gordon Childe (1950), “The Urban Revolution,” 22-30.

(orig. in Town Planning Review 21: 3-17)

Lewis Mumford (1937), “What is a City,” 92-96

(for more see The City in History [1961], 11-113)

Louis Wirth (1938), “Urbanism as a Way of Life,” 97-105

(orig. in American Journal of Sociology 44: 1-24)

M.I. Finley (1981), The Ancient City: From Fustel de Coulanges to Max Weber
and Beyond. In Economy and Society in Ancient Greece, ed. by B.D. Shaw and
R.P. Saller, pp. 3-23. London
and
(1987-9), The City. Opus 6-8: 303-313

Gideon Sjoberg (1965), The Origin and Evolution of Cities. Cities: Their Origin,
Growth and Human Impact. (Readings from Scientific American), ed. Kingsley
Davis, pp. 19-27. (See The Preindustrial City 1960: 1-24, 321-344)

Paul Wheatley (1971). Pivot of the Four Quarters. Edinburgh, pp. 225-240, 267-
283, 289-294, 298-330

Max Weber (1921;1958), The City. New York: Free Press pp. 9-62 (preface by D.
Martindale, The Nature of the City, 65-90)

R. Redfield and M. Singer (1954). The Cultural Role of Cities. Economic

Development and Social Change 3: 53-73

Robert Park (1925). The City. Suggestions for Investigation of Human Behavior
in the Urban Environment. In (book of same title, edited by R. Park and E.W.
Burgess). Midway Reprint 1984: 1-46

S.N. Eisenstadt and A. Schachar (1987). Theories of Urbanization. In Society,

Culture, and Urbanization. Newbury Park, CA: Sage (pp. 21-75).

Some notes for seminar meeting 1/20:

At the start I made some claims: the earliest cities evolved as supernovas; that is, the
evolution from villages to cities was rapid. As cities grew in size, the countryside was
often depopulated; thus, the countryside was created, and it existed in relation to the new
 3

cities. (Then, the countryside evolved in a more complicated relation to cities: it was
partly dependent on cities, and it was partly a refuge from cities). Furthermore, the
demographic “implosion” that resulted in communities of “strangers” living in
unprecedented, densely populated cities further resulted in the creation of new
governmental institutions and new ideologies of power. States (namely administrative
systems and the territory they controlled) was created in cities; history was given new
meaning in the earliest cities, and the earliest cities serve as foci of meaning for later
historical thinking.

Last week, Monica Smith et al. claimed that cities don’t need states, and the McIntoshes
claim that cities (in Africa) exist without states. Smith et al. want to look at “ordinary
lifeways” in cities. There are similarities between modern and ancient cities, which
makes analogies useful.

For this week:

1. Assess Monica Smith claims. What is new in the authors’ claims to be new in 2004’s
idea of “the social construction of cities”? What are ordinary lifeways? Are there
similarities between modern and ancient cities?

2. There were some questions from our look at Smith that we want to keep in mind:
How are cities “generative” of new structures, beliefs, identities? How is the city a
symbol (and of what)? Can we study cities without countrysides? What are intra-city
institutions?

3. We shall proceed through our readings, which are “foundations” of thinking about
cities in modern scholarship. (Perhaps we should have read Aristotle, too?). Have the
Monica Smith gang missed something by not having read these guys (all are guys).

4. Let’s discuss two central archaeological issues this week and following
--What do archaeologists know about cities that other scholars don’t?
--Should archaeologists build an “archaeological theory” of cities? How can this
be done?

4. Th, Jan. 27 The city as a unique landscape

Gary Bridge and Sophie Watson (2000). City Imaginaries. In A Companion to the
City, pp. 7-17. Oxford: Blackwell. (Also in this book, see the sections by the
authors on City Economies, pp. 101-114, City Differences, pp. 251-260, City
Publics, pp. 369-379, City Interventions, pp. 505-516.

Edward Soja, 2000. , Putting Cities First: Remapping the Origins

of Urbanism. In A Companion to the City, ed. by Gary Bridge and Sophie Watson,
pp. 26-34. Oxford: Blackwell. (For reference: Postmetropolis. Critical Studies of
Cities and Regions. Oxford: Blackwell, pp 1-46 (-70).
 4

John Rennie Short (1996), The Urban Order: An Introduction to Cities, Culture,
and Power. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 1-67. For seminar read: Three Urban
Discourses (2000). In A Companion to the City, ed. by Gary Bridge and Sophie
Watson, pp. 18-25.

Adam Smith, 2003. The Political Landscape. Constellations of Authority in Early

Complex Societies. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 30-77.

James Scott (1998), Seeing Like a State. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1-8,
11-52, 53-83.

[Summary of seminar assignments: 1. in Bridge and Watson, eds. 7-17, 18-25,

101-114. 2. in Bridge and Watson, eds. 251-260, 369-379, 505-516. 3. Smith, pp.
30-77. 4. Scott, pp. 1-8, 11-52 5. Scott, pp. 53-83.]

For reference (some classics and new stuff):

Joseph Ryckwert (1976/1995), The Idea of a Town: The Anthropology of Urban

Form in Rome, Italy and the Ancient World. esp. pp., 28-71, 188-202.

Robin Fox (1977) Urban Anthropology: Cities in the Cultural Setting. Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall

Richard Blanton (1976), Anthropological Studies of Cities. Annual Review of

Anthropology 5: 249-264

Sharon Zukin (1995/1996), in City Reader, ed. by Le Gates and Stout (previously
cited), 131-142.

Aidan Southall (1998), The City in Time and Space. Cambridge: CUP (1-85 on
ancient cities—not particularly new or even good).

Notes for our meeting on Jan. 27

1. I still haven’t learned where the lecture at 4 will be and shall inform you as soon as I
do. (Lecture by James Brooks on the Hopi site of Awatovi).

2. We’ll start with a recap of our “seminar paper” (“Excavating Cities: Pasts and Futures
of the Archaeology of Urban Places”). I’m still not satisfied with the title. If you have
ideas, we’ll discuss these. On Feb 3, you will submit your own outline of and comments
on the paper. (You’ll all submit this to me only, and when I’ve got all of them, I’ll
distribute to the group).

3. Basic outline
1. Introduction: archaeological practice and the study of urbanism
(We’ll go over this in seminar again. How did we get where we are, and where are
 5

we?).

2. Back to the future? (critique of “M. Smith” and lack of knowledge of and
engagement with modern urban theory).

3. What do archaeologists know

Evolutionary processes: speed, transformation of the countryside, city-states;
spaces are not “passive” reflections of social change

Cities are symbols; ancient cities are not like modern cities; there are lots of parts
in cities (“integration” theory is dead).

4. What do archs want to know about cities? (we’ve left this for your own charts
and lists of physical things and social relations)

5. Archaeologists and change in cities

6. Case-studies: Jerusalem, Rome, Taxila (please start working on a theme for

your papers and a bibliography!).

(The final papers will all recap in a few pages the five sections and then proceed
to the case-study and a conclusion that states how the study relates to the
preamble).

You should orient your discussions of the readings for today (in Bridge and Watson,
Smith, and Scott) to speak to sections of the outline—characteristics of cities (what do
archs want to know—how do these studies orient the investigation) and how are modern
cities different than ancient ones (for example).

5. Th, Feb 3 Cities and city-states

Bruce Trigger, 2004. Understanding Early Civilizations. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press. Read: States: City and Territorial (92-119) Urbanism (120-141)
Culture and Reason & Conclusion (653-688)

Mogens Herman Hansen (2000) A Comparative Study of Thirty City-State

Cultures. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Polis Centre, Reitzels Forlag. Introduction:
The Concepts of City-State and City State Culture. 11-34; Conclusion: The
Impact of City-State Cultures in World History (597-623)

Kurt Raaflaub (1990), City-State, Territory and Empire in Classical Antiquity. In

City-States in Classical Antiquity and Medieval Italy, ed. by Al Molho, K.
Raaflaub, and J. Emlen, pp. 565-588. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press
 6

6. Th, Feb. 10 Greek and Hellenistic cities (and Rome and Roman cities)

Diane Favro (1996), The Urban Image of Augustan Rome. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press (read ch. 3 “The Republican Urban Image” and ch. 5 Structure
Building an Urban Image.

James Whitley (2001), The Archaeology of Ancient Greece. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press. Ch. 12, Cities and Sanctuaries of Classical Greece
(pp. 294-328), Ch. 13, The Archaeology of Democracy: Classical Athens (pp.
329-375).

Richard Billows (2003). Cities. In A Companion to the Hellenistic World, ed. by

Andrew Erskine, pp.196-215. Oxford: Blackwell

Public Honour and Private Shame: The Urban Texture of Pompeii (pp. 39-62) and
The Organization of Space in Pompeii (pp. 63-78). In T. Cornell and K. Lomas,
eds. (1995), Urban Society in Roman Italy. London: UCL Press

Other readings of interest:

Andrew Bell (2004), Spectacular Power in the Greek and Roman City. Oxford:
Oxford University Press

Richard Alston (2002), The City in Roman and Byzantine Egypt. London:
Routledge

Ian Morris (1991), The Early Polis as City and State. In City and Country in the
Ancient World, ed. by J. Rich and A. Wallace-Hadrill, pp. 25-57. London

John Camp (2001), The Archaeology of Athens. New Haven: Yale University
Press

H. Parkins (1997), Roman Urbanism: The Consumer City

William V. Harris and Giovanni Ruffini, eds. Ancient Alexandria Between Greece
and Egypt. Columbia Studies in the Classical Tradition 26
 7

7. Th, Feb 17 New studies of early cities

Paul Wheatley (2001), The Places Where Men Pray Together: Cities in Islamic
Lands, seventh through tenth centuries. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
(read pp. [227-263, 263-326], 327-337)

Nikolai Grube (2000). In A Comparative Study of Thirty-three City-State

Cultures, ed. by Mogens Herman Hansen, pp. 547-566.

Carla Sinopoli (2003), Vijayanagara: The Historical Setting. In Carla Sinopoli,

The Political Economy of Craft Production: Crafting Empire in South India, c.
1350-1650. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. [63-118], 295-315

George Cowgill (2004), Origins and Development of Urbanism: Archaeological

Perspectives. Annual Review of Anthropology 33: 525-542

C.R. Whittaker, Do Theories of Ancient City Matter? in Cornell and Lomas, eds.
1995 (see last week): 9-26 and L. Capogrossi Colognesi, The Limits of the
Ancient City and the Evolution of the Medieval City in the Thought of Max
Weber, pp. 27-38.

Related studies, chiefly on Islamic cities (see bibliographies by M Bonine for

much more):

Eugen Wirth (2000), Die orientalische Stadt im islamischen Vorderasien und

Nordafricka: staedtische Bausubstanz und raeumliche Ordnung, Wirtschaftsleben
und soziale Organisation. Mainz: Von Zabern

A.H. Hourani and S.M. Stern, eds. (1970), The Islamic City

Ira Lapidus, ed. (1969), Middle Eastern Cities

Gernot Wilhelm, ed. (1997), Die orientalische Stadt. Saarbruecken

 8

Archaeology of early cities: research questions, variables of urbanism, orientations for

introduction of papers. All term papers should have some introductory section about what
your study contributes to the topic of the archaeology of urbanism (or however you with
to phrase it. This should also be reflected in the title of your paper, for example: “The
archaeology of xxx: a study in urban xxxx”). The following is an attempt to summarize
some of the things we have been reading. (2-17-05)

1. Formal criteria (more or less after Weber)

Dense population.
Neighborhoods, class/status groups, occupational groups, ethnicity and social
orientations. Archaeological measurements of size, distribution of urban sections,
markers of social orientation.

Relation to hinterland.
Cities as transformations in landscapes. Services to hinterlands (indeed, defining
the hinterland as such): religious sites, markets, defense. Regional settlement
patterns.

Local controls and identity-formation.

Independent/city-state; local authorities in law and decision-making; councils.
Forum, agora, council-houses. Symbols of the city (emblem glyphs, patron
deities.

2. Variables in the appearance of cities, historical aspects of development, urban

landscapes as providing for action (or preventing action)
Culture-belief systems
Temples, charitable foundations (waqf), (Buddhist) monuments and symbols, art,
education.

Administration.
Palaces, courts, public displays (ciudadela at Teo.), bureaucrats, army
encampments, symbols of state

Economy.
Markets, crafts, workshops, taxes, rural rents.

3. The city as “arena” or as the “institution of institutions” (Wheatley). “Integrating”

division of labor, etc., that is, the landscape in which other institutions of society,
economy, and culture are interrelated.

4. Time.
Rise of cities from environment of non-cities; transformation of the regional
landscape; e.g., Jerusalem.
Change: cities change drastically when taken over by other cultures, political systems,
 9

social orientations. E.g., Islam takes over existing cities; Taxila (?).

5. Cities as inescapable (?) ineluctable (?) points-of-entry into studies of states.

States created in cities (arguable, anyway); “history” as collective memory is
created in cities. The past must lead to cities/there was no time before
cities.
Cities as landscapes that are planned or which grow but in either case needing
“order” and “simplification” in eyes of rulers (after Scott)
Cities as landscapes for resisting projects of rulers. (Note that Scott doesn’t
consider cities as doing this; he’s only worried about resistance in the
countryside.)
Cities as attractions for those in countryside; also countryside as refuge from
those in cities; in either case, the existence of the city is critical
Cities as theaters for playing out dramas of dominance, hegemony, social order.

8. Th, Feb. 24 Mesopotamian cities

Marc Van De Mieroop (1997), The Ancient Mesopotamian City. Oxford:

Clarendon Press, read pp. 1-22, 63-100, 248-263

Aage Westenholz (2002), The Sumerian City-State. In A Comparative Study of

Six City-State Cultures, ed. by Mogens Herman Hansen, pp. 23-42

Elizabeth Stone and Paul Zimansky (2004), The Anatomy of a Mesopotamian

City: Survey and Soundings at Mashkan-shapir. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, pp.
1-8, 326-380

Elizabeth Stone (1999), The Constraints on State and Urban Form in Ancient
Mesopotamia. In Urbanism and the Economy in the Ancient Near East, ed. by
Michael Hudson and Baruch Levine, pp. 203-227. Cambridge: Peabody Museum

9. Th, Mar. 10 Social evolutionary theory and cities

Norman Yoffee (2004), Myths of the Archaic State: Evolution of the Earliest
Cities, States, and Civilizations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
(meeting will take place without NY)

10. Th, Mar 17 Cities in the New World?: Cahokia and Chaco Canyon

Timothy Pauketat (2004), Cahokia and the Mississippians. Cambridge:

 10

Cambridge University Press (read chs. 1,3,5,8)

Jill Neitzel, ed. (2003), Pueblo Bonito. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution
Press (conclusion by Neitzel: 143-149

David Grant Noble, ed. (2004), In Search of Chaco: New Approaches to an

Archeaological Enigma. (Read 1-6 Judge; 123-130; Mills)

John Kantner (2004),

11. Th, Mar 24 Discussion of papers in-progress.

12. Th, Mar. 31 No meeting. Research and office hours

13. Th, Apr. 7 Presentation of seminar papers

14. Th, Apr. 14 Presentation of seminar papers