MJ

Early Urban Planning Handout NOTES

Çatalhöyük: Present-Day Turkey

  • Name origin: Çatalhöyük derives from Turkish, ut çatal meaning fork and höyük meaning tumulus; the name reflects the site’s mound-like structures built up over time.

  • Settlement timeline: began ca. 7500 BC; one of the largest Neolithic proto-cities; growth occurred organically with no overall urban planning or centralized political rule.

  • Urban form and decline: evidence shows an overall decline before the Bronze Age, contrasting with later organized cities; suggests complexities of early urban life without centralized order.

  • Urban features (or lack thereof): no streets and no obvious public buildings or spaces; the city developed through layering of housing and spaces rather than a planned grid.

The Americas: Ancestral Puebloans (formerly Anasazi)

  • Terminology shift: Anasazi term comes from the Navajo word Anaasází, meaning ancient enemies; deemed inappropriate and historically inaccurate; current scholarship prefers Ancestral Puebloans.

  • Cliff Palace and environment: cliff dwellings built into alcoves and cliff overhangs; notable examples include Cliff Palace, with images depicting cliff-dwelling architecture in the Four Corners region.

Ancestral Puebloan Environments

  • Cliff dwellings: early Ancestral Puebloans built stone and adobe structures protected by cliff overhangs; designs optimized for defense, shade, and access to arid environments.

  • Four Corners region: region where cliff dwellings are especially well preserved; cross-section illustrations provide insight into construction and habitation patterns.

White House Ruins (Canyon de Chelly)

  • Location: Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona.

  • Significance: preserves evidence of ancient Ancestral Puebloan habitation and a landscape shaped by cliff dwelling living.

The Mississippian Period (AD 1100–1541)

  • Maize introduction: Mesoamerican maize agriculture fostered advances in sustenance, surplus, and settlement organization.

  • Settlement pattern: smaller villages evolved into farmsteads surrounding a central ceremonial center, creating a hub-and-spoke dynamic.

  • Social and economic features: funerary mound construction, hierarchical societies based on chiefdoms, and long-distance trade networks.

Cahokia City (ca. 700–1400)

  • Significance: largest archaeological site in pre-Columbian North America; among the greatest urban centers north of Mexico’s major pre-contact cities.

  • Site prominence: Cahokia represents a complex urban-center-fueled society with monumental architecture and extensive trade.

  • Notable sources: referenced in contemporary reporting on new studies related to Cahokia and indigenous histories.

Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site

  • Central feature: Monks Mound was the central mound at Cahokia, the key focal point of the city.

  • Construction sequence: archaeologists believe as many as 10 separate construction stages occurred over several centuries, progressively widening and heightening the mound.

First Migrations in Pre-historic Caribbean

  • Island population movements: charted migrations into the Caribbean landscape.

  • Timeline snapshot (courtesy of Hofman and Hoogland):

  • 4000-3000 ext{ BC} Arawak migration

  • 300 ext{ BC} First native groups

  • 600 ext{ AD} Native cultures

  • 1000-1200 ext{ CE} Archaic or Pre- Agroceramic Ostionoids (Pre-Taíno), Saladoids, Huecoids, Taíno, Guanahatabey (Western Cuba), Igneri, Kalinago or Caribs

Taíno Culture (1200–1500s)

  • Geographic breadth at time of Spanish contact: principal inhabitants of the Greater Antilles.

  • Settlement scale: communities with up to 2,000 dwellings.

  • Built environments: settlements called yucayeques organized around a central plaza known as batey.

  • Batey features: framed by monolithic stones; batey served as the site for the areito (ceremonial dance) and the batú (ceremonial ball game).

Taíno batey and ceremonial spaces

  • Taíno batey as a ceremonial-urban core example: central open space framed by monumental stones used for ritual and social activities.

  • Indigenous ceremonial sites: examples include Caguana and other ceremonial centers in Puerto Rico, illustrating the built environment’s ceremonial function.

The built environment in prehistoric societies

  • Variation in materials and methods: settlements and their environments differed across regions and time periods.

  • Notable dwelling types (examples across regions): Tipi, Yurt, Igloo, Bohío.

Tipi

  • Regions and use: used by Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies, and by some Plateau peoples west of the Rocky Mountains.

  • Current use: largely ceremonial or traditional; not typically primary shelter today.

  • Visual references: historical depictions and educational resources illustrate tipi construction.

Yurt (ger)

  • Definition and use: large circular tent, wool felt over a wooden frame; primary dwelling of nomadic peoples of the Asian steppe since prehistory.

  • Cultural prominence: associated with nomadic life in Mongolia and other regions; modern resilience as identifying feature of nomadic communities.

  • Visual references: Mongol encampments and yurt images show durable, portable shelter design.

Igloo

  • Cultural context: built by Inuit and other Arctic peoples as temporary winter shelters during hunting seasons.

  • History: evidence of use in Arctic communities long before written language; exact invention date is unknown.

  • Structural features (see diagram): ventilation hole, living and resting area, optional window, passageway and storage space.

Igloo see-through side view diagram (illustrative features)

  • Diagram highlights sequence: ventilation holes, living spaces, and access routes necessary for winter survivability.

Bohío (Taíno hut)

  • Terminology and use: Bohío is a Taíno term meaning hut or house; used by Taíno communities in the Antilles during the pre-conquest period.

  • Modern usage: Bohío today broadly refers to Taíno pre-Hispanic huts; prior to European contact, shapes and sizes varied.

  • Structural variations:

    • Caney: rectangular hut; occupied by the Cacique (chief).

    • Bohío: circular hut; used by ordinary Taínos.

  • Visual reference: early 1900s Bohío in Puerto Rico, illustrating traditional Taíno housing forms.

Final notes and connections

  • Across these slides, early urban and dwelling forms show a spectrum from planned or unplanned urban life (Çatalhöyük) to highly centralized mound-centered polities (Cahokia) to dispersed, clan-based and ceremonial architectural traditions (Taíno, Ancestral Puebloans).

  • Terminology shifts reflect broader ethical and scholarly responsibilities, such as adopting the term Ancestral Puebloans instead of Anasazi.

  • The built environment demonstrates how climate, resources, and social organization shape shelter and public space, with rooftop activity, religious niches, and burial practices integrated into domestic architecture in some societies.

  • These notes connect to broader themes in urban planning and archaeology: the interplay between residential density, ceremonial centers, and trade networks; adaptation to diverse environments; and how material culture encodes social and spiritual life.