Settlement Development Notes
RAZVOJ NASELIJ 1: A book covering the evolution of settlements from prehistoric times to the industrial revolution, written in Ljubljana in 2011.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Targeted towards students of landscape architecture at the University of Ljubljana, aiming to provide foundational knowledge of urban development before the Industrial Revolution.
I. Prehistoric Background and First Traces of Cities
Early human settlements were often in natural caves or structures made of skins on wooden frames.
Neolithic settlements involved land cultivation, housing for humans and animals, and storage for food and tools.
Examples of these settlements include Lepenski Vir and Hallstatt.
Cities emerged as specialized labor freed some people from agriculture, leading to social classes and specialized crafts.
The first cities flourished in a crescent shape from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf, relying on water sources for cultivation.
These areas grew grains, fruits, and had access to water for trade and communication due to clear skies aiding navigation and time measurement.
Storable food surpluses enabled trade, leading to increased agricultural production and the rise of urban centers with technical and military power over rural areas.
During the Bronze Age (3500-1000 BC), urban civilizations were established in Mesopotamia (Sumer), the Nile Valley (Egypt), the Indus Valley (Harappan), the Yellow River (Shang), and in Central America (Aztec and Mayan), and Peru (Inca).
Mesopotamian and Egyptian cultures influenced the Greek, Roman, and Western European civilizations.
Islamic culture was influenced by Mesopotamian settlements.
The Chinese culture has maintained its continuity from the 3rd millennium BC to the 20th century AD, influencing Japan in the 8th century AD.
The focus shifts to the origins and key examples of urban settlements in Sumer (Mesopotamia) and Egypt.
II. Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia, the alluvial plain between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, developed a civilization contemporaneous with Egypt.
Historical Development
4th Millennium BC: Prehistoric period.
Before 3000 BC: Sumerians settled in Mesopotamia.
Around 3000 BC: Emergence of city-states.
3rd Millennium BC: Semitic peoples adopted Sumerian culture (Akkad, Babylonia, Assyria).
2nd Millennium BC: Babylonian state develops, known for Hammurabi and his code.
1600-1200 BC: Indo-European Hittites compete with Babylon.
1900-606 BC: Assyrian periods (Old, Middle, New Assyrian).
1850-539 BC: Babylonian periods (Old, Middle, New, Late Babylonian).
538 BC: Persian king Cyrus II conquers Babylon.
330 BC: Alexander the Great conquers Persia.
Culture
Religion and Mythology: Polytheism was prevalent among Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians, with gods like Anu, Enlil, Ea, Shamash, Ishtar, Tamuz, Marduk, and Asur.
Mesopotamian myths influenced the Jewish Bible (e.g., the story of the flood) and Greek traditions.
Art: Cuneiform writing on clay tablets, stored in libraries (e.g., Ashurbanipal's library).
The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest heroic-mythological poem.
Babylonians excelled in art, architecture, and science.
Cities and Architecture
The Fertile Crescent had favorable conditions for agriculture and urbanization.
By 5500 BC, agricultural communities formed, transitioning from higher ground to the Euphrates and Tigris valleys.
Definition of a City: A community of a certain size and density that shelters non-agricultural craftsmen and a literary elite.
Urban revolution required surplus production to support non-agricultural activities and the invention of writing for record-keeping and science.
Other requirements included social organization, transport, improved tools, metallurgy, and a calendar.
The urban revolution culminated in Sumerian city-states from 3000 BC, with distinct religion, political and military classes, technology, and trade.
Mesopotamian surplus was controlled by authorities representing deities.
Sumerian cities grew significantly in the early 3rd millennium BC, with populations in the tens of thousands.
Cities were walled or embanked, separating urban areas from the natural environment.
Temples and ziggurats were monumental and fortified. Residential buildings housed specialized craftsmen.
By mid-3rd millennium, Mesopotamian cities were independent states vying for control of the alluvial plain.
King Sargon of Akkad established a stable empire, followed by the Sumerian King of Ur, Hammurabi, and the kings of Persia and Assyria.
Typical Sumerian City: Consisting of a walled city with temples and palaces, a suburb with farms and gardens, and a port for trade.
- Ur
A leading city of the Sumerian empire during the Third Dynasty (ca. 2110–2015 BCE), located on the Euphrates River.
Features massive walls, a fortified citadel (temenos) for priests and royalty, and residential areas for the middle class.
The temenos included open urban spaces.
Houses had two stories, 13-14 rooms around a courtyard for light and air.
Streets were narrow, winding, and oriented to block desert winds and maximize shade.
Spatial Consequences of Dynastic Rule
New residential cities were built with power centered in royal palaces rather than temples.
Major cities like Babylon and Nineveh became political, commercial, and administrative centers.
- Babylon
Founded around 2000 BC by King Hammurabi, it was a rectangular city (2500m x 1500m) bisected by the Euphrates.
Enclosed within the city was a walled area for the king and priests.
Had a central temple complex with a ziggurat (the Tower of Babel).
The royal palace was part of the city's fortifications.
The western part of the city was more regularly shaped.
- Jericho and Çatal Hüyük
Jericho (5000 BC) and Çatal Hüyük (5600 BC) challenge the idea that urban civilization began in Mesopotamia.
Jericho is the lowest-lying ancient city in the world (250m below sea level).
III. Egypt
Historical Development
4th Millennium BC: Prehistoric period.
Around 3000 BC: State develops.
2000 BC: Early period and Old Kingdom.
1500 BC: Middle Kingdom.
525 BC: New Kingdom (Persian conquest).
400 BC: First Persian period.
343-332 BC: Second Persian period.
332 BC: Alexander the Great conquers Egypt, founding Alexandria.
Ptolemaic Dynasty: Established by Ptolemy (general of Alexander), lasts until 30 BC.
Roman Period: 30 BC to 395 AD.
Byzantine Period: Until the 7th century.
Arab (Islamic) Period: From the 7th century.
Ancient Egypt was a river civilization (the Nile's gift), based on a slave system with the Pharaoh and clergy at the top.
Notable rulers include Menes, Khufu, Khafre, Menkaure, Akhenaten, Tutankhamun, and Ramses II.
Culture
A strong, important culture emerged over millennia. Egyptian religion was polytheistic with monotheistic elements (e.g., Akhenaten's solar god Aten).
Mythology was intricate with various gods, including Amon, Ra, Ptah, Aton, Osiris, Set, Isis, Nephthys, Horus, Thoth, Anubis, Hathor, Sekhmet, and Apis.
The myth of Osiris and Isis involves death and resurrection.
- Art
Egyptian writing (hieroglyphic, hieratic, demotic).
Hieroglyphs deciphered by J. F. Champollion in the early 19th century.
Excellent visual art and architecture (statues, frescoes, pyramids, temples).
Cities and Architecture
Nile floods destroyed early settlements, making their study difficult.
Only stone remains of monuments, tombs, and temples are preserved, while houses and palaces are lost.
Egypt developed differently from Mesopotamia, becoming a unified state around 3100 BC.
Egyptian society was highly developed by the 3rd millennium BC, seen in monumental architecture like the Great Pyramid of Giza (ca. 2600 BC).
Kings controlled communities and assumed local deities' power.
Pharaohs were divine rulers, responsible for harvests and Nile floods.
Surplus was used for public works, building cities and temples, and constructing monumental tombs.
Internal peace allowed early cultural development.
- Memphis
Founded by Menes around 3100 BC near the Nile delta, surrounded by a white wall.
Temples and pyramids were built outside the walls.
Few urban remains exist; religious objects survived because durable materials were used for tombs and temples.
Urban areas were made of sun-dried mud bricks and were lost to annual Nile floods.
Each Pharaoh built a residence near their tomb, with the town growing around the palace.
After the Pharaoh's death, the town was left to priests for maintaining the cult and tomb.
- Tel-el-Amarna
Tel-el-Amarna existed for only 40 years. Akhenaten moved the seat of power to Amarna because of his problematic religious reforms.
The city was abandoned after his death, never to be revived.
The city was not fortified, with the walls only surrounding the central temple and the northern palace.
The layout of the settlement suggests minimal planning and the absence of zoning.
- Kahun
Built around 1835 BC by Pharaoh Senusret II. It consisted of the pyramid area, temple area, and the town with a street grid for workers.
Later, the town was inhabited by priests and officials.
The town functioned religiously. Every home had an atrium, and the houses varied in size depending on the status of the inhabitants.
- Thebes
The Middle Kingdom's capital, still divided into a residential part (city of the living) on the Nile's right bank and a necropolis on its left bank.
The most impressive temples, Karnak and Luxor, were on the right bank, while the necropolis was hidden in the mountains on the left bank.
The fields beside the Nile were divided into an orthogonal network with the river as a longitudinal axis.
Space planning and architecture rounded and articulated the district's natural structure with the goal of spatial structured literacy, which gave the Egyptian individual an existential identity and security.
IV. The Free City in Greece
Historical Development
By about 1200 BC, Greek tribes began settling in what is now Greece.
Greeks encountered the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations (high point mid-2nd millennium BC).
Key Greek tribes were the Dorians, Ionians, Aeolians, and Achaeans.
Greeks colonized Asia Minor (around 1100 BC) and Sicily and southern Italy (8th century BC; this relates to the myth of Troy and the Argonauts).
Greek trading posts were scattered throughout the Mediterranean.
Fragmented geography led to independent city-states (poleis).
Key poleis were Athens and Sparta.
5th century BC: The Greeks fought Persia in the Greco-Persian Wars. Athens reached its peak under Pericles. The Peloponnesian War saw Athens defeated.
4th century BC: The power of Macedonia rises. Philip of Macedon ends the independence of Greek cities. His son, Alexander the Great, conquered Persia, the Near East, and reached India.
Alexander’s empire was divided among his generals, creating Hellenistic states (Ptolemaic Egypt, Seleucid Syria and Persia, Antigonid Macedonia and Greece). Alexandria became a cultural center.
2nd century BC: The Roman Empire conquers Greece and most of the Hellenistic world, incorporating Greek culture. The Byzantine period followed.
Culture
Religion and Mythology: The Greek religion was polytheistic with anthropomorphism. Greek mythology reflected the entire natural and social system. The creation myth involved Chaos, Gaia (Earth), Uranus (Sky), Titans, and finally, Olympian gods led by Zeus.
Art: Art in ancient Greece is divided into three periods: (1) Archaic period, (2) Classical period, and (3) Hellenistic period.
The main Greek epics are the Iliad and the Odyssey, attributed to Homer.
Greek drama originated in the cult of Dionysus and included tragedies and comedies. Greek drama was theorized by Aristotle.
- Key Tragedies:
Aeschylus: Prometheus Bound, Oresteia
Sophocles: Theban Trilogy (Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone)
Euripides: Medea, Hippolytus
Greek philosophy is divided by the time of Socrates. Pre-Socratic philosophers were Solon, Chilon, Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Leucippus, Democritus, Gorgias, and Protagoras.
Socrates was known for his conversational (Socratic) method and was sentenced to death for