Urbanization

Definition

by Joshua J. Mark
published on 07 April 2014

Urbanization is the process by which rural communities grow to form cities, or urban centers,
and, by extension, the growth and expansion of those cities. Urbanization began in
ancient Mesopotamia in the Uruk Period (4300-3100 BCE) for reasons scholars have not yet
agreed on. It is speculated, however, that a particularly prosperous and efficient village attracted
the attention of other, less prosperous, tribes who then attached themselves to the successful
settlement.
The historian Lewis Mumford notes that:
...though permanent villages date only from Neolithictimes, the habit of resorting to caves for the
collective performance of magical ceremonies seems to date back to an earlier periodThe outline of
the city as both an outward form and an inward pattern of life might be found in such assemblages (1).
This process, then, gave rise to the densely populated centers which came to be known as 'cities.
The historian Helen Chapin Metz proposes that the growth of the cities in Mesopotamia was the
result of the inhabitants struggling to cope with the environment. She writes:
The civilized life that emerged at Sumer was shaped by two conflicting factors: the unpredictability of
the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which at any time could unleash devastating floods that wiped out entire
peoples, and the extreme fecundity of the river valleys, caused by centuries-old deposits of soil. Thus,
while the river valleys of southern Mesopotamia attracted migrations of neighboring peoples and made
possible, for the first time in history, the growing of surplus food, the volatility of the rivers necessitated
a form of collective management to protect the marshy, low-lying land from flooding. As surplus
production increased and as collective management became more advanced, a process of urbanization
evolved and Sumerian civilization took root (2).
The Rise of the City
The earliest city to rise in the region of Mesopotamia is considered by modern-day scholars to be
Uruk, around 4500 BCE, and then that of Ur around 3800 BCE, both of which were then situated in
proximity to the banks of the Euphrates River. To the Sumerians, however, the first city
was Eridu which was founded in 5400 BCE but probably was not a `city' in the same way that
Uruk or Ur would be defined (see definition of City). In the myth of Inanna and the God of
Wisdom, the dictates of civilization, known as the meh, are taken from Eridu to Uruk and it is
thought the subject of this poem represents the shift in paradigm from a more pastoral way of life
(symbolized by Eridu) to one more urbanized (represented by Uruk). The structure of the city, and
the security of urban living, seems to have attracted the populace of the region to urban centers
although the theory has been suggested that the populace was forcibly removed from agricultural
holdings and re-located in the cities whose rulers then appropriated the lands for the state. This
theory, however, fails to account for the continuation of urbanization throughout the history of
Mesopotamia or its replication in other nations.
By the year 2600 BCE Ur was a thriving metropolis and, by 2900 BCE, was a walled city with a
population of approximately 65,000. Urbanization, however, continued as the city expanded out
from the center and, in time, the once fertile fields which fed the populace were depleted. The
over-use of the land, combined with a mysterious shift in the Euphrates which drew the waters
away from the city, resulted in the complex finally being abandoned around 500 BCE. Eridu, for
perhaps similar reasons, was abandoned in 600 BCE and Uruk in 650 BCE. Though many factors
no doubt contributed to the decline of cities such as Ur (Sargon of Akkad plundered the city in
2340 BCE, for example, and repeated military excursions against the city persisted through the
ages with the Elamites finally sacking the city in 1750 BCE), it has been suggested that
urbanization and, especially, the over-use of the surrounding lands for farming, was a central
cause.
Urbanization & Overuse of Resources

At the center of Ur, as with all of the cities in ancient Mesopotamia, was the great temple which
was the locale of ceremonial, commercial and social functions. Religious activities, such as
festivals, were the main social gatherings of the time and these occasions were often used to
distribute surplus food and supplies to the populace of the city. The priests of the temple, who
were also the rulers of the city from about 3400 BCE, were responsible for this distribution and
relied heavily on the farmers of the region to supply such surplus as they needed (a role which
would eventually be taken over by the king, as royalty superseded the priestly class in power in
the third millennium BCE with the emergence of the warrior-king known as the 'Lugal, meaning
Big Man). This excess production of the countryside not only supplied the population of the city
with food but also increased long-distance trade with other cities along the Euphrates such as
Tikrit and Eridu. As urbanization continued, however, the need for more and yet more raw
materials depleted the natural resources of the region and, eventually, led to a lack of necessary
assets and the abandonment of the city.
Egypts Answer to Urbanization

Urbanization spread from Mesopotamia to Egypt and, from there, to Greece and it seems, early
on, that the lesson of the city of Ur, and others, was heeded by later urban centers. In Egypt,
especially, great care was taken with the land to prevent the less desirable consequences of
urbanization from toppling the great cities of Pharaoh so that focus could remain steady on
cultural aspects such as the development ofwriting, architecture, laws, administration, sanitation,
trade, and craftsmanship (all thought to have originated in Mesopotamia at Uruk). Professor
George Modelski, of the University of Washington, writes:
Some students of the ancient era have been known to argue that, unlike Mesopotamia, Egypt lacked
anything that could be regarded as cities in modern terms. That great country did have temples,
palaces, and cemeteries, often of monumental proportions, as early as the fourth and third millennia,
but its capitals seem to have lacked remarkable size and have left little evidence either of intellectual life
or of commercial activity. As John A. Wilson put it: `For nearly three thousand years, until the founding
of Alexandria, Ancient Egypt was a civilization without a single major city.
This claim, however, is countered by Professor M.E. Smith of Arizona State University who claims
that:
Because archaeologists have failed to find large cities in Egypt prior to Akhenatens capital at Amarna in
the New Kingdom period (1350 BCE) Egypt has sometimes been contrasted to Mesopotamia as a
`civilization without cities. This label masks a distinctive form of urbanism, howeverEgypt did not lack
cities; rather its urban systems were structured differently from the more familiar form of Mesopotamian
cities (The Sage Encyclopedia of Urban Studies, 26).
Egypt, it seems, understood both the benefits and the costs of urbanization and opted for
dispersed urbanization characterized by smaller, more specialized urban settlements (26). This
same paradigm holds true for the urban centers of the Maya, at least in their planning, but the
seemingly universal progression of urbanization led to the depletion of natural resources and, as
Smith notes,
Nearly all ancient urban societies engaged in deforestation, often with disastrous consequences for soils
and the water table. In temperate latitudes forests were cut down for firewood and construction
materialsIn tropical forest settings, forests were cleared for agricultural production. Most ancient cities
were ultimately destroyed or abandoned (27).
The Rise & Fall of Cities
The artificial environment of the city, which subjugated the surrounding natural environment to
the needs of the populace, consistently is seen to eventually deplete and destroy the very
resources which gave rise to the city. As urbanization increased, rural lands decreased and, as
Mumford writes,
...the blind forces of urbanization, flowing along the lines of least resistance, show no aptitude for
creating an urban and industrial pattern that will be stable, self-sustaining, and self-renewing. On the
contrary, as congestion thickens and expansion widens, both the urban and the rural landscape undergo
defacement and degradation, while the unprofitable investments in the remediesserve only to promote
more of the blight and disorder they seek to palliate (14).
This cycle of rise and fall of cities is seen repeatedly in many cultures around the world. Why it
happened so frequently in some regions, such as Mesopotamia, and not in others, such as Greece,
is a question still debated by scholars and historians. Some assert it is simply a matter of over-
population (as in the case of the Maya) while others point to an overuse of the land (as at Ur and
other Mesopotamian cities). Neither answer is completely satisfactory and most likely it is a
combination of many factors, a lack of forethought among them, which led to the destruction or
abandonment of so many ancient cities.