Trevor Jones, Period 7 9/8/14
Thoughts and Reflections on How Man Invented Cities
Source: John Pfeiffer
How Did Man Invent Cities? Where Did He Invent Them? Why Did He Invent Them?
Some historians used to think that people only lived as hunters and gatherers until a better alternative became available. This is in fact false. Hunter-gatherers only had to spend an average of 20 hours per week searching for food and necessities to keeping themselves alive, thats the equivalent to a part time job in society today. This means that the hunter-gatherers had a lot of time for leisure. The reason man settled down was because he found out that he could forage food in a much more reliable way and he wouldn't have to work as hard to get it.
This was around the time that mile-high glaciers began to melt therefore extending bodies of water out to a more accessible area for man to catch fish and other water animals. Once man discovered that everything he needed could be found around him, there was no purpose to travel long distances for recourses. Now that people didn't have to spend their days in search of food, they could build more things and reproduce faster. People became more dependent on plants and animals around them and pretty soon, populations doubled, tripled, and soon man was building civilizations.
It is argued that civilizations first arouse in the valleys of the Tigris, Euphrates and the Nile Rivers and from there spread to the rest of the world. This is a very possible theory because near those rivers was very promising land in the sense of farming, water sources and climate. There are many other theories as to where cities first arouse such as in the Near East. To be more specific Mesoamerica and Southeast Asia. Any of these theories as to where man created cities is possible because they are prime locations in the way that they have resources necessary for life and the climate was preferable for life.
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