Big History: The Big Bang, Life on Earth, and the Rise of Humanity

Lecture 29: From Villages to Cities

Bentley and Ziegler, Traditions and Encounters, chap. 2.

Brown, Big History, chap. 6.

Christian, Maps of Time, chap. 9.

Nissen, The Early History of the Ancient Near East.

Ristvet, In the Beginning, chap. 4.

Trigger, Early Civilizations.

1. What features distinguish “Agrarian civilizations” from the communities
   of the early Agrarian era?


2. Why did the size of the largest human communities grow signi¿ cantly
   in the early Agrarian era?

Essential Reading

Supplementary Reading

Questions to Consider