built around or next to an existing settlement, that area was
oft en left untouched, and its passages were not part of the
grid pattern. Th ese sections tended to become the homes of
the working poor.
Planners were careful to leave open spaces for hotels,
shops, taverns, parks, and gardens. Parks and gardens were
important aspects of the Roman city, which typically devoted
about one-third of its total space to them. Th e gardens might
harbor vineyards, orchards, or farms generating produce for
the local markets. Th e parks ranged from places intended
for exercise to quiet spaces where people could simply relax
among fl owers and trees. As some cities prospered, draw-
ing more residents than they could comfortably house, civic
leaders had to struggle to preserve such areas from developers
who would fi ll open nooks and crannies, as well as marshes
and hillsides, with apartment houses three or four stories
high with small rooms. Made hastily of brick, these buildings
oft en collapsed because of poor construction.
Toward the center of the city the visitor would discover
many shops off ering local and imported goods and might
perhaps stop in at a thermopolium, many of which were scat-
tered throughout the city, with clusters near the forum and
the theater. Th ese establishments served hot wine that was
kept warm in tubs set into the top of a counter; customers
could also buy snacks or a meal. People went to a thermopo-
lium for much the same reasons they might visit a bar today,
including to meet friends, business associates, or members of
the opposite sex.
In contrast to the many public venues, homes in a Roman
city were designed for privacy. Walls facing the street had
only small windows or none at all. Th e focus of the interior of
the house was the atrium, an open, courtyardlike central area
where a family did most of its living and entertaining. An
atrium was usually covered except for a large square open-
ing in the center that let in air, sunlight, and rain. Directly
beneath the opening would be a square tub to catch and store
the rainwater. Much of the atrium consisted of soil planted
with bushes, fl owers, and trees. In early Roman houses the
atrium opened at the back onto a space for growing food. By
the fi rst century b.c.e. atriums were usually closed on all sides
and surrounded by rooms. Th e rooms tended to be small cu-
bicles intended for sleep, study, preparing meals, and such
craft s as weaving or woodworking.
Th e Roman home provided privacy and the city at large
a sense of community. Th us it was that Roman city builders
hoped to create the ideal urban environment by fulfi lling
public spiritual and physical needs while making space for
individual lives.
THE AMERICAS
BY J. J. GEORGE
Urban settlements originated during the social transfor-
mation of simple nonhierarchical farming societies into
class-stratifi ed states. While cities, towns, and villages were
prominent features in all of the Americas in the ancient
period, only a handful could properly be called cities, even
according to the most basic defi nition. Determining all the
criteria is a matter of debate among scholars; thus, classifying
a city is a fl uid matter. Although many basic features were
shared, settlements in the Americas showed a high degree of
variation in size, function, and layout.
Part of the diffi culty in analyzing cities is that cities, ur-
ban society, and urbanization are oft en left undefi ned, leading
to overlap and confusion. Since there is no uniform agreement
on what makes a city, one question is whether demography
(the statistical study of populations, especially with refer-
ence to size, density, and distribution) or function (a defi nite
end or purpose) is more important in defi ning and analyzing
ancient towns and cities. From a demographic perspective a
settlement with a large, dense population is evidence of social
and economic complexity accounting for great diversity in
ethnicities, classes, occupations, and activities. Th e Mexican
city of Teotihuacán (1–650 c.e.) represents the ideal city in
this scenario. From a functional perspective, which defi nes
cities as settlements whose institutions aff ect a much greater
hinterland, oft en for religious and ritual purposes, a Mayan
site such as Tikal in northern Guatemala, of about the same
time period as Teotihuacán, would be considered a city.CHARACTERISTICS OF CITIES AND URBANIZATION
Cities are typically political, economic, and religious centers
for surrounding territory and the focus for a wider range of
specialized production and services than are found elsewhere
in the region. As true as it is today, a city represents a cen-
tral core of activities within which a greater and more diverse
range of activities take place. According to the archaeologist
V. Gordon Childe, a 20th-century urban theorist, defi nitions
of “city” include the site as the head of a hierarchy of settle-
ments that performs unique functions for a regional society
for its time. A city is a permanent settlement within the larger
territory occupied by a society, considered home by a signifi -
cant number of residents whose activities, roles, practices,
experiences, identities, and attitudes diff er signifi cantly from
other members of the society who identify most closely with
rural land outside such settlements. Cities are large settle-
ments with many urban functions that aff ect a large hinter-
land, whereas towns are smaller settlements with fewer urban
functions aff ecting a smaller region. In all of the defi nitions,
size and sociopolitical complexity alone are not adequate cri-
teria for defi ning a city, though it does seem that a population
of at least a few thousand seems necessary to qualify a settle-
ment to be urban and thus a city.
Th e hierarchy of settlements comes in various sizes
and with varying functions. Major capitals, political towns,
hilltop ceremonial zones, fortresses, administrative centers,
regal-ritual sites, mercantile cities, and sites whose political
status is unknown represent diff erent classifi cations accord-
ing to type and function. A major capital will obviously show
a greater level of urban complexity than a fortress, whose230 cities: The Americas