By 9000 b.c.e. the town of Abu Hureyra contained
several hundred inhabitants living in houses made of mud
bricks. Th e people grew their own grain in fi elds surround-
ing the town, and the women continued to grind wheat in
their houses day aft er day. Th e villagers also herded sheep and
goats for milk, meat, and wool used to make cloth. Th e entire
community existed to grow crops and raise children, genera-
tion aft er generation.
Over the next several millennia people continued to
build towns and live according to the same pattern. By 6000
b.c.e. most residents of the Fertile Crescent lived in small vil-
lages near ready supplies of water. Th ey were all located on
or near sources of water that could be used to irrigate crops;
most settlements rose along the Jordan, Tigris, Karkheh, and
Euphrates rivers.
Mud was the main building material because both stone
and wood were scarce. Th e agricultural seasons and daily ne-
cessities determined the activities of the residents. People ex-
perimented with and mastered irrigation techniques, such as
canals, that allowed them to plant fi elds farther and farther
from the rivers. When a town became too crowded to sup-
port itself, people simply moved into a free space and built
new settlements.
Towns were occupied by family groups that helped one
another with the labor of farming and other communal tasks,
such as building. It would have been impossible for anyone to
live alone; towns and villages made it possible to raise food
and channel water in the harsh landscape. Living communally
also made it easier to arrange marriages and raise children.
Because they lived among relatives, village dwellers could al-
ways turn to someone for help. Living in towns fostered the
beginnings of spiritual thought. Most towns remained in the
same place for centuries, and many generations of dead were
buried there. Th e inhabitants came to believe that dead an-
cestors continued to watch over the living.
Beginning around 3800 b.c.e. the towns at the mouth of
the Tigris and Euphrates began to grow into cities such as Er-
idu, Ur, and Uruk. Th e climate was drier than it had been, and
populations were too large for people to support themselves on
family or village farms because there was not enough water or
cultivable land for ever yone in the area to farm for themselves.
Th e people living in the cities developed governments to or-
ganize agriculture and distribute grain as well as to worship
their gods. For the next 800 years or so, however, many people
continued to live in towns and villages. Mesopotamian cities
were surrounded by towns connected to the rivers by long ca-
nals extending in every direction from the cities. Th ese towns
specialized in various products, including metalwork, pottery,
and fi shing. Th ey traded with merchants in the cities to get
grain, and they relied on the cities for defense and religious
ritual. By 3000 b.c.e., however, most of these villages had been
swallowed up by the larger cities, and the residents were co-
opted to work for the city’s irrigation canals and farms.
By the fi rst millennium b.c.e. towns and villages had been
established throughout the Levant, Persia, and Anatolia as wellas in Mesopotamia. Towns continued to be located near water
sources and cultivable land. Most towns had a central area for
people to meet and trade, and most contained a communal
place of worship. Towns oft en sprang up along trade routes,
such as the Persian Royal Road that ran across the Persian
Empire. Some towns were quite small and simply organized,
but as time went on they acquired more local government.
During the fi ft h and fourth centuries b.c.e. the Greek
model of town organization spread into Asia Minor. Towns
of this period were carefully planned, and the land was di-
vided in a regular pattern. Each town contained an agora—an
open space where people could gather to exchange goods or
conduct business. Th e agora might contain a stoa—a build-
ing used for various purposes, including conducting courts
of law and other civic activities. Later towns oft en had several
stoas surrounding the agora, marking the space as an offi cial
public area. Th is type of town design spread throughout the
Near East and Persia during the Hellenistic period, as Alex-
ander the Great traveled through the region and founded nu-
merous cities.
Th e Romans imposed their own form of order on Near
Eastern towns during the empire. Towns were built on a rect-
angular grid pattern and included a forum—an open square
used for business and politics. Th e local government orga-
nized the building of streets, sewers, and public water sup-
plies. Many towns had fortifi cations to protect the residents
from enemy attacks. Th e government also handled matters
of taxation, grain distribution, and legal administration.
During the late empire Rome’s central administration dete-
riorated, and local people throughout the Near East took on
more responsibility for their local government. In Asia Mi-
nor and the Levant local religious rulers gained power over
towns and took on the fi nancial responsibility of maintain-
ing them.ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
BY KIRK H. BEETZ
Th e region of Asia and the Pacifi c encompasses vastly vary-
ing climates, and the towns and villages built in ancient
times varied according to people’s needs for shelter from the
weather, for protection, and for cooperative living. As early as
9000 b.c.e., and probably much earlier, people in Siberia and
central Asia were using bones and skins from animals such as
mammoths to build shelters. Th ese people were cooperative
hunters who probably gathered in small villages in order to
easily form hunting packs for pursuing large game. Th e vil-
lages also would have allowed for greater numbers of people
to deal with injuries and to gather together to keep warm in
the oft en frigid environment.
Far to the south, in Southeast Asia, people were dealing
with a very diff erent environment: one that was warm and
wet and becoming wetter. Th e coast off ered opportunities for
fi shing, and people clustered together in villages to work to-
gether to harvest food from the sea. Not much is known oftowns and villages: Asia and the Pacific 10890895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1089 1089 10/10/07 2:31:01 PM