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The Earliest Known Cities in the WORLD

World of Antiquity

311,723 views

Where on earth were the very first cities built, and when? In this video, Dr. M takes you through the evidence and counts down the five earliest known cities.

ADDENDUM: The site of Liangzhu in China is worthy of mention. It was a site that urbanized c. 3000-2600 BCE. It would have almost made the list. https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10...

Contents
0:00 What counts as a city?
07:43 No. 5
09:10 No. 4
11:08 No. 3
12:14 No. 2
13:33 No. 1
15:04 Places that didn't make the list

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20 Comments

@michaelmanning5379 4 years ago

I would argue for my city being one of the earliest . . . but I'm basing that on the state of the roads.

@z0n4l1 4 years ago

my favorite theory on why we started living in towns/cities is beer making

@AncientAmericas 4 years ago (edited)

Thank you for not just giving us a list but also covering the other "honorable mentions". Great job!

@LoriLudwig-xw8wx 9 months ago

Ads for early city..." Choose to live here and you MIGHT not get randomly murdered by invaders in a dawn raid"

@AB-et6nj 4 years ago

Can you do more "earliest" videos? Maybe the earliest "cultures"? The origin of things is quite fascinating.

@dazuk1969 4 years ago

This is actually a tricky question to answer if you think about it. David mentioned a few more candidates at the end that didn't make the list, and I am sure there are others. I suppose the most important thing is the criteria for a city listed at the start. I always learn something watching this channel. WOA, you are smashing it on the sub count. I wish you continued success.

@AB-et6nj 4 years ago

Also, a video that provides a timeline of ancient history would be immensely useful to those of us in need of an organizational structure. Clarifying the archeological and historical periodization terminology used among professionals would also be a great help.

@ralphyetmore 4 years ago

I would expect so many similar channels to just get right to the list. But I so appreciate the importance of definition here, and everywhere on your channel. As always, great presentation. Thank you.

@faizanrana2998 5 months ago

I'm so grateful for my professor

@JS-jh4cy 4 years ago

It is an elusive question as to when does a settlement becomes a city category depends on what you think qualifies as a city

@chefhomeboyardee8 3 years ago (edited)

Love this content. Pure fact, no conjecture. No "ancient astronaut theorists" believe.

@gabryr9 4 years ago

I'm glad that you mentioned about cucuteni trypillia. Im from România and I know that this sites were not excavated enough and I believe that if we will search more for evidence we probably will find that it was a city.

@finno3677 4 years ago

I wish my professors were like this

@tusharthegreatest176 2 years ago

Fun fact Nagar in sanskrit means city

@easialogistics6458 4 years ago (edited)

Always so happy to see a new video by you!! You deserve your growth! Well done!! And thank u,❤️

@BriccBalloon 4 years ago

Great video! You should consider making a video listing the largest known settlements at different times in history. Like it would interesting to know what the largest settlement (without the rules defined in this video to be called a city) was in say 10,000BCE and then 9,000BCE, etc. Or maybe even older if we know that info.

@flyingeagle3898 4 years ago

This is a really nice overview of the oldest accepted urban sites, and the specific criteria used to determine their status.
Not sure I fully agree with the criteria, and the very old settlement of Jericho (walled, stone tower etc) is quite impressive, but any set of criteria, will be questionable, and arbitrary at its boundaries, and the list is a decent starting point.
The only place where I question the exclusion is the Moldavian/Balkan sites. In the temperate climate it's very possible that they had monumental architecture and bureaucracy but made of materials that didn't preserve as well. Excluding them as cities based on a lack of clear evidence for those things despite clear evidence for their size strikes me as highly arbitrary (and possibly revealing the challenge in overthrowing convention)
I'm also interested in the Tepe sites, as they are definitely larger than what has currently been excavated but there we absolutely need more evidence before being certain of where they fit on the sliding scale of development.