Title: The Cambridge world history.
Authors: Yoffee, Norman
Year: 2017
Subjects: World history; Cities and towns, Ancient; Cities and towns, Medieval; History, Ancient; Middle Ages; Cities and towns, Ancient; Cities and towns, Medieval; History, Ancient; Middle Ages; World history
Abstract: "From the fourth millennium BCE to the early second millennium CE the world became a world of cities. This volume explores this critical transformation, from the appearance of the earliest cities in Mesopotamia and Egypt to the rise of cities in Asia and the Mediterranean world, Africa, and the Americas. Through case studies and comparative accounts of key cities across the world, leading scholars chart the ways in which these cities grew as nodal points of pilgrimages and ceremonies, exchange, storage and redistribution, and centres for defence and warfare. They show how in these cities, along with their associated and restructured countrysides, new rituals and ceremonies connected leaders with citizens and the gods, new identities as citizens were created, and new forms of power and sovereignty emerged. They also examine how this unprecedented concentration of people led to disease, violence, slavery and subjugations of unprecedented kinds and scales."--Publisher.
Contents: Introduction: a history of the study of early cities / Norman Yoffe with Nicola Terrenato -- Part I, Early cities as arenas of performance. Ancient Egyptian cities: monumentality and performance / John Baines -- The dedicated city: meaning and morphology in Classic Maya urbanism / Stephen Houston and Thomas G. Garrison -- Southeast Asian urbanism: from early city to Classical state / Miriam T. Stark -- Cities as performance arenas / John Baines, Miriam T. Stark, Thomas G. Garrison and Stephen Houston -- Part II, Early cities and information technologies. Urbanization and the techniques of communication: the Mesopotamian city of Uruk during the fourth millennium BCE / Hans J. Nissen -- Writing and the city in early China / Wang Haicheng -- Reading early Maya cities: interpreting the role of writing in urbanization / Danny Law -- Inka administration in Tawantinsuyu by means of the knotted-cords / Gary Urton-- Writing and record-keeping in early cities / Danny Law, Wang Haicheng, Hans J. Nissen and Gary Urton -- Part III, Early urban landscapes. Tiwanaku urban origins: distributed centers and animate landscapes / John W. Janusek -- Mesopotamian cities and urban process, 3500-1600 BCE / Geoff Emberling -- Teotihuacan: an early urban center in its regional context / Sarah C. Clayton -- Urban landscapes: transforming spaces and reshaping communities / Geoff Emberling, Sarah C. Clayton and John W. Janusek -- Part IV, Early cities and the distribution of power. Ancient South Asian cities in their regions / Carla M. Sinopoli -- Greek cities in the first millennium BCE / Ian Morris and Alex R. Knodell -- Different cities: Jenne-jeno and African urbanism / Roderick J. McIntosh -- The distribution of power: hierarchy and its discontents / Carla M. Sinopoli, Roderick J. McIntosh, Ian Morris and Alex R. Knodell-- Part V, Early cities as creations. Baghdad, an imperial foundation (762-836 CE) / Françoise Micheau -- Jerusalem: capital city created in stone and in imagination / Ann E. Killebrew -- City of earth and wood: New Cahokia and its material-historical implications / Timothy R. Pauketat, Susan M. Alt and Jeffery D. Kruchten -- Imagined cities / Timothy R. Pauketat, Ann E. Killebrew and Françoise Micheau -- Part VI, Early imperial cities. Neo-Assyrian capital cities: from imperial headquarters to cosmopolitan cities / Adelheid Otto -- Mexico-Tenochtitlan: origin and transformations of the last Mesoamerican imperial city / Gerardo Gutiérrez -- The archetypal imperial city: the rise of Rome and the burdens of empire / Nicola Terrenato -- Imperial cities / Gerardo Gutiérrez, Nicola Terrenato and Adelheid Otto -- Conclusion: the meanings of early cities / Norman Yoffee.