The earliest cities in history were in theancient Near East, an area covering roughly that of the modernMiddle East: its history began in the 4th millennium BC and ended, depending on the interpretation of the term, either with the conquest by theAchaemenid Empire in the 6th century BC or with that byAlexander the Great in the 4th century BC.
The largestcities of theBronze AgeNear East housed several tens of thousands of people.Memphis in theEarly Bronze Age, with some 30,000 inhabitants, was the largest city of the time by far.Ebla is estimated to have had a population of 40,000 inhabitants in theIntermediate Bronze age.[1]Ur in theMiddle Bronze Age is estimated to have had some 65,000 inhabitants;Babylon in theLate Bronze Age similarly had a population of some 50,000–60,000.Niniveh had some 20,000–30,000, reaching 100,000 only in theIron Age (around 700 BC).
InAkkadian andHittite orthography, URU𒌷 became a determinative sign denoting a city, or combined withKUR𒆳 "land" the kingdom or territory controlled by a city, e.g.𒈗𒆳𒌷𒄩𒀜𒌅𒊭LUGAL KURURUHa-ad-tu-sha "the king of the country of (the city of)Ḫattuša". TheKI𒆠 determinative is used following place names (toponyms) in both Sumerian and Akkadian.[2][3]
The Arabian Peninsula and theHorn of Africa, separated by just a few miles of theRed Sea, have a history of related settlements, especially near the coast
^Kohl, Philip L. (1991). "The use and abuse of world systems theory: The case of the "pristine" west Asian state". In Lamberg-Karlovsky, Clifford Charles (ed.).Archaeological Thought in America. Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-40643-7.
