List of the most populous human settlements over time

See also

References

1. ^"The World's Cities in 2018"(PDF).United Nations.Archived(PDF) from the original on 31 August 2021. Retrieved5 May 2020.
2. ^"Jakarta to Topple Tokyo as World's Biggest City by 2030".Bloomberg. Retrieved11 April 2023.
3. ^Rosenberg, Matt (4 November 2019),"Largest Cities Throughout History",ThoughtCo,archived from the original on 18 August 2016, retrieved28 December 2020
4. ^^ab(a)Morris, Ian (October 2010)."Social Development"(PDF).Ian Morris. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 26 July 2011. This contains supporting materials for the following book: (b)Morris, Ian (2010).Why the West Rules—For Now. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.ISBN 978-0-374-29002-3.
5. ^Modelski, George (2003).World Cities: -3000 to 2000. Washington DC: Faros2000.ISBN 0-9676230-1-4. Figures in main tables are preferentially cited. Part of former estimates can be read atModelski, George (12 January 2008)."The Evolutionary World Politics Homepage".The Evolutionary World Politics Homepage. Archived fromthe original on 28 December 2008.
6. ^Chandler, Tertius (1987).Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth: An Historical Census. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press.ISBN 0-88946-207-0. Chandler defines a city as a continuously built-up area (urban) with suburbs but without farmland inside the municipality. Figures in main tables are preferentially cited. Part of Chandler's estimates are summarized or modified at: (a)Chase-Dunn, Christopher."Polities and Settlements Research Working Group".The Institute for Research on World-Systems.Archived from the original on 24 April 2022. Retrieved14 October 2022. (b)Rosenberg, Matt (4 November 2019)."Largest Cities Throughout History: Determining population prior to census-taking was no easy task".ThoughtCo.Archived from the original on 18 August 2016. Retrieved28 December 2020. (c)"Populations of Largest Cities in PMNs from 2000BCE to 1988AD".Etext Archives. Archived fromthe original on 11 February 2008.
7. ^The date that the population of Beidha, Basta and Çatalhöyük is estimated to be 1,000 is given as 7500 BCE in Morris's published text (p. 632).
8. ^^abcSuggested to be the largest cities in Modelski's text, but not given constantly prior to 3700 BCE (p. 3, p. 17, and p. 20). No entry is suggested for theHalafian andUbaid periods.
9. ^APre-Pottery Neolithic B settlement located ca. 25 km north ofPetra.
10. ^The rough year that Çatalhöyük was supposed to be the largest is not given in Modelski's text which citesIan Hodder's report (p. 3 and p. 17). The year 6500 BCE is based on the recent report by Hodder (Inhabiting Çatalhöyük: Reports from the 1995–99 Seasons (Çatalhöyük Research Project), Cambridge, UK: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, 2005.) where less inhabitants (1,500 to 2,000) are suggested by Craig Cessford (pp. 323–326).
11. ^The date that the population of Çatalhöyük is estimated to be 3,000 is given as 6500 BCE in Morris's published text (p. 632).
12. ^^abcSuggested to be housing up to 10,000 people in Modelski's text (pp. 24–25), but only Eridu is listed as the largest city in Table 2 (a) (p. 22). The estimate is based on the author's personal communication with Mikhail Videiko, Institute of Archaeology, Kiev, October 2002 (p. 75). The previous estimates by S. I. Kruts for Maydanets and Talianki are 8,000 (1,575 housed within 270 ha) and 14,000 (2,700 houses within 450 ha), respectively (Pitskhelauri, K. N., and Chernykh, E. N. Eds.,Kavkaz v sisteme paleometallicheskikh kultur Evrazii, Metsniereba, Tbilisi, 1989, pp. 146–156.).
13. ^Suggested to be more than 45,000 in Morris's published text (p. 632).
14. ^^abAccording to Modelski's list of world's largest cities (p. 218), Nippur shares the top with Lagash with 60,000 inhabitants in 2500 BCE, though Table 2 (b) suggests that the population of Nippur is 20,000, the value of which is even lower than those estimated for Mari (50,000); Uruk and Umma (40,000); Memphis,Ebla,Urkesh, andShuruppak (30,000) (p. 28).
15. ^^abcGirsu (Telloh), the later capital of the state of Lagash, was situated 25 km NW of Lagash (Tell al Hiba), though both sites are frequently referred as Lagash.
16. ^^abAccording to Modelski's list of world's largest cities (p. 218), Girsu shares the top with Mari with 50,000 inhabitants, though Table 2 (b) suggests that the population of Girsu as well as Umma and Mohenjo-daro is 40,000 (p. 28).
17. ^^abAccording to Modelski's list of world's largest cities (p. 218), the population of Girsu for 2300 BCE is estimated as 50,000, which is less than that appears in Table 2 (b) and is the same value with that estimated for Mari (p. 28).
18. ^Location uncertain. Maybe west ofSippar.
19. ^Modelski's list of world's largest cities (p. 218) excludes Girsu for 2000 BCE, though Table 2 (b) lists Girsu with 40,000 inhabitants (p. 28), sharing the top with Isin and Larsa.
20. ^^abcThe palace of Pi-Ramses (Qantir) was founded 2 km NE of Avaris (or Hawaret, Tell el-Dab'a), the residential area of which overlaps.
21. ^^abcdeWhen the city first passed 100,000, suggested by Richard Forstall (pp. 541–542).
22. ^^abAccording to Chandler's list of the largest cities (pp. 523–527), Thebes was the largest for 1400–668 BCE, but Memphis was also supposed to be somewhat larger during 1205–1188 (p. 94, p. 460).
23. ^^abModelski's list of the world's largest cities treats Thebes and Haojing as the top cities with 100,000 inhabitants (p. 218), though the same list on the next page (p. 219) as well as Table 2 (c) place the population of Thebes at 120,000, while that for Haojing as well as Memphis and Babylon at 100,000 (pp. 33–34).
24. ^^abcChandler listed Thebes, Haojing, and Chengzhou (Luoyang) as the largest, second-largest, and third-largest cities (p. 460), though Luoyang is supposed to pass 100,000 in 1000 BCE (p. 541).
25. ^^abcdefHaojing, which formed the capital ofWestern Zhou together withFenghao, was located 15 km SW of Chang'an, the capital ofTang dynasty as well as the present center of Xi'an.Han capital was located 5 km NW of the center of modern Xi'an. All these sites are now within thesub-provincial city of Xi'an.
26. ^^abcChengzhou was founded on the east side of the Luo river with Wangzheng on the west side. Both cities were later annexed to form Luoyi (Luoyang), the center of which has often shifted.
27. ^According to Modelski's list of world's largest cities (p. 219), the population of Babylon for 700 BCE is estimated as 120,000, which makes Babylon the only city to appear as the largest, while Table 8 (a) shows that Babylon has 100,000 inhabitants in 700 BCE (p. 55).
28. ^Modelski's list of world's largest cities (p. 219) excludes Linzi for 500 BCE, though Table 5 (a) lists Linzi with 200,000 inhabitants (p. 41).
29. ^^abAccording to Chandler's list of the largest cities (pp. 523–527), Pataliputra was the largest for 300 to 195 BCE, but Chang'an is listed as the largest already in 200 BCE (p. 462).
30. ^Based on historical documents, inSouthern Liang dynasty, Jiankang (Nanjing) had 280,000 registered households, and assuming an average Nanjing household had about 5.1 people at that time, the city had more than 1.4 million residents. (Shufen Liu, "Jiankang and the Commercial Empire of the Southern Dynasties", in Pearce, Spiro, Ebrey eds. Culture and Power, 2001:35.)
31. ^Seleucia was founded on the right bank ofTigris opposite to Ctesiphon. Figures for Seleucia include the population of Ctesiphon as a suburb during theSeleucid era andvice versa during theSassanid era.
32. ^The population of Daxing (Chang'an) in AD 600 is estimated at 250,000 in Morris's published text (p. 632), while the supporting material describes 600,000.
33. ^Modelski's list of world's largest cities (p. 219) estimates the population of Baghdad for AD 1000 as 1,500,000, which is much higher than the value listed in Table 8 (b) (1,200,000 inhabitants) (p. 55).
34. ^The population of Hangzhou in AD 1200 is estimated at 800,000 in Morris's published text (p. 632), while the supporting material describes 1,000,000.
35. ^IncludesÜsküdar inAsia Minor as a suburb.
36. ^According to Morris (p. 483), Edo grew into the world's biggest city by 1720, but the estimated population for Edo is not given.
37. ^The population of Tokyo in AD 2000 is estimated at 26,700,000 in Morris's published text (p. 632), while the supporting material describes 26,400,000.

External links