Proto-city
Whilst the proto-urban sites of the Ubaid period in northern Mesopotamia anticipate the social and political developments of the first Sumerian cities, many proto-cities show little correlation with later urban settlements.
The label of a proto-city is applied to Neolithic mega-sites that are large and population-dense for their time but lack most other characteristics that are found in later urban settlements such as those of the Mesopotamian city-states in the 4th Millennium B.C.
[3] These later urban sites are commonly distinguished by a dense, stratified population alongside a level of organisation that facilitated the building of public works, the redistribution of food surpluses and raids into surrounding areas.
[1] In contrast, proto-urban sites such as Çatalhöyük are population dense but lack clear signs of central control and social stratification, such as large public works.
[7] Its proximity to fresh water from the spring at Ain es-Sultan facilitated the early development of animal husbandry and agriculture, making the site among the most advanced centres of the Neolithic Revolution in the Fertile Crescent.
[11][12] The Tower may also have been an indication of power struggles within the community, as an individual or a group may have “exploited the primeval fears of the residents and persuaded them to build it”.
[12] There is also evidence of human violence at the site, as the skeletons of twelve people apparently killed in a fight or riot have been found within the tower.
Rather than showing signs of deliberate planning, Çatalhöyük displays an “organic modular development through the repetition of similar units (buildings)".
[15] The Cucuteni-Trypillian site of Nebelivka in Ukraine features approximately 1500 structures organised into two concentric circles with inner streets that separate the settlement into 14 quarters and over 140 neighbourhoods.
Despite this layout suggesting planning from a central authority, individual neighbourhoods feature a high degree of variability, and the site is undistinguishable from preceding or contemporary settlements in terms of economy and trade.
Rather, proto-cities are defined as "early experiments" in high-density living that "did not develop further",[3] particularly in their level of population,[17] suggesting a more flexible and complex trajectory to urbanisation.
[5] By the end of the fourth millennium B.C., the emergence of the city of Uruk in Southern Mesopotamia reflected the social, cultural and political developments of proto-cities in the region during prior centuries.
