Proto-city

A proto-city is a large, dense Neolithic settlement that is largely distinguished from a city by its lack of planning and centralized rule. While the precise classification of many sites considered proto-cities is ambiguous and subject to considerable debate, common examples include Jericho, Çatalhöyük and the mega-sites of the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture. Sites of the Ubaid period in Mesopotamia have also been classed as proto-cities. These sites pre-date the Mesopotamian city-states of the Uruk period that mark the development of the first indisputable urban settlements, with the emergence of cities such as Uruk at the end of the Fourth Millennium, B.C. The emergence of cities from proto-urban settlements is a non-linear development that demonstrates the varied experiences of early urbanization. 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. 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. 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. Pre-Pottery Neolithic A Jericho was the site of a large settlement with a dense population as early as the Ninth Millennium BC, with estimates of the settlement's population ranging from 2000-3000 to only 200-300. 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.