Networks of cities are fundamental to the understanding of the evolution of the world as it is today. Too often, however, a city is considered only within the framework of its surrounding region. The question has arisen worrying geographers, historians, sociologists and politicians, whether a city lives, works, and lasts or falls mainly as the centre of a region, determined by local circumstances or chiefly as a part of a constellation of far-flung cities. This is not, in fact, a new problem born in our time. It is an ancient problem which has been with mankind since the dawn of history. Gordon Childe would probably have said that it is a tendency originating in the Neolithic period. The cradle of all systems that may be called urban networks or constellations of cities working together is, of course, the ancient Mediterranean. Does this ancient Mediterranean tradition express basic human curiosity or even more, the impulse to learn how to deal with others, how to overcome distance and perhaps even how to overcome human diversity? Is it the will of individuals to liberate themselves from their original environment,however ideal it may be?
Orbits. The ancient Mediterranean tradition of urban networks
01 Aug 2012
by Archaeology Newsroom
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