Today, roughly 50–55% of the world’s population lives in urban areas, but for most of human history this was not the norm. For nearly 7,000 years after the first sedentary communities formed, settlements rarely exceeded 0.5–3 ha before fissioning. This pattern shifted around 4500 BC in northern Mesopotamia, where unprecedentedly large, nucleated settlements appeared—the earliest steps toward urbanism.

Mid-20th-century scholarship, especially V. G. Childe, framed this shift as a rapid “urban revolution” tied closely to emerging states. Recent research, however, rejects a single package model, emphasizing diverse and experimental urban trajectories.

This course adopts a broad view of early Near Eastern urbanism, asking: What halted long-standing fissioning? How did diverse groups coexist in confined spaces? What forms did early proto-cities take? Were cities products of revolution, evolution, or something else? How did later urban centers emerge?

Such questions resonate today as cities confront increasing migration, integration, and rising nativism.