The city is a major sign of civilization.
Scientists from Yale University have created a map of cities that existed for the last 6,000 years, according to N+1 with reference to a study published in the journal Nature.
In particular, the study covers period of time from about 3700 years BC to 2000 ad.
When creating a map, the researchers used two main sources: a book historian Tertius Chandler’s “Four thousand years of urban growth: an historical census” and the work of political scientist George Modelski “world Cities: -3000 to 2000”.
In the works shown the population of cities in the world in the period from 2250 BC to 1975 ad, posted additional archaeological and historical sources. Also, the authors used data from the UN about the population of the cities, which are conducted since 1950. Scientists have created a map based on 1599 cities.
And Chandler and Modelski were called cities (and selected for the study) settlements in which lived a certain number of people. For example, in the period from 3500 to 1000 BC Modelski was a city of the settlements that have been inhabited by over 10 000 people.
Initially the authors wanted to test the hypothesis that the city appeared and began to develop in the regions with fertile soils suitable for agriculture, however, according to the map, it was not always so.
“Understanding how the rising and city has varied over time, in the historical period can tell us something about how they are changing now,” says the study’s lead author Meredith Reba.
