Archaeologists have concluded that religion is the main impetus for city building. [Spirituality & Religion]

What do you think of that?

The concept goes like this: A main site for venerating the mother goddess sprang up first. It then became the center for commodities trade such as grain and obsidian. Ongoing trade spurred settlement and domestication of animals.

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Nika2002 · 22-25, F

I guess I didn't do a very good job of explaining how they concluded this.

The oldest ruins are all in the fertile crescent running east from Jericho. The oldest of them are consistently large towers that took years to build yet serve no fortification purpose. Archaeologists can thus conclude that they were used for religious purpose, and small statues of the mother goddess are indeed found in their vicinity.

Allelse · 36-40, M

@Nika2002 Religion has been a part of life for our idiot species for a very long time, and the early towns had religious aspects. But they were fortified because not everybody wanted to settle down to farming, they were nomadic folk who liked to take what they wanted and to them piracy was a way of life. They still exist, and that's that. They needed to keep safe so they fortified themselves, like the Romans did when the Germans and the Huns showed up in droves. Before then the cities of Gaul were pretty unprotected, but with civil war Germans and Huns and so on, they started to fortify. And the Roman forts were ones which were put up and pulled down rather easily, but by the end of the empire, with the instability, the forts they built were the precursors to the castles of the middle ages.

Nika2002 · 22-25, F

@Allelse You're talking fairly recent history. I'm talking 12,000 years ago: a first transition from nomad to true city dweller. And this post isn't about an opportunity to call humans idiots.

Allelse · 36-40, M

@Nika2002 Well they are idiots, just look at the holocaust. You don't put up walls for no reason, not when there's a bunch of pissy, stupid piratical humans roaming around outside who want to steal all your shit.

LadyGrace ·

@Nika2002 Yes. The Wall of Jericho is the oldest city wall uncovered by archaeologists in the world. The wall was built around 8000 BCE either for defense or protection against floods. The ruins are located at the Tell es-Sultan archaeological mound in the city of Jericho.