HomeDiagramsDatabaseMapsForum About
     

Go Back   SkyscraperPage Forum > Discussion Forums > City Discussions


Reply

 
Thread Tools Display Modes
     
     
     
     
  #1  
Old Posted Nov 16, 2019, 1:30 PM
Danie's Avatar
Danie Danie is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Sep 2019
Posts: 79
Oldest city in the world

What city is the oldest in the world ?
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #2  
Old Posted Nov 16, 2019, 3:06 PM
iheartthed iheartthed is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: New York
Posts: 9,782
Damascus
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #3  
Old Posted Nov 16, 2019, 3:11 PM
Crawford Crawford is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Brooklyn, NYC/Polanco, DF
Posts: 30,550
You mean continuously settled geography? I think Damascus is commonly agreed to be oldest.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #4  
Old Posted Nov 16, 2019, 3:26 PM
montréaliste montréaliste is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Chambly, Quebec
Posts: 1,996
Damn, ask us what the oldest city on earth is, and all you get is Damascus, over and over again.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #5  
Old Posted Nov 16, 2019, 4:34 PM
IluvATX IluvATX is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Anchorage-Austin-Anchorage-Austin and so forth...
Posts: 1,172
Cusco, Peru is the oldest in the Americas. Over 3000 years continuously inhabited.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #6  
Old Posted Nov 16, 2019, 4:53 PM
jd3189 jd3189 is offline
An Optimistic Realist
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Loma Linda, CA / West Palm Beach, FL
Posts: 5,571
It’s actually Jericho.
__________________
Working towards making American cities walkable again!
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #7  
Old Posted Nov 16, 2019, 5:20 PM
mousquet's Avatar
mousquet mousquet is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Greater Paris, France
Posts: 4,556
That must be something of ancient Mesopotamia, although ancient Egypt (that must be slightly later in ancient records) definitely built much more significant things. Ancient Egypt is usually seen as the mother of all later civilizations, even though it all started in Mesopotamia that invented stuff like the first characters that would leave experience and ideas to following people. That was something like writing back then, thousands of years ago.

Notice that in the completely idiotic fight over superior races (widely fed by bigotry in the US), people with dark skins constantly have to say that ancient Egyptians (before Arab conquers) were Black Africans. Well yes, they certainly were. You simply take a look at sarcophagi at the Louvre museum, you easily realize they were Africans. It's no secret, huh. In real life, things weren't like in ancient Hollywood movies.
I bet their really best looking girls haven't even got the privilege of a golden sarcophagus.
It doesn't matter. The dead don't care about their burials. The best of them leave their wrecks to science, usually medical students. That's what I'll do of my body when I'm dead. Straight back to the university so students can dissect my butt.

I don't even particularly like history, cause it's so fucking full of pathetic ugly mistakes, but I guess people still need to be aware of details like this.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #8  
Old Posted Nov 17, 2019, 1:18 PM
eschaton eschaton is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 5,182
Quote:
Originally Posted by jd3189 View Post
It’s actually Jericho.
This is commonly thought, but Jericho was abandoned at many different periods.

Byblos in Lebanon may qualify, as it's been inhabited for 9,000 years, and a city for 5,000.

None of the old Mesopotamian cities survived - probably because of the shifting locations of the rivers, and how the early irrigation practices eventually left salt deposits which made it impossible to grow crops there.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #9  
Old Posted Nov 18, 2019, 3:22 PM
mrnyc mrnyc is offline
cle/west village/shaolin
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 11,586
Quote:
Originally Posted by IluvATX View Post
Cusco, Peru is the oldest in the Americas. Over 3000 years continuously inhabited.

it looks like tlapacoya was the oldest city in the americas. it was located between mexico city and puebla. the ruins got bulldozed by a highway. the city dates from 7500bc, with people living there as far back as 9500-25000bc (there are wide disputes). also interesting is that the very first settlers around mexico city appeared caucasian/asian and looked like western europeans.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o..._of_foundation
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #10  
Old Posted Nov 18, 2019, 3:53 PM
Sun Belt Sun Belt is offline
BANNED
 
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: The Envy of the World
Posts: 4,926
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrnyc View Post
it looks like tlapacoya was the oldest city in the americas. it was located between mexico city and puebla. the ruins got bulldozed by a highway. the city dates from 7500bc, with people living there as far back as 9500-25000bc (there are wide disputes). also interesting is that the very first settlers around mexico city appeared caucasian/asian and looked like western europeans.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o..._of_foundation
There are some mysteries and evidence that give some credit to alternative human timelines.

Here's one: Humans in California 130,000 years ago.
https://www.nature.com/articles/natu...dium=affiliate
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #11  
Old Posted Nov 17, 2019, 6:11 PM
Sun Belt Sun Belt is offline
BANNED
 
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: The Envy of the World
Posts: 4,926
I'm fascinated with Göbekli Tepe, located in modern day Turkey, just north of the Syrian border and not too far from the Euphrates River.

It's 12,000 years old, abandoned and was intentionally, carefully buried 10,000 years ago. It is estimated that only 10% of the site has been excavated. It is quite possibly the oldest temple in the world. Today's modern wheat originated about 20 miles away from the site.

Quote:
With its mountains catching the rain and a calcareous, porous bedrock creating lots of springs, creeks, and rivers, the upper reaches of the Euphrates and Tigris was a refuge during the dry and cold Younger Dryas climatic event (10,800 – 9,500 BCE).

-----

At present Göbekli Tepe appears to raise more questions for archaeology and prehistory than it answers. It remains unknown how a population large enough to construct, augment, and maintain such a substantial complex was mobilized and compensated or fed in the conditions of pre-sedentary society.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Göbekli_Tepe

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Da...3!4d38.9214009

Just imagine the unknown settlements that were submerged when the Ataturk Dam was constructed in the 1980s.

Quote:
The early Neolithic settlement of Nevalı Çori, site of some of the world's most ancient known temples and monumental sculpture, was discovered during rescue excavations before the dam was completed. Nevalı Çori was inundated by Atatürk Dam's reservoir.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atatürk_Dam

https://www.google.com/maps/place/At...9!4d38.3122199

Reply With Quote
     
     
  #12  
Old Posted Nov 17, 2019, 10:08 PM
LosAngelesSportsFan's Avatar
LosAngelesSportsFan LosAngelesSportsFan is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 7,838
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sun Belt View Post
I'm fascinated with Göbekli Tepe, located in modern day Turkey, just north of the Syrian border and not too far from the Euphrates River.

It's 12,000 years old, abandoned and was intentionally, carefully buried 10,000 years ago. It is estimated that only 10% of the site has been excavated. It is quite possibly the oldest temple in the world. Today's modern wheat originated about 20 miles away from the site.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Göbekli_Tepe

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Da...3!4d38.9214009

Just imagine the unknown settlements that were submerged when the Ataturk Dam was constructed in the 1980s.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atatürk_Dam

https://www.google.com/maps/place/At...9!4d38.3122199

Predates current Armenia by a few thousand years, but is in an area that was historically Armenia if i'm not mistaken. Most certainly nothing to do with the Turks other than its currently in an area controlled by Turkey
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #13  
Old Posted Nov 17, 2019, 9:37 PM
dubu's Avatar
dubu dubu is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: bend oregon
Posts: 1,449
oldest circular city with a lot of water around it is the long gone atlantis. amsterdam is the only atlantis type city we have now though, over 700 years old?. now we are all about huge dense downtown smart cities. i sorta became obsessed with circular cities you probably have seen https://forum.skyscraperpage.com/sho...d.php?t=239987
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #14  
Old Posted Nov 18, 2019, 6:09 AM
jbermingham123's Avatar
jbermingham123 jbermingham123 is offline
Registered (Nimby Ab)User
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: At a computer, wasting my life on a skyscraper website
Posts: 742
I will always wonder how much history was wiped out when the sea levels rose again 12K years ago. I doubt its a coincidence that history seems to start around 10K BC.. there is probably evidence of a much more gradual development of civilization, language, etc but it is all underwater just off the coast of every continent. Pretty much every community around the world has a flood story and many communities have an atlantis story. Not a coincidence
__________________
You guys are laughing now but Jacksonville will soon assume its rightful place as the largest and most important city on Earth.

I heard the UN is moving its HQ there. The eiffel tower is moving there soon as well. Elon Musk even decided he didnt want to go to mars anymore after visiting.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #15  
Old Posted Nov 18, 2019, 6:49 AM
wwmiv wwmiv is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Austin -> San Antonio -> Columbia -> San Antonio -> Chicago -> Austin -> Denver
Posts: 5,269
Quote:
Originally Posted by jbermingham123 View Post
I will always wonder how much history was wiped out when the sea levels rose again 12K years ago. I doubt its a coincidence that history seems to start around 10K BC.. there is probably evidence of a much more gradual development of civilization, language, etc but it is all underwater just off the coast of every continent. Pretty much every community around the world has a flood story and many communities have an atlantis story. Not a coincidence
http://discovermagazine.com/2019/jun...n-to-aquaterra
__________________
HTOWN: 2305k (+10%) + MSA suburbs: 4818k (+26%) + CSA exurbs: 190k (+6%)
BIGD: 1304k (+9%) + MSA div. suburbs: 3826k (+26%) + adj. CSA exurbs: 394k (+8%)
FTW: 919k (+24%) + MSA div. suburbs: 1589k (+14%) + adj. CSA exurbs: 90k (+12%)
SATX: 1435k (+8%) + MSA suburbs: 1124k (+38%) + CSA exurbs: 18k (+11%)
ATX: 962k (+22%) + MSA suburbs: 1322k (+43%)
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #16  
Old Posted Nov 18, 2019, 1:41 PM
eschaton eschaton is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 5,182
Quote:
Originally Posted by jbermingham123 View Post
I will always wonder how much history was wiped out when the sea levels rose again 12K years ago. I doubt its a coincidence that history seems to start around 10K BC.. there is probably evidence of a much more gradual development of civilization, language, etc but it is all underwater just off the coast of every continent. Pretty much every community around the world has a flood story and many communities have an atlantis story. Not a coincidence
One of the biggest areas of archaeological interest which is now submerged is the Persian Gulf. The Tigris-Euphrates valley originally continued traveling southeast until it reached the sea at the Straight of Hormuz. The earliest true cities could have been a submerged civilization in this area. It would also help explain some historic connections between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley Civilization - because originally the two areas were much closer to one another.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #17  
Old Posted Nov 18, 2019, 2:22 PM
Sun Belt Sun Belt is offline
BANNED
 
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: The Envy of the World
Posts: 4,926
Quote:
Originally Posted by jbermingham123 View Post
I will always wonder how much history was wiped out when the sea levels rose again 12K years ago. I doubt its a coincidence that history seems to start around 10K BC.. there is probably evidence of a much more gradual development of civilization, language, etc but it is all underwater just off the coast of every continent. Pretty much every community around the world has a flood story and many communities have an atlantis story. Not a coincidence
Yep, I have had the same questions. It was a rapid melt and rapid warm up. We live in a time where the climate is incredibly stable, at least for the last 6,000 years or so.

Imagine what was submerged in the Adriatic and Aegian Seas in the Mediterranean. Imagine what was buried by the desertification of North Africa and the growth of the Sahara. The Sahara used to be green with rivers streams and trees-- not that long ago. Lake Chad was an inland sea.




Quote:
Earlier than the African humid period, humid periods in Africa had influenced the evolution of modern humans; the African humid period now led to a widespread settlement of the Sahara and the Arabian Deserts by humans. These at first lived on animals and plants naturally occurring in the region; later they started domesticating animals such as cattle, goats and sheep. They have left archeological sites and artifacts such as one of the oldest ships in the world; but in particular they created rock paintings such as those in the Cave of Swimmers and in the Acacus Mountains; in fact the existence of earlier wet periods was postulated after the discovery of these rock paintings in now-inhospitable parts of the Sahara. When the African humid period ended, humans gradually abandoned the desert in favour of regions with more secure water supplies, such as the Nile Valley and Mesopotamia, where they gave rise to early complex societies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_humid_period
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #18  
Old Posted Nov 18, 2019, 7:52 PM
Sun Belt Sun Belt is offline
BANNED
 
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: The Envy of the World
Posts: 4,926
Quote:
Originally Posted by jbermingham123 View Post
I will always wonder how much history was wiped out when the sea levels rose again 12K years ago. I doubt its a coincidence that history seems to start around 10K BC.. there is probably evidence of a much more gradual development of civilization, language, etc but it is all underwater just off the coast of every continent. Pretty much every community around the world has a flood story and many communities have an atlantis story. Not a coincidence
Back to this post about floods, the Missoula Floods were a reoccurring flood scenario from the rapid melt waters of the North American glacier fields.

When these ice dams broke, it released more water than all the rivers combined in the world. This flooding took place over a period of 2,000 years, roughly from 15,000 - 13,000 years ago.

There are massive boulders in the middle of fields that could have only have been transported by a flood of biblical proportions.

The Channeled Scabland has incredible in your face evidence of a flood that is difficult to comprehend.

https://site.extension.uga.edu/clima...es-in-climate/

Quote:
the largest discharging ≈10 cubic kilometers per hour (2.7 million m³/s, 13 times the Amazon River). Alternate estimates for the peak flow rate of the largest flood include 17 cubic kilometers per hour and range up to 60 cubic kilometers per hour. The maximum flow speed approached 36 meters/second (130 km/h or 80 mph).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missoula_Floods
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #19  
Old Posted Nov 18, 2019, 4:58 PM
mrnyc mrnyc is offline
cle/west village/shaolin
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 11,586
i wonder what the oldest fictional city is?



Reply With Quote
     
     
  #20  
Old Posted Nov 18, 2019, 5:37 PM
Obadno Obadno is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 6,586
I guess it depends on what you would define as a "city"

Some of the very most ancient cities we know of were little more than towns from our perspective but Id guess the first true "cities" as we would recognize them came about right at the end of the Neolithic revolution about 10,000-12,000 years ago in the Levant, Turkey and Egypt.

Im sure there are fairly permanent settlements that pre-dated this by several thousand years but its very hard for anything man made to last that long without being destroyed, recycled by other humans or just eroding away besides giant blocks of stone.

There are some more out their theories that human civilization might be far older than 12,000 (as we understand it) years or so but it is not widely accepted.

It does appear that there is some newer archaeological evidence that pushes the first urban areas back to 14,000 years but once again its very hard to be sure and its hard for people to conceive just how long ago some of these early early bronze/stone age peoples were. 14,000 years ago is 7x longer than the time that his elapsed since Caesar was murdered on the senate floor and today.

So the "evidence" that we really have is shockingly shockingly tiny. bits of bone and tools and barely recognizable stone foundations make up what we know of these cultures and its safe to assume that what we really know about them is probably wildly inaccurate besides the most basic details.
Reply With Quote
     
     
This discussion thread continues

Use the page links to the lower-right to go to the next page for additional posts
 
 
Reply

Go Back   SkyscraperPage Forum > Discussion Forums > City Discussions
Forum Jump


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 11:38 AM.

     
SkyscraperPage.com - Archive - Privacy Statement - Top

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.