20.6
The quantum leap from mud huts to a city of people
 
  A mistake often made (deliberately) is that humans somehow went from nomadic herdsmen to great city builders. In fact, both models of community survival seemed to exist in parallel without necessarily meeting or following each other.  
  A second mistake often made is in simply moving forward into describing ancient cities without considering the implications of the massive organizing task it takes to design, built and manage a city.  
20.6.1 Some basic statistics- City of five thousand souls  
  20,000 litres of water per day  
  In contrast to the nomad, the permanent settler communities are those capable of sustaining their food and water requirements from the same environment, in spite of the seasons. The most favorable conditions for such permanent settlements are flat arable land areas, well irrigated by permanent flowing rivers.  
  sanitation  
  Sanitation is not something you simply "invent". It takes deep knowledge of the importance of sanitation. The sanitation in the most ancient of human cities was better than the sanitation in London up until 50 years ago.  
  What makes this a huge anomaly is that sanitation is considered a high engineering feat and sign of high culture, not people who were one step from the bog of mud flats and feeding domesticated animals.  
  law and order  
  We take law and order for granted as if somehow it has always been there. However, what about laws and the dispensation of disciplined. If a person were to come into power and simply order that everyone who defied him/her were put to death, then chances are there would be resistance  
  law and order is not something that you work out after you have built a city- it must exist before even a wall is built. Property  
  craft  
  the making of pots and items is not something that suddenly appears  
  99.9% of all permanent settlements of humans over 2,000 from 1st recorded settlements to this date have always been on or very near a river and flat region of land.  
  Today, around 1 in 3 people live within 10km of the coastline, a major river and under 100 metres.  
 
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