The pursuit for universally applicable definitions of the terms "urban" and "city" has frequently distracted scholars from scrutinizing processes of how ancient nucleated settlements evolved and developed. Based on the premise that similar social dynamics to a great extent governed nucleation trajectories throughout human history, Coming together focuses on both prehistoric aggregated and early urban settlements. Drawing from a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches, archaeologists, anthropologists, and classicists discuss how nucleation unfolded in strikingly different sociopolitical contexts in North America, Europe, and the Near East. The major themes of the volume are nucleation's origins, pathways to sustsainability, and the transformative role of these sites in sociopolitical and cultural change.

• Contents
• Illustrations
  • Figures
  • Tables
• Chapter One Population Aggregation and Early Urbanization from a Comparative Perspective: An Introduction to the Volume
  • Comparative Perspectives in the Study of Nucleated Settlements
  • Methodological Perspectives in the Study of Nucleated Settlements
  • Coming Together: Origins and Processes
  • Pathways to Sustainability: Challenges and Resolutions
  • Transformative Effects: Social, Political, and Cultural Change
  • Final Remarks
  • Acknowledgments
  • References Cited
• Chapter Two Energized Crowding and the Generative Role of Settlement Aggregation and Urbanization
  • Cities, Population, and Energized Crowding: The Power of Face-to-Face Interactions
    • Population Size and Density
    • Village Aggregation and Urbanization
    • Communication, Energized Crowding, and Cities
  • The Effects of Energized Crowding
    • Energized Crowding Generates Scalar Stress
    • Energized Crowding Drives Community Formation
    • Energized Crowding Leads to Economic and Urban Growth
  • Settlement Scaling and Generative Processes
    • Contemporary Urban Systems
    • The Social Reactors Model
    • Expansion of the Framework to Premodern Settlement Systems
  • Discussion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Note
  • References Cited
• Section I: Coming Together: Origins and Processes
  • Chapter Three “. . . the nearest run thing . . .” The Genesis and Collapse of a Bronze Age Polity in the Maros Valley of Southeastern Europe
    • The Problem with Population
    • Pecica Şanţul Mare and the Maros Culture
    • Settlement Expansion, Aggregation, and Dispersal in the Maros Region
    • The Rise and Fall of Pecica Şanţul Mare
      • The Initial Period: 1950–1900 B.C.
      • The Formative Period: 1900–1820 B.C.
      • The Florescent Period: 1820–1680 B.C.
      • Final Phase: 1680–1545 B.C.
    • Discussion
    • Acknowledgments
    • Note
    • References Cited
  • Chapter Four Coming Together in the Iron Age: Population Aggregation and Urban Dynamics in Temperate Europe
    • Early Urbanism in Temperate Europe: The Fürstensitze
    • Times of Turmoil: Toward Decentralization
    • Urbanization in the Late Iron Age: Open Agglomerations and Oppida
    • Retrospective and Prospective: Iron Age Urbanization as a Nonlinear Phenomenon
    • References Cited
  • Chapter Five Contextualizing Aggregation and Nucleation as Demographic Processes Leading to Cahokia’s Emergence as an Incipient Urban Center
    • Cahokia as an Urban Center
      • Natural and Cultural Setting of Cahokia
      • Aggregation and Nucleation
    • Late Woodland Settlement Aggregation
    • The Emergent Mississippian and the Shift from Aggregation to Nucleation
      • Settlement Aggregation during the Early Emergent Mississippian
      • Late Emergent Mississippian Nucleation
    • The Emergent Mississippian Nucleation and the Onset of Cahokia as a City
    • Conclusion
    • Acknowledgments
    • References Cited
  • Chapter Six Why Athens? Population Aggregation in Attica in the Early Iron Age
    • Introduction
    • The Literary Evidence and the Question of Synoecism
    • Archaeology and Settlement in Attica in the Tenth and Ninth Centuries B.C.
    • Archaeology and Settlement in Attica in the Eighth Century B.C.
    • Conclusion: Why Athens Matters
    • Acknowledgments
    • Note
    • References Cited
  • Chapter Seven Synoikismos: Formation and Form of Ancient Greek Cities
    • Introduction
    • The Formation of Greek Cities
    • The Form of Greek Cities
    • Conclusion
    • Acknowledgments
    • Notes
    • References Cited
• Section II: Pathways to Sustainability: Challenges and Resolutions
  • Chapter Eight Trypillia Megasites: The First Cities in Europe?
    • Introduction
    • A Selected History of Research
    • New Investigations
    • What Factors and Integrative Processes Brought Large Populations Together?
    • What Kind of Social Practices and Organizations Facilitated the Development and Sustainability of These Sites?
    • Long-Term Sociocultural Influence of Population Aggregation
    • Are the Megasites a Hitherto Unrecognized Urban Form?
    • Conclusions
    • Acknowledgments
    • Notes
    • References Cited
  • Chapter Nine Emergent Urbanism: Trade, Settlement, and Society at Seyitömer Höyük in Early Bronze Age Western Anatolia
    • Introduction
    • Urbanization in EBIII Western Anatolia and the Aegean
      • Settlement Patterns
      • Trade Relations
    • Urbanism as a Sociospatial Process
    • Movement and Interaction in Space: Axial and Convex Analysis
      • Space Syntax Analysis
    • The Built Environment as a Medium of Nonverbal Communication
      • Nonverbal Communication
        • Wall Construction
        • Fixed Features
        • Semifixed Features
    • The Formality of Social Interaction: Application of the Integrative Approach
    • Case Study: Urbanism as a Social Process at Seyitömer Höyük
      • Overview of Phase B Settlement
      • Application of the Integrative Approach
      • Social Interaction and Community Identity
    • Conclusion
    • Acknowledgments
    • References Cited
  • Chapter Ten If You Build It, Will They Come? Will They Stay? The Mycenaean Port Town of Kalamianos
    • Introduction
    • Kalamianos: A Mycenaean Port Town on the Saronic Gulf
    • Internal Organization of Kalamianos
    • The Hinterlands of Kalamianos
    • Mycenaean Planning and Settlement Founding
    • Mycenaean Mobilization, Agricultural Self-Sufficiency, and Kalamianos
    • Kalamianos and the Economic Dynamics of the Saronic Gulf “Small World”
    • Acknowledgments
    • References Cited
  • Chapter Eleven Architectural Visibility as an Integrating Mechanism in Roman Urbanism: Micro-Viewshed Analysis at Pompeii
    • Introduction
    • The Role of View in the Integration of Roman Aggregated Settlements
    • GIS Viewshed 2.0: The View of a Bar
    • Three Additional Micro-Viewshed Analyses from Pompeii
      • A Brothel
      • The Temple of Fortuna Augusta
      • The House of the Faun
    • Conclusion
    • Acknowledgments
    • References Cited
• Section III: Transformative Effects: Social, Political, and Cultural Change
  • Chapter Twelve Cross-Scale Settlement Morphologies and Social Formations in the Neolithic of the Great Hungarian Plain
    • Introduction
    • The Role of the Carpathian Basin in the Spread of the Agropastoral Way of Life in Europe
    • Early Neolithic Körös Culture Settlements in the Upper Tisza Region (6000–5600/5500 B.C.)
    • Middle Neolithic Alföld Linear Pottery (ALP) Settlements in the Upper Tisza Region (5600/5500–5100/5000 B.C.)
      • Early Alföld Linear Pottery (ALP I)
    • Developed Alföld Linear Pottery Phases (ALP II–III and IV)
    • Late Neolithic Settlements in the Upper Tisza Region (5100/5000–4500/4400 B.C.)
      • Polgár-Csőszhalom: A Case Study from the Upper Tisza Region
    • Conclusion
    • Acknowledgments
    • References Cited
  • Chapter Thirteen Aggregation and Dispersal: Rural Landscapes of the Northwestern Iberian Peninsula from the Iron Age to the Early Roman Empire
    • Dispersion: Segmentary Communities during the Iron Age
      • Segmentary Landscape
      • Segmentary Settlements
    • Aggregation and Settlement Concentration during the Late Iron Age and the Late Republic—The Arrival of Rome
    • Centralization: Territorial Organization under Augustus
    • Concluding Remarks
    • Acknowledgments
    • Notes
    • References Cited
  • Chapter Fourteen Integration and Disintegration: The Role of Kiva Architecture in Community Formation during the Pueblo II and Pueblo III Periods in the U.S. Southwest
    • Introduction
    • Vernacular Architecture
    • Small and Great Kivas
    • Small and Great Houses
      • Small Houses
      • Great Houses
    • Spatial, Relational, and Coalescent Communities
      • Community and Residential Architectural Patterns
    • Data and Methods
    • Results
      • House Type
      • Kiva Size
      • Small and Great Kivas in Small and Great Houses
    • Conclusion
    • References Cited
  • Chapter Fifteen Settlement Aggregation and Geopolitical Realignment in the Northeastern Woodlands
    • The Historical Development of Ancestral Wendat Society
    • Political Evolution in Coalescent Communities and Nations
    • Pathways to Nation Building
      • Aggregation on West Duffins Creek
      • Aggregation in the Trent Valley
    • Geopolitical Realignment: Nation and Confederacy Formation
      • Wendat Nations
    • Conclusions and Implications
    • References Cited
• Contributors
• Index