Subscribe to Nebula and get $10 off at: https://go.nebula.tv/citybeautiful Watch this video ad-free on Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/citybeautiful-why-did-humans-invent-cities Cities are a relatively new invention, by human standards. Why did Neolithic people 11,000 years ago decide to give up their nomadic, hunter-gatherer lives and start to settle? And what were these early cities like? Resources on this topic: https://ourworldindata.org/urbanization https://www.history.com/news/prehistoric-ages-timeline#:~:text=During this era%2C early humans,and were hunters and gatherers, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/an-ancient-proto-city-reveals-the-origin-of-home The City Shaped by Spiro Kostof https://www.amazon.com/City-Shaped-Patterns-Meanings-Through/dp/0821220160/ref=sr_1_1?crid=25ALPSJ3L24M4&keywords=the+city+shaped&qid=1679087146&sprefix=the+city+shaped%2Caps%2C143&sr=8-1 https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/feb/16/whats-the-oldest-city-in-the-world https://www.thoughtco.com/eridu-iraq-earliest-city-in-mesopotamia-170802 Produced by Dave Amos and the fine folks at Nebula Studios. Written by Dave Amos and Hannah Woolsey Select images and video from Getty Images. Black Lives Matter. Trans rights.