THE RECORD
What changed
Ancient Jericho preserves early stone works and long habitation; Çatalhöyük preserves dense roof-accessed houses and abundant symbolic remains.
EVIDENCE
What remains
Architecture, burials, botanical and faunal remains and spatial analysis show communities repeatedly rebuilding houses and shared spaces.
WHY IT MATTERS
Why it matters
Rather than one birth of the city, these were experiments in large settlement with different scales and organization.
OPEN QUESTION
Where interpretation begins
‘First city’ depends on how a city is defined, and the two sites differ in date and organization.