This depends on the source and the research, but the ‘current’ human is around 300,000 years old. That’s when the oldest remains Homo sapiens and we might think that after thousands of years they would have thought of settling down, but no. Hundreds of thousands of years were to pass before humans could stay and live in one place, and the first houses were built in the Neolithic age. The change was gradual, but important towns were found in the eastern, European and Asian regions; Çatalhöyük in Turkey or Jericho in the West Bank were two of the first cities involved.

And these early Neolithic houses, between 9,000 and 7,500 years old, are not very different from what we did until recently.

Agricultural revolution. What made humanity decide to give up nomadic life for good was the discovery of agriculture. Until then, people moved from one place to another depending on the temperature. It was simple because we could hunt different game for food and there were already methods of preserving meat.

We didn’t say “cultivation” one day, but it was a slow process of going back and forth between settled life and nomadism, but eventually humanity settled in. These first agricultural cultures emerged in the Middle East, and it’s no coincidence that humanity’s earliest cities began to be built there.

and grazing. It was all part of a process. About 10,000 years ago, global warming caused tribes from different parts of the planet to decide to settle in the spots where the first civilizations were beginning to develop. With agriculture came animal husbandry. Nomads had already completed the domestication of sheep and goats, but with the settlements we began raising both cows and pigs.

And that’s important, because in these four species, not only were the raw materials needed to regularly produce food between agriculture and animal husbandry, but also the resources to create tradeable goods.

Okay then we’re staying. Although these early people had already established some settlements in nomadic times, these were very simple structures made of branches or mammoth bones to support the skins. These were temporary shelters for hunting periods or to protect themselves from the cold, but the first gray hairs appeared in the middle of the Neolithic age.

Foundations of houses in Tell es-Sultan, Jericho

Taking into account these improvements in temperature, people settled in areas such as river valleys, and Jericho was one of the first cities. It was also one of the first to establish the oldest walled defenses found. Another special name when talking about the first cities is Çatalhöyük (according to some researchers, it would be the first city).

Townhouse without view. Çatalhöyük covered an area of ​​about 12 hectares and the Çarşamba River was nearby, which with the clayey soils would have been conducive to the development of early agriculture, and the interesting thing is that there seem to have been no public buildings. So the buildings in the settlement were all residential. Over the years the population figures have varied between 5,000 and 10,000, but whatever the case, what we do know is that they lived like bees.

The houses were all rectangular and made of mud brick. They had no side windows because they were connected to each other and there was no street. The entrance was then in the roof, like a hatch that allowed entry into the house using a ladder. They were not dug into the ground, but were raised, but as in groups of houses where a ladder was reached from the ground to the roof, and then each had a trapdoor and a ladder for access to each house.

Besides mud on vegetation used for the structure, building materials included wooden beams for the roofs, and ventilation was provided through a single entrance to the house.

RoomsThe first Neolithic owners did not like straight lines, as the walls and all the working elements were completed with circular elements. And the truth is that, except for the difference in the position of the door, these houses were not very different from the other houses we used until a few centuries ago.

Restructuring

The core of these houses was a central room of about 20 or 25 m² where living took place. This was where they cooked, spent time and also slept on a kind of raised platform used for sitting or working. In some cases, these houses had rooms that served as storage or workshops and were accessed through low openings rather than through arches of appropriate height.

Another redesign. The oven was placed just below the door to optimize ventilation

Waste managementWhat is also interesting is that archaeologists did not find garbage inside these early homes, but they did find a lot of waste in the outer areas, such as food residues, sewage or ash.

But they did not throw the garbage out of the upper window, because this area just above their house became the location of the streets, the meeting points and, over time, a kind of community space where activities or events would take place. . where the communal ovens would be built.

Drawing by John Swogger

ProtocommunismDue to the lack of written sources, everything that is said about the social structure of these first settlements coincides with theories and hypotheses, but the absence of larger buildings that could serve as public buildings suggests that each of them was in its own independent republic of its own house.

There seem to have been no power differences between neighbors, and they were able to organize cooperatively, with each family owning a portion of the village and the common lands.

Rituals. What the archaeologists found were slightly larger buildings displaying very elaborate wall paintings. Again, it’s unclear what the purpose of these decorated rooms was, but they were likely areas dedicated to performing rituals. Good for their beliefs, good for fulfilling burial customs.

When someone died, there was a kind of ritual that was performed, and what was interesting was that the bodies were buried within the walls. Yes, within the houses, normally under the main “living room” of the house. Now, at a certain point, the Neolithic people may have started to socially differentiate some of the inhabitants, because only some of these skulls had a strip of cinnabar painted on their skulls.

It’s unclear whether these were paints applied after death or whether these individuals were already wearing some sort of crown made of cinnabar, which could have left skull prints, but it’s something that’s being worked on.

Pictures | Nature, Çatalhöyük (John Swogger), Elelicht, Murat Özsoy 1958, Stipich Béla, Stipich Béla (2)

At Xataka | We humans have been brutally killing ourselves for 7000 years. How much of a prehistoric site