Summary of Annalee Newitz's Four Lost Cities

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Book Preview: #1 When I traveled to Çatalhöyük, a city that was built before cities existed, I was able to see the origins of the world I knew. The people there were a generation or two removed from nomadism, and when they began to settle in one place, it was a revolutionary idea.

#2 When people passed through one of Çatalhöyük’s thousands of rooftop doorways, they entered a new phase in human society. They found themselves in an alien future where people’s identities were tied to a fixed location.

#3 The Çatalhöyük Dig House is the home of hundreds of archaeologists who have worked there over the past 25 years to uncover the ancient city’s secrets. It is roughly the size of a modern city block, and is protected by a huge shade structure that arcs over the East Mound.

#4 The city of Çatalhöyük was excavated in the 1950s, and since then, archaeologists have found thousands of houses that were rebuilt upon each other for over a millennium, leaving behind a treasure trove of artifacts.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Feb 25, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669353010

IRB Media

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Book preview

Insights on Annalee Newitz's Four Lost Cities

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

When I traveled to Çatalhöyük, a city that was built before cities existed, I was able to see the origins of the world I knew. The people there were a generation or two removed from nomadism, and when they began to settle in one place, it was a revolutionary idea.

#2

When people passed through one of Çatalhöyük’s thousands of rooftop doorways, they entered a new phase in human society. They found themselves in an alien future where people’s identities were tied to a fixed location.

#3

The Çatalhöyük Dig House is the home of hundreds of archaeologists who have worked there over the past 25 years to uncover the ancient city’s secrets. It is roughly the size of a modern city block, and is protected by a huge shade structure that arcs over the East Mound.

#4

The city of Çatalhöyük was excavated in the 1950s, and since then, archaeologists have found thousands of houses that were rebuilt upon each other for over a millennium, leaving behind a treasure trove of artifacts.

#5

The South dig is breathtaking. archaeologists have dug at least ten meters down, uncovering layers of the city’s grid. The first evidence that people were cooking with dairy products was found at the dairy line, which represents the traces left behind by humans who had stopped looking for their place within nature and started changing nature to suit themselves.

#6

The Neolithic Revolution, which was the transition from nomadic life to mass urban society, was very gradual and didn’t begin in the Middle East and radiate to the world, but many places developed their own version of it independently.

#7

Humans changed every life-form that