Urban form and scale shaped the agroecology of early 'cities' in northern Mesopotamia, the Aegean and Central Europe.

Abstract

Agricultural extensification refers to an expansive, low‐input production strategy that is land rather than labour limited. Here, we present a robust method, using the archaeological proxies of cereal grain nitrogen isotope values and settlement size, to investigate the relationship between agricultural intensity and population size at Neolithic to Bronze/Iron Age settlement sites in northern Mesopotamia, the Aegean and south‐west Germany. We conclude that urban form—in particular, density of occupation—as well as scale shaped the agroecological trajectories of early cities. Whereas high‐density urbanism in northern Mesopotamia and the Aegean entailed radical agricultural extensification, lower density urbanism in south‐west Germany afforded more intensive management of arable land. We relate these differing agricultural trajectories to long‐term urban growth/collapse cycles in northern Mesopotamia and the Aegean, on the one hand, and to the volatility of early Iron Age elite power structures and urban centralization in south‐west Germany, on the other.