A virus, as it is being seen, has exposed the hidden dark sides of cities. It has defaced the apparent splendour of the city life, revealing the true stages of poverty, starvation, violence, selfishness and other heartless characteristics in them! Greg Woolf’s publication ‘The Life and Death of Ancient Cities: A Natural History‘ (Oxford University Press) is quite relevant in today’s world, as it portrays the contemporary reality. Woolf, the English Archaeologist, is one of the foremost experts on ancient civilisations…

Human Beings had socialised themselves only after establishing Rural Societies in the beginning of civilisation. The Rural Societies, in turn, had gone through many evolution processes before the birth of Urban Civilisation. Exactly how the Urban Civilisation was born? In this book, Woolf has tried to find an answer to the question regarding the birth of Urban Civilisation. The concept of Urbanisation dates back to the foundation of the Roman Civilisation, claims the author. During the reign of Emperor Augustus, the population of Rome stood at almost 0.3% of the Global Population. Woolf discusses, in a scientific way, the dangers of natural disasters, epidemics and internal strife in large cities, like Rome.

Meanwhile, Woolf believes that it was not Rome, but Uruk (currently in Iraq) – the remains of which have been unearthed, concerning the Sumerian Civilisation – was the first City. In addition to the formation and destruction of the city of Uruk, his publication contains the natural history of the cities of Mohenjo-daro, Jerusalem and Jericho, Pompeii, Alexandria and the Byzantine Empire. Readers get various pieces of information on subjects, like plague, insect infestation, unequal distribution of resources, famine, population, water resources and even about production of crops around those cities.

The author has further claimed that whenever the Urban Civilisation created a distance with Rural Civilisation, the very existence of the former was in serious crisis! Although Woolf has mostly discussed the scientific reasons of the destruction in cases of the Ancient and Medieval Cities, his model is, in a way, equally applicable to the happenings in the present world. COVID-19 Pandemic, the terrible reality of 2020, has taught the Humankind that the Urban Civilisation is yet to learn lessons from Nature, but is destroying the Nature for its own development, thus, driving itself towards extinction!

Boundless Ocean of Politics on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/boundlessoceanofpolitics/

Boundless Ocean of Politics on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/kousdas?s=09

Boundless Ocean of Politics on Linkedin:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/boundless-ocean-of-politics

Contact us: kousdas@gmail.com

Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das