History of cities

Towns and cities have a long history, although opinions vary on which ancient settlements are truly cities. Historically, the benefits of dense, permanent settlement were numerous, but required prohibitive amounts of food and labor to maintain. Ancient cities allowed for the pooling of resources, exchange of ideas, large marketplaces, and even some shared amenities such as drinking water, sewerage, law enforcement, and roads. The first cities formed and grew once these benefits of proximity between people exceeded the cost of work required to maintain a settlement. Various technologies such as bricks, pottery, and animal taming played a large role in the costs and benefits of maintaining the earliest forms of cities. Cities were first made possible by advances in technology.