Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

en.wikipedia.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 224 posts

Re: List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

#11

Post by impendia »

I had the opportunity to visit Byblos, Lebanon and spend a few hours walking around. It was fascinating to me how many different civilizations had left physical imprints: Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, European Crusaders.

I highly recommend a visit to any city on this list.

Re: List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

#13

Post by corebit »

machello13 wrote: post #9
smitty1e wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Best estimate, until the next archaeological discovery. As long as we don't equate estimates with facts, we're good.

If you're suggesting that the 753 BC date is archaeological, you're incorrect. 753 BC is the legendary date. There's archaeological evidence of habitation on the hills of Rome earlier than that.

Yes but when did it become a "city" versus just a caveman camp?

Re: List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

#17

Post by blotter_paper »

smitty1e wrote: post #3
reallydontask wrote: post #2

I like how Rome is listed as 753 BCE. A lot of guess work on these dates

Best estimate, until the next archaeological discovery. As long as we don't equate estimates with facts, we're good.

The column next to that date notes that there is village structure dated to the 9th century BC; the 753 date is actually downright mythical rather than archeological, but where some mythical dates exaggerate antiquity (e.g. lists of Sumerian kings) this mythical date cuts antiquity short to give city founding credit to the (probably entirely mythical?) Romulus rather than give recognition to the prior Greek settlement on the Palantine Hill (which Roman sources mentioned, while still claiming to be only as old as Romulus' city). It's an odd cultural carry over from Roman times to see in a wikipedia page, recognized in one column and ignored in the one prior.

Re: List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

#19

Post by laurent123456 »

ginko wrote: post #8

Splitting these by continent is somewhat disingenuous since many of the oldest civilizations and settlements are at the intersection of Africa, Asia and Europe.

There are many awful lists like this on Wikipedia as it seems the criteria for them are a lot less strict than for articles.

I guess whoever creates the list can argue that each individual item is sourced, even though the selection of items and their organisation is original research [0], and thus should not be allowed.

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_original_research

Re: List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

#20

Post by JamesG124 »

theandrewbailey wrote: post #7
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #6

This leaves out nomadic populations that have had continuous populations for thousands of years. E.g. in Canada, 14,000 years. Because they can't put a pin in a map. So some really old, continuously inhabited areas in the world. Blows away the named ones. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/one-oldest-north-a... {edit} wow who knew there were so many militant amateur archaeologists, or that the mere mention of…

Nomads, practically by definition, do not continuously inhabit cities for long periods.

the space they occupy can be conceptualised as a city
Post reply on HN