List of oldest continuously inhabited cities • Hacker News Board

Re: List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

#71

Post by swasheck » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 4:12 PM UTC

blotter_paper wrote: post #17

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.

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 settlemen…

much of rome's ancient history is "mythical" in that it the only historical evidence we have are the legends handed down from that time. many of them appear to be attempts to reconcile the status of the early republic with the foundational history of the village/town/location of rome.

i loved reading the rise of rome, by anthony everitt.

https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Rome-Making-Worlds-Greatest/dp/0...

Re: List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

#72

Post by sneak » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 4:14 PM UTC

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.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Be_bold

Re: List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

#73

Post by minkeymaniac » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 4:15 PM UTC

If you ever go to Pula, make sure to visit the Arena (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pula_Arena) and pass by Zlatna Vrata (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arch_of_the_Sergii) both are ~2000 year old

Re: List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

#74

Post by zwieback » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 4:26 PM UTC

Cholula FTW! Oldest still inhabited city in the Americas and best hot sauce.

Re: List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

#75

Post by phkahler » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 4:28 PM UTC

Reading through the comments I see people from all over the world offering insights about various places. Then I realised all the comments here are in English. There must be an equivalent for languages continuously spoken over time.

Re: List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

#76

Post by d_silin » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 4:29 PM UTC

np_tedious wrote: post #18

d_silin wrote: post #12

I happened to be born in one of those cities. AMA :)

OK. First question: which one?

Where: Belgorod-Dnestrovsky (ex Ancient Greek colony) on the Black Sea coast.

Re: List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

#77

Post by d_silin » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 4:31 PM UTC

egypturnash wrote: post #28

d_silin wrote: post #12

I happened to be born in one of those cities. AMA :)

Have you lived in much younger cities? How does the weight of history in the old city compare? Do you prefer to live in a younger city, or an elder one, and why? I grew up in New Orleans and every other US city I’ve lived in has felt kind of... unmoored... in a certain way, what history there is in much of the rest of the country has been thoroughly torn down, and it’s not like there’s much history in a 1940s buildin…

Yes. Mostly North American, but also UK ones. Older cities definitely have more history to explore (our town had medieval fortress and original Ancient Greek colony ruins).

But quality of life matters more. This is the defining charasteristic of the city for me to live in.

Re: List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

#78

Post by m-i-l » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 4:33 PM UTC

egypturnash wrote: post #26

jasonswett wrote: post #21

What about London?

Wikipedia’s date for that is 43 AD, there’s a long list of European cities that stops a lifetime before that.

> "Wikipedia’s date for that is 43 AD"

There was a story a couple of weeks ago[0] about pottery dating from around 3600BCE being found at a site in Shoreditch (which was being excavated for the new Amazon HQ), suggesting London may have been inhabited considerably longer than previously thought.

[0] https://www.mola.org.uk/blog/largest-group-early-neolithic-p... & https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2178-z

Re: List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

#79

Post by adamsea » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 4:33 PM UTC

hirundo wrote: post #39

In the '70s and '80s when Japan was booming there was a popular meme that they were advantaged by having their cities destroyed in the war so were able to rebuild them along more modern lines. I don't know if it's true but it seems plausible. In Stranger in a Strange Land, Michael Valentine Smith talks about the Martian habit of abandoning places when the memories became too intense to tolerate. If we earthlings were…

What if the opposite is true?

Re: List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

#80

Post by owenversteeg » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 4:42 PM UTC

mytailorisrich wrote: post #55

owenversteeg wrote: post #34

What interests me the most is not so much the #1 oldest, but more those cities where the past is still visible, or the city is similar to the same one that stood there thousands of years ago. Specifically, I find Yerevan very interesting. If someone from 2,000 years ago stood there today, they'd certainly realize it was the same city: the same Mount Ararat towering over the city, the same river Hrazdan running by the…

Quite a few of the cities of Ancient Greece and its colonies have survived to this day. Obviously Athens and many places in Greece but not only. For example in France, Marseille and Nice (both Greek colonies) are 2,600 and 2,300 years old, respectively. The first inhabitants would definitely recognise them immediately today from the unique landscape (like Yerevan). As for Puning, it's not so much related to China's r…

Mm, but it's not just the towering Mount Ararat and the river of Hrazdan that make Yerevan obviously Yerevan. The name of the city has remained extremely similar for about 2,000 years, the language, the writing...

Nice, in my opinion (I've only been there twice) has very little connection to the Nice of old. The geography is not very unique (travel the Mediterranean coast and I promise you you'll find plenty of places that look nearly identical.) It's cycled through plenty of languages and was even originally 2 different cities (Cemenelum and Nikaia.) Put an occupant of Cemenelum in modern day Nice and I doubt they would know it was the same place. The once large river Paillon is dried to a part of what it once was and covered up by concrete; the language is completely different (and has changed many times) - hell, Nice wasn't even part of France until the late 1800s!

In Marseille, sure, an ancient inhabitant would recognize it due to the islands if nothing else. But as much as I love Marseille (one of my favorite places in the world, actually) - I get much less of an "ancient" feeling there than anywhere in Armenia or Iran, for example.