List of oldest continuously inhabited cities • Hacker News Board

Re: List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

#101

Post by Cyph0n » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 5:11 PM UTC

netcan wrote: post #62

Cyph0n wrote: post #36

As a Tunisian, I'm confused by why Carthage is not on the list. Yes, it was destroyed and rebuilt by the Romans, but the general vicinity has been continuously inhabited ever since. Actually, a few other Tunisian cities are missing that trace their origins back to late B.C./early A.D., such as Monastir, Mahdia, and El Jem. Any thoughts on this?

Marhabat. This particular list is pretty strict on the "continuous" criteria. I guess when the Romans plowed salt into it, continuity was broken, for the purposes of this list. Carthage does make this list. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_cities_through... It was the world's biggest city circa 300BC.

Marahba!

Yeah, it's either that, or the fact that Tunis (the new capital) was founded 10 miles away after the Umayyads took Carthage from the Byzantines (mentioned by u/scythe).

Re: List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

#102

Post by a_bonobo » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 5:17 PM UTC

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…

Trier on that list still has a lot of Roman architecture standing around, a time-traveling Roman would have no problem finding their way.

One of the city gates still stands, the throne hall of Roman Emperor Constantine (Basilica), the Amphitheater ruins, the large Roman baths (ruins), even the large Dome is built on top a structure Emperor Constantine built.

Re: List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

#103

Post by yongjik » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 5:20 PM UTC

I guess that the criterion for inclusion is "does anyone have a vested interest in including their own city and is persistent enough to fight their way through edit wars." That is, it's a fun list, but shouldn't be considered authoritative of anything.

E.g., Seoul shouldn't be there. The ancient capital of Wiryeseong was a separate city that was abandoned in the middle ages (in fact we aren't even sure exactly where it was), and the most likely location is on the other side of the river from Seoul's old city area: the (suspected) Wiryeseong area wasn't part of Seoul until 1963.

Re: List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

#104

Post by econcon » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 5:26 PM UTC

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.

Depends on which nomads, Mongols can be considered nomads but records most from the human remains of that era show they were importing grains from some of the remote places as the grains they were consuming could not have been grown nearby.

Re: List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

#105

Post by anonu » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 5:28 PM UTC

impendia wrote: post #11

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.

Phoenicians as well. And the Canaanites [1] before them. Byblos is indeed an ancient city. It's believed that the first inhabitants were there around 8000BCE. Today's vestiges in Byblos are maybe younger than 500BCE though..

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canaan

Re: List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

#106

Post by TriNetra » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 5:31 PM UTC

Indian history hasn't been well researched because of various reasons. However, recent efforts are pushing back continuous settlement dates by multi-thousand of years. For instance: Varanasi is in above wiki link with 1200 BC as inhabited since. However [0] pushes it back to at least 4500 BC.

0: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Varanasi-is...

>>> The results that have come from a detailed geo-exploration (exploration conducted through GPS technology) conducted by seven IIT-Kgp departments, tracing the different stages through which civilization progressed, and how Varanasi has been able to maintain continuity as a living civilization, unlike comparable seats of human settlement in the world. The researchers have dug 100-metre-deep boring holes all over Varanasi to conclude that there is evidence of continuous settlement at least till 2000BC. There are enough indications that by the time the data collection is over, there would be enough to prove that this date can be pushed back to about 4500BC.The oldest part of this civilisation has been traced to the Gomati Sangam area of Varanasi, as indicated by the underground layers that have already been tested.

Re: List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

#107

Post by koheripbal » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 5:34 PM UTC

austincheney wrote: post #91

lisper wrote: post #84

What is most striking to me about this list is how you can use it to trace the broad sweep of human habitation on the planet. The oldest continuously inhabited cities date back 5000 years and the youngest (in Oceania) only a few hundred. So for 5000 years humanity lived on a planet with unexplored and unexploited regions. That's all done now. The entire planet is now completely overrun with homo sapiens, but that pro…

I don't get that impression. The cities listed fall into two required criteria: documented history and civilization. This does not account for neolithic settlements of which some grew quite large for their respective lack of centralized management. This is qualified by the list mentions some cities were neolithic settlements before they qualified for the status of "city" and some cities existed far earlier than the h…

I think if you downgrade the definition of city to any grouping of animal skin tents, then the entire exercise loses meaning because those were everywhere.

Re: List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

#108

Post by keiferski » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 5:38 PM UTC

throwaway_pdp09 wrote: post #92

mytailorisrich wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Marseille and Nice (both Greek colonies) No shit?! I had no idea the greek empire(s) stretched up this far. Was it a peaceful colonisation?

The colonies were started by individual city states.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_colonisation

Re: List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

#109

Post by c54 » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 5:42 PM UTC

TriNetra wrote: post #106

Indian history hasn't been well researched because of various reasons. However, recent efforts are pushing back continuous settlement dates by multi-thousand of years. For instance: Varanasi is in above wiki link with 1200 BC as inhabited since. However [0] pushes it back to at least 4500 BC. 0: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Varanasi-is... >>> The results that have come from a detailed geo-explorat…

Why hasn’t Indian history been better researched as you say? Curious about this.

Re: List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

#110

Post by keiferski » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 5:43 PM UTC

lisper wrote: post #84

What is most striking to me about this list is how you can use it to trace the broad sweep of human habitation on the planet. The oldest continuously inhabited cities date back 5000 years and the youngest (in Oceania) only a few hundred. So for 5000 years humanity lived on a planet with unexplored and unexploited regions. That's all done now. The entire planet is now completely overrun with homo sapiens, but that pro…

> The entire planet is now completely overrun with homo sapiens

Eh, not precisely. Most of the earth is still empty of human life or very sparsely populated.

https://www.luminocity3d.org/WorldPopDen/#3/18.40/127.00