THE first urban settlements in the Middle East were thought to have been
built by the Sumerian civilisation of southern Mesopotamia more than 5000 years
ago. Now, it seems, another civilisation was enjoying city life around the same
time, according to finds in north-eastern Syria.
Clemens Reichel, an archaeologist at the University of Chicago’s Oriental
Institute, says there are signs of urban activity at a site in Syria called Tell
Hamoukar between 4000 and 3700 BC. This means the settlement was built around
the same time as some of the original Sumerian city-states such as Uruk, in what
is now…
