Print

Introduction The accelerating threat of climate change challenges us to analyze our own commun- ities’ relationships with the wider world and to contemplate their very existence. This volume explores the span of human history—and plenty of prehistory—searching out prominent and fascinating examples of cities or broader civilizations that shifted from a position of influence to a lack thereof. The results offer a rich mosaic of detailed descriptions from every corner of the globe. These lost cities and civiliza- tions provide much-needed perspective for our present moment. The flux in size and importance of human settlements has been central to our study of history from the field’s inception. Herodotus, the fifth-century BCE his- torian, sometimes labeled the father of history, centers this theme within his pro- grammatic statement early in Book 1 of his Histories: I will proceed with my narrative, going through small and great towns of people alike. Because many of those places that were once great have become small, and those that are great in my time were small before. Knowing that human fortune never remains in the same place, I will make mention of both alike. (Herodotus 1.5.3–4, translation mine) Aware of the constant flux in human affairs, Herodotus promises not to dis- criminate against small or diminished cities in his writing. In this volume, we focus in on this theme even further, analyzing the flux itself. When we study a lost city, we are not looking at a snapshot of the city at its height, nor are we simply illustrating the archaeological ruins that still exist today. We are instead looking at the fluctuations in the city’s fortunes over time: why it grew, how its people thrived, how its culture flourished, and finally why it fell. In the remainder of this introduction, we will explore the contents of the vol- ume, region by region. This will take us on a very brief tour of human history in which various trends in the world’s lost cities will become apparent. From there, we will introduce the contents and functions of this volume’s investigative boxes and sidebars. We will conclude with a look at how one theme—colonialism— weaves its way through this volume’s contents. Africa was the birthplace of humankind, and this volume’s various entries on Africa feature the continent’s diversity of habitats and peoples. The lost cities of Ife, Great Zimbabwe, and Kilwa flourished in vastly different regions of sub- Saharan Africa. Timbuktu and Cyrene show the wide range of identities that cities