The Development of Cities: Was there a Thanatopolis?

Lewis Mumford's Theory of the Thanatopolis

• The conditions of the origin of the city have been discussed by different theorists.

• According to Lewis Mumford, the first cities that came up are not the city of the living but of the dead. It was the thanatopolis . Among the hunter gathering Paleolithic people it is the dead who had a permanent dwelling not the living, and men and women would return to these ritual spaces to worship their ancestors.

• The modern city is the product of a complex historical process.

• The origin of cities are shrouded in the distant past. According to some sources, it could be as long back as 10000 years.