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In the present paper,l the author employs his own inventory of world cities to test the proposition that the ancient era of world system evolution can be shown to be composed of two roughly equal phases of centre-hinterland interactions, each a millennium in length: a phase of concentration, that is the formation of a central precinct of the world system, and a phase of dispersal or deconcentration in which hinterland pressures are the most prominent. The test supports that proposition for the ancient era.
This is one in a series of papers on world system evolution:z how has the human species attained the global social organisation it exhibits today, and what might such knowledge tell us about possible futures? Earlier papers, with William R. Thomspon, that asked about "Evolutionary Pulsations in the World Economy", and "The Evolutionary Pulse of the World System"3 were also tests of the concentration-dispersal proposition. An analysis of "Classical World Cities"4 parallels the present study and vindicates the proposition for the classical era. All are written in the belief that a confident grasp of long-term trends is an indispensable part of the intellectual equipment of every student of international relations.
Ancient World Cities Data Base
The data employed in this paper are the product of some three years of collection of increasing detail and widening scope. A report covering the period 3700-1800 sc was presented to the World System Historical Data Group at the Toronto ISA Conventions and a revised form of it appears on the "Evolutionary World Politics" website 6 Two more drafts have been completed since, each covering more ground than the last. The inquiry now covers the period 3700 ac to 1000 sC, and offers lists of world cities for 21 points in that time span. That is, it covers close to one-half of the human experience with cities.
A point of reference for work such as this is Tertius Chandler's census last published in 1987,' an extensive undertaking of many years to collect city data for the whole world, right up to the present. It is a notable assembly of fascinating data on large urban centres. But it does pose problems for those interested in looking at the very early stages of the system of world cities....