‘First Cities’ Reviewed

Just a couple of reviews have appeared so far, but they are gratifying. I was delighted to discover that the Integrated History and Future of People on Earth Research Network (IHOPE) posted a short blurb recommending the book thusly:

First Cities provides an excellent example of how archaeological research can be a source of valuable information for future urban planning decisions. With IHOPE’s focus on integrating the past with a sustainable future, First Cities is a highly recommended read.

IHOPE also links to Cambridge Press metrics regarding online views, which have been solid.

A more detailed review by Dominic Pollard at the University of Cambridge’s McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research appeared in the July-December 2025 issue of Trabajos de Prehistoria, 82 (2). It is thoughtful, comprehensive, and fair. Dr. Pollard does good work to point out what readers shouldn’t expect to find in the book. He also clearly got the book’s intent. The key takeaway is found in the last couple of sentences:

Now, with the publication of a book like Saitta’s, aimed as an accessible, up-to-date primer on the subject…it strikes me that the range of stories we can tell within the ‘mainstream’ of comparative urban archaeology has expanded dramatically in a fairly short time. I look forward to incorporating this book, and its diverse and thought-provoking case studies, into my own teaching, to encourage students to critically expand their concepts of urbanism and its possibilities in the past and the present.

I found Dr. Pollard’s review the same week that I was invited to give a guest seminar on intercultural and ancient approaches to urban planning in an Urban Design studio at the University of Colorado-Denver’s College of Architecture and Planning. The students were impressed by what they didn’t know about the history of urban design on earth. The instructor invited me back to serve on a jury evaluating their urban design projects, and I was happy to oblige. A student in the class urged another instructor in the Landscape Architecture program to invite me to give a similar sort of talk in their “Site, Society, and Environment” class. I was delighted to do that as well. Slide shows from both talks (“Retrofitting Denver” and “Re-Earthing the City”) are posted on the Papers page of this blog.

These recent experiences confirmed what I already knew, which is that faculty and students in the planning and design professions are really impressed with what archaeology can bring to the table. Students certainly seem hungry for alternative sources of knowledge that can guide their practice. The standard modernist planning paradigm is not working for them. The ancient, premodern world opens up whole new sets of possibilities.