Religious festivals may have lead to first cities

By Christopher Thielen on April 6, 2015

The conventional view regarding the formation of early cities is that they expanded out from farming collectives. New archaeological evidence suggests that in the Mayan civilization and perhaps others, religion may have also played a large part in their formation. From New Scientist:

For the past decade, Takeshi Inomata of the University of Arizona in Tucson has been excavating the Ceibal site on the banks of the Pasión river, which once had some 10,000 inhabitants and sprawled over tens of square kilometres. His team’s latest investigations reveal that the city’s residential areas are much more recent than the first ceremonial pyramids and temple.

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Inomata suggests that the collective activity of building temples and worshipping eventually encouraged integration of the diverse traveller groups and the growth of an urban centre, rather than the other way round.

Source: New Scientist: Jungle festivals led to first Maya cities