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The origins of city life are a mystery. Did civilisation arise out of violence? Or is there a more peaceful reason why people chose to live in large communities?
Today's modern city is a symbol of human civilisation. But the origins of cities have long been a mystery to scientists. For more than a hundred thousand years, human beings either wandered the world in small family groups, or lived in tiny villages. And then, suddenly, all this changed. All over the world, in Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India, Central America and Peru, people started to build cities.
What made people give up the simple life for the city? One theory was that it was something terrifying - warfare. . This forced groups of villages to huddle together for their own protection.
And those who organised their citizens to protect and defend themselves in this way emerged as powerful leaders - pharaohs and kings. It seemed that city life was born out of fear.
But to prove this theory, archaeologists needed to find a "mother city", the very first big city to appear in the world. After years of searching, they discovered an enormous pyramid in the Casma Valley, in the Peruvian desert. It had the remains of a huge city around it.Excavations revealed simple pottery and crude art, suggesting that the city was very old indeed.
When carbon dating showed that it was built in 1500 BC, archaeologists thought that they had indeed found their "mother city". And as they continued to excavate, they discovered carvings of warrior figures with their victims, who had clearly died very violently. It looked as if war really had been the force that gave birth to civilisation.