World's first city discovered by U.S. spy satellite

[mfcorey1]

Old U.S. spy satellite images of the Middle East have unearthed a stunning discovery: the world’s first city, Tell Brak – 4,000 years older than the Great Pyramids. From the Series: The Life of Earth: The Age of Humans

https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/science/worlds-first-city-discovered-by-us-spy-satellite/vi-BBYSG5A?ocid=mailsignout

[dalton99a]

1. The site was well known to archaeologists

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tell_Brak

Tell Brak was excavated by the British archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan, husband of Agatha Christie, in 1937 and 1938.[166] The artifacts from Mallowan's excavations are now preserved in the Ashmolean Museum, National Museum of Aleppo and the British Museum's collection;[167] the latter contain the Tell Brak Head dating to c. 3500–3300 BC.[168][169]

A team from the Institute of Archaeology of the University of London, led by David and Joan Oates, worked in the tell for 14 seasons between 1976 and 1993.[69] After 1993, excavations were conducted by a number of field directors under the general guidance of David (until 2004) and Joan Oates.[69] Those directors included Roger Matthews (in 1994–1996), for the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research of the University of Cambridge; Geoff Emberling (in 1998–2002) and Helen McDonald (in 2000–2004), for the British Institute for the Study of Iraq and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[69] In 2006, Augusta McMahon became field director, also sponsored by the British Institute for the Study of Iraq.[69] A regional archaeological field survey in a 20 km (12 mi) radius around Brak was supervised by Henry T. Wright (in 2002–2005).[170] Many of the finds from the excavations at Tell Brak are on display in the Deir ez-Zor Museum.[171] The most recent excavations took place in the spring of 2011, but archaeological work is currently suspended due to the ongoing Syrian Civil War.[172]

[Firestorm49]

2. Thanks for the research.

[Baitball Blogger]

3. +1

[Amishman]

5. And gobekli tepe is still thousands of years older

Though it is arguable if it was a settlement or just a huge temple complex

[Quemado]

6. +1

I was going to mention Gobekli Tepe. And even Gobekli Tepe might not be the world's first city.

[PatSeg]

8. Thank you

I wasn't familiar with Gobekli Tepe. I am watching a YouTube video on it now.

[PatSeg]

4. This is fascinating to me

Last edited Tue Jan 14, 2020, 02:46 PM - Edit history (1)

though I wish they'd say "first known city". New archaeological discoveries are made all the time and somehow, it seems there is always something older than previous discoveries. Someone with a scientific mindset would acknowledge that by using words like "to this date" or "as far as we know". That should be sensational enough.

[flibbitygiblets]

7. +1

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. Since the video is blocked from my location, how have they claimed it was "found" by satellite

when it was excavated pre-WW2?

I notice that archaeologists say

Tell Brak is one of the world’s earliest cities, which reached urban scale and complexity by the early 4th millennium BC and retained political importance and economic power through most of the 3rd millennium BC.

http://www.tellbrak.mcdonald.cam.ac.uk/

Early 4th millennium BC is 1500 years before the pyramids, not 4000.

[marble falls]

10. Swords sometimes make unintentional plowshares.