Since the work of V. Gordon Childe, archaeologists have recognized the importance of the urban revolution in human history. Yet what happened within these cities was only one small part of this revolution. Urbanization also created the countryside and the tenuous, shifting relationships that linked cities to farmers, herders, traders, pilgrims, and other people that lived outside the city walls. In this seminar, we will examine the early relationship between city and countryside from around the world. Each week we will read 3 articles on one aspect of this relationship and then discuss the articles in class. Students will submit a reading report for 7 of these weeks. The one page single spaced report will distill the critical elements of each reading and link them to the broader themes of the course. Each student will lead discussion for one week, as well as be asked to write a 20- to 25-page research paper that examines this city/countryside dynamic in one region of the world.