City Harvests. Food Security in Ancient Settlements

Long before refrigerated supply chains, urban survival depended on what could be grown near walls, courtyards, canals, and roads. Ancient settlements were not simply consumers of distant harvests. They were landscapes where food production, water management, labor, and political authority met. This study follows the practical systems that kept cities fed, from household plots and orchards to market gardens and cultivated edges.
It examines how geography, climate, social rank, and access to land shaped resilience during ordinary seasons and moments of shortage. Readers gain a grounded view of ancient urbanism through the daily work behind grain, vegetables, fruit, and herbs, revealing how food security influenced settlement patterns and civic power.