My neighbourhood recently got new bins. The ones with black tops are for regular waste, while the ones with green tops are for recyclables. A few days ago, I was furious when I noticed that someone on my street had been putting regular rubbish in the recycling bins.
Given current global concerns about the environment, who could be so thoughtless? Shaking my head, I deposited my rubbish in the correct receptacle, and momentarily dismissed the modern world as a lost cause.
However, it turns out that the trials of urban living are not so modern at all. An archaeological research study – published last week in the ponderously named Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, and reported on by newspapers including The National – describes life in Çatalhöyük, one of the world's earliest proto-urban communities.
Founded around 9,000 years ago, Çatalhöyük is often referred to as “the world’s first city”. Located in modern-day Turkey, it was home to about 8,000 people at its peak, and the problems they experienced sound surprisingly familiar.
One of the main issues the population faced centred on sanitation and what to do with waste. In Çatalhöyük, the rubbish pits and animal pens sat alongside the houses – an urban planning faux pas likely to have contributed to the spread of infectious diseases. Looking at the skeletal remains of Catalhoyuk’s inhabitants, this new study found that the bones of up to one-third of those examined showed evidence of infection.
Waste disposal remains a massive problem for us today. For example, research published in 2016 in the International Journal of Epidemiology found that living within 5km of a landfill site was associated with an elevated risk of severe respiratory diseases, including lung cancer.
Earlier this year, 187 countries signed a historic agreement giving nations the power to block the importation of contaminated or hard-to-recycle plastic refuse. The idea behind the treaty is to prevent wealthier nations from dumping plastics on poorer countries, a practice with serious health implications for recipient nations.
Another issue faced by inhabitants of Catalhoyuk was overcrowding. As the population grew, so did the demand for food and building materials. The archaeological evidence shows differences in the leg bones of earlier and later generations, suggesting that the latter had to do more walking. More people meant more effort – for example, having to travel further from home to find building materials or graze livestock.
The number of people per square kilometre can still be an issue in today’s societies. For a start, numerous research studies report a relationship between the prevalence of severe mental health problems and increased population density.
Big-city life can be stressful. The mud-brick houses at Catalhoyuk were built like apartments with adjoining walls and no spaces between each unit. Entry and exit were through the roof, meaning that some inhabitants potentially had noisy neighbours on all four sides.
As the population grew, there seems to have been no shortage of violence. From a sample of 93 skulls, a quarter of them had sustained head injuries consistent with a violent attack, and more than half of the victims were women.
Violence remains a problem in many urban centres, with some regions faring far worse than others. While cities such as Abu Dhabi and Dubai consistently rank among the safest in the world, North and South American cities dominate the per capita murder rate rankings. In her book Evil Genes, the author Barbara Oakley argues that larger urban areas provide a perfect environment for such crimes. In a small village hundreds of years ago, for example, antisocial acts might have got you banished for life, whereas in the modern metropolis, it is much easier to act inappropriately and fade back into the mass of humanity.
The final downfall of Çatalhöyük, however, wasn’t violence or interpersonal conflict. It was climate change and environmental degradation. There is evidence that, over time, the mud taken from the nearby river caused the waterway to alter its course, disturbing local ecosystems. It also appears that deforestation and large-scale grazing had a detrimental impact. The population at Catalhoyuk declined rapidly, and the site was abandoned after almost 2,000 years of continuous habitation.
The lead author of the latest Catalhoyuk study and professor of anthropology at Ohio State University, Clarke Larsen concludes that “many of the challenges we have today are the same ones they had in Catalhoyuk – only magnified”.
Humanity has been working to develop and refine the concept of the city for close to 10,000 years. We have a long way to go before we perfect it. However, take a walk down the busy streets of Abu Dhabi or Dubai, and it quickly becomes apparent that this is a project that is still well worth pursuing. Filled with people from across the globe, working side by side to build better lives for themselves and their families, socialising and making new friendships, cities show us that the benefits of large-scale co-operation and community far outweigh the pitfalls – especially if neighbours can work out how to recycle properly.
Justin Thomas is a professor of psychology at Zayed University
Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Brief scores:
Toss: India, opted to field
Australia 158-4 (17 ov)
Maxwell 46, Lynn 37; Kuldeep 2-24
India 169-7 (17 ov)
Dhawan 76, Karthik 30; Zampa 2-22
Result: Australia won by 4 runs by D/L method
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The specs
Price: From Dh529,000
Engine: 5-litre V8
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Power: 520hp
Torque: 625Nm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.8L/100km
WITHIN%20SAND
%3Cp%3EDirector%3A%20Moe%20Alatawi%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EStarring%3A%20Ra%E2%80%99ed%20Alshammari%2C%20Adwa%20Fahd%2C%20Muhand%20Alsaleh%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ERating%3A%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
RESULTS
6.30pm Handicap (TB) $68,000 (Dirt) 1,200m
Winner Canvassed, Par Dobbs (jockey), Doug Watson (trainer)
7.05pm Meydan Cup – Listed Handicap (TB) $88,000 (Turf) 2,810m
Winner Dubai Future, Frankie Dettori, Saeed bin Suroor
7.40pm UAE 2000 Guineas – Group 3 (TB) $125,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner Mouheeb, Ryan Curatolo, Nicholas Bachalard
8.15pm Firebreak Stakes – Group 3 (TB) $130,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner Secret Ambition, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar
9.50pm Meydan Classic – Conditions (TB) $$50,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner Topper Bill, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar
9.25pm Dubai Sprint – Listed Handicap (TB) $88,000 (T) 1,200m
Winner Man Of Promise, William Buick, Charlie Appleby
Meydan race card
6.30pm: Maiden; Dh165,000; (Dirt) 1,200m
7.05pm: Handicap; Dh170,000; (D) 1,200m
7.40pm: Maiden; Dh165,000; (D) 1,900m
8.15pm: Handicap; Dh185,000; (D) 2,000m
8.50pm: Handicap; Dh185,000; (D) 1,600m
9.25pm: Handicap; Dh165,000; (D) 2,000m
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Teri%20Baaton%20Mein%20Aisa%20Uljha%20Jiya
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirectors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Amit%20Joshi%20and%20Aradhana%20Sah%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECast%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Shahid%20Kapoor%2C%20Kriti%20Sanon%2C%20Dharmendra%2C%20Dimple%20Kapadia%2C%20Rakesh%20Bedi%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
SCORES IN BRIEF
New Zealand 153 and 56 for 1 in 22.4 overs at close
Pakistan 227
(Babar 62, Asad 43, Boult 4-54, De Grandhomme 2-30, Patel 2-64)
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Mission%3A%20Impossible%20-%20Dead%20Reckoning%20Part%20One
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Sour%20Grapes
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THE SPECS
Engine: 1.5-litre
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Power: 110 horsepower
Torque: 147Nm
Price: From Dh59,700
On sale: now
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
Four motivational quotes from Alicia's Dubai talk
“The only thing we need is to know that we have faith. Faith and hope in our own dreams. The belief that, when we keep going we’re going to find our way. That’s all we got.”
“Sometimes we try so hard to keep things inside. We try so hard to pretend it’s not really bothering us. In some ways, that hurts us more. You don’t realise how dishonest you are with yourself sometimes, but I realised that if I spoke it, I could let it go.”
“One good thing is to know you’re not the only one going through it. You’re not the only one trying to find your way, trying to find yourself, trying to find amazing energy, trying to find a light. Show all of yourself. Show every nuance. All of your magic. All of your colours. Be true to that. You can be unafraid.”
“It’s time to stop holding back. It’s time to do it on your terms. It’s time to shine in the most unbelievable way. It’s time to let go of negativity and find your tribe, find those people that lift you up, because everybody else is just in your way.”
