Talk:List of oldest continuously inhabited cities/Archive 5

Matera and the definition of a "city"
Wikipedia and Wiktionary define a city as a "large human settlement" Since Matera has always had a sizeable human population since ~7,000 BC, is it not a continuously inhabited city since the 7th millennium BC? The town of Matheola was established in 251 BC by Lucius Caecilius Metellus, but I think it would be rather misleading to state that it has only been continuously inhabited since 251 BC, as it would be ignoring most of its history as a continuously inhabited settlement.

I would also like to point out that this article is a bit flawed in a way, as the definition of a "city" can become very blurry, and even the lead of the article admits "The age claims listed are generally disputed. Differences in opinion can result from different definitions of "city" as well as "continuous habitation" and historical evidence is often disputed." If an article starts by admitting that its contents are generally disputed, then perhaps the article needs a do-over.

Perhaps it would be best to create a new article titled "List of oldest continuously inhabited settlements", or to just rename this article to that, as I'm looking through many of these listings, and many simply point to the earliest inhabitation, which I think is fair enough. Limonizia (talk) 20:19, 13 July 2022 (UTC)


 * @Limonizia Neither Wikipedia nor wikitionary are reliable sources. And as you say, Matera wasn't a city before at least 215. Even then you are calling it a town. You might also like to look at Proto-city which describes places that aren't yet cities but have a decent population. We need a more rigorous definition. And I still don't see sufficient evidence to say Matera has been continuously inhabited that long. Doug Weller  talk 07:41, 14 July 2022 (UTC)

Ankara should be added
Ankara should be added as it is one of the world's oldest capital cities - although not as capital. Kindly research it and add it so as to reflect the reality. 178.244.117.41 (talk) 19:02, 17 July 2022 (UTC)

Tunis and Carthage
Per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunis and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Carthage, Tunis had been in existence since 4th century BC while Carthage (10 miles from Tunis) was founded in the 9th century BC. 47.156.150.127 (talk) 02:41, 17 November 2022 (UTC) Henry

Edmonton, Canada
Founded in 1795. Earlier than Victoria which is listed. 103.249.33.10 (talk) 03:06, 15 April 2023 (UTC)