The city of Teotihuacan was founded and prospered for seven centuries, until 600 AD. During these centuries, it was a magnificent and sophisticated city, easily comparable to Rome. The population was approximately 100,000, while the surrounding areas were inhabited by a million. After an initial authoritarian period, until 300 AD, it was followed by an egalitarian period: all evidence indicates that Teotihuacan had consciously found a way to govern itself, without a top-down military, religious, or administrative structure. This was the case with the much older cities of the Ukrainian mega-sites, Uruk in Mesopotamia, and Pakistan in the Bronze Age.
