Cities and Yeoman's First Law of History

Research and the University of Colorado suggests that:

Our findings indicate the fundamental processes behind the emergence of scaling in modern cities have structured human settlement organization throughout human history, and that contemporary urban systems are best-conceived as lying on a continuum with the smaller-scale settlement systems known from historical and archaeological research.

And; 

What we found here is that the fundamental drivers of robust socioeconomic patterns in modern cities precede all that.

And that wealth and monuments were easier to find in ancient cities, like modern ones.

Can't say we're surprised.  Yeoman's First Law of History at work again.