Some African cities developed in the context of interregional trade, others were politically dominant in their regions, and still others were clustered cities, showing little political or economic hierarchy. African urbanism encompasses many kinds of cities and many kinds of power. Over the marshes, winding streams, and rice fields of Mali's Middle Niger floodplain rises a tell that would not be out of place in Mesopotamia. Jenne-jeno's descendant town, Jenne, lies 3 kilometers away; there its present-day inhabitants walk about on 9 meters of ancient city deposits. Recent research reveals cities even earlier than Jenne-jeno and especially a 'pre-urban' landscape that was potentially several millennia in the making. The understanding of the evolution and nature of east African cities has similarly changed greatly in light of new archaeological field work. Early African cities and the distribution of power in them were neither cut to a normative pattern, nor did they develop from any single cause.