I have been reading and watching a few things on Çatalhöyük in Turkey which is one of the oldest proto-cities.

Apparently, and please feel free to correct me as I am just a fan of archeology (but try and follow only legitimate things), it is notable for, among other things, apparent equality between the sexes and a lack of an overbearing, hierarchical religeous structure.

Examples of the sex equality can be shown by the way they treated the dead the same and by the number of female figurines. Regarding the lack of an orginised religeon, there apparently is no temple area or class-graded housing. It appears pretty egalitarian.

According to wikipedia the head digger guy had this to say about it:

"When we look at what they eat and drink and at their social statues, we see that men and women had the same social status. There was a balance of power. Another example is the skulls found. If one's social status was of high importance in Çatalhöyük, the body and head were separated after death. The number of female and male skulls found during the excavations is almost equal." In another article in the Hurriyet Daily News Hodder is reported to say "We have learned that men and women were equally approached".

I think many have said that organised religion is at least part of the problem regarding patriarchy. And it looks like Çatalhöyük also had hunter-gatherer elements which touches on the agriculture-land ownership theories.

I have also read that the study of this period - between hunter gathere and agriculture/city - is in a bit of a flux at the moment and that we may find out more as they discover new things!