Excavations at a 6,000-year-old archeological mound in northeastern Syria called Tell Brak are providing an alternative explanation for how the first cities may have grown.

Archeologists have thought cities generally began in a single small area and grew outward -- but evidence indicates that the urban area at Tell Brak was a ring of small villages that grew inward to become a city.

The finds, reported Friday in the journal Science, provide insight into political development in the region.