Proto-city is a term usually used to describe large villages or towns of the Neolithic Period such as Jericho

PPNA Wall of Jericho

The Wall of Jericho is a Pre-Pottery Neolithic A defensive or flood protection wall suggested to date to approximately 8000 BC.-Biblical story:...

 and Catal Huyuk, but also any prehistoric

Prehistory

Prehistory is the span of time before recorded history. Prehistory can refer to the period of human existence before the availability of those written records with which recorded history begins. More broadly, it refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing...

  settlement which has both rural and urban features, in an attempt to distinguish them from cities in later periods. Predynastic Egypt

Predynastic Egypt

The Prehistory of Egypt spans the period of earliest human settlement to the beginning of the Early Dynastic Period of Egypt in ca. 3100 BC, starting with King Menes/Narmer....

 and Ubaid

Ubaid period

The Ubaid period is a prehistoric period of Mesopotamia. The tell of al-`Ubaid west of nearby Ur in southern Iraq's Dhi Qar Governorate has given its name to the prehistoric Pottery Neolithic to Chalcolithic culture, which represents the earliest settlement on the alluvial plain of southern...

 Sumeria

Sumeria

Sumeria may refer to:*A common name for the region of city-states known in ancient Mesopotamia as Sumer....

 featured what some call proto-cities. The break from these later mentioned settlements and urban settlements is the emergence of Eridu

Eridu

Eridu is an ancient Sumerian city in what is now Tell Abu Shahrain, Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq. Eridu was considered the earliest city in southern Mesopotamia, and is one of the oldest cities in the world...

, the first Sumer

Sumer

Sumer was a civilization and historical region in southern Mesopotamia, modern Iraq during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age....

ian city, in the Uruk period

Uruk period

The Uruk period existed from the protohistoric Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age period in the history of Mesopotamia, following the Ubaid period and succeeded by the Jemdet Nasr period. Named after the Sumerian city of Uruk, this period saw the emergence of urban life in Mesopotamia. It was...

 around 4000 BC. A Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an example of this would be the Cucuteni-Tripillian culture

Cucuteni culture

The Cucuteni-Trypillian culture, also known as Cucuteni culture , Trypillian culture or Tripolye culture , is a late Neolithic archaeological culture which flourished between ca...

which dates back to the 4th millennium BC. http://www.trypillia.com/info/index.shtml.