This video by Chirs Hasler on the Study of Antiquity and the Middle Ages channel explains why people almost certainly started to live in villages before agriculture was invented rather than after, contrary to what many people assume.  The video presents a portrayal of what is likely the first known village in human history, located in Neolithic Japan and dating to 13,500 BC, and it explains that a similar type of situation was likely the case in Mesopotamia where hunter-gatherers settled down in permanent locations along the rivers before they figured out how to grow crops.  The ancient “Tell Abu Hureyra” site in Syria is explained, which was a very early Mesopotamian settlement that existed as early as 11,500 BC, predating the domestication of crops.  (Also explained is how Tell Abu Hureyra was destroyed in 1973 by the construction of a dam on the Euphrates river that created a reservoir which also destroyed many other important sites.)