In December 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) published its arresting statistics collating the top ten causes of global death in 2019: Covid-19 was nowhere to be seen. However, when the figures for 2020-21 are finally published, it will be listed as one of the top three global killers, having already claimed over 3 million lives. Such a trauma will leave a long legacy. Life after the pandemic will be different socially, economically, and politically: the new normal, when it finally arrives, will dramatically differ from the old. This essay suggests how lessons from deep prehistory might provide greater urban well-being in that post-pandemic period.