these pots (earliest are from 13k BC) are from the Jomon culture, they were sedentary fishers iirc.
sedentary hunters-gatherers lived in the near east, e.g. Hallan Cemi (10k BC)
but the Civilization's city can represent a tribe of roaming hunter-gatherers as well, as their routes are typically looped, they return to certain places and stay in the same camp sites, and may have a base camp which may be occupied by at least a few people for the year round.
tribes can migrate very long distances but it's the same for sedentary peoples (e.g. Bulgars).
And agriculturalists of the Trypillian culture were migrating to another location every several decades
Back when I was taking an archeology course (when a lot fo what is now archeology was 'current events', but I'm not dating myself much!), one of our first major studies was transhumant cultures, who moved between relatively fixed points. The tribes of the Zagros immediately preceding the development of agriculture in Mesopotamia, for the example that I remember all these years later, moved between summer grazing camps in the hills and winter gathering camps down in the 'flatlands' by the rivers. Once they learned to plant and cultivate the stuff they were gathering, they started staying put all year round.
This pattern is typical of a myriad of 'pre-city' cultures: many of the tribes up here in the Pacific Northwest had a seaside camp for the fishing and an inland/hill camp for gathering and hunting: exploiting multiple food sources seasonally. The tribes in New England followed a similar pattern: the Pilgrims looted a summer seaside camp near Plymouth Rock because they thought it was abandoned, not realizing it was simply a seasonal village site, not occupied in the winter when the Europeans landed.
Even the pastoralists were not 'wanderers': they usually moved between pretty well-defined grazing areas, and defended those areas or at least their access to them.
All of which encourages me to believe that the pattern of short-range, defined movement patterns for these 'semi-nomads' can be used to produce an Alternative Start for Civ: such Civs (maybe all of them) would start with a Gatherer or Tribal unit instead of a Settler. This unit, if not moving, can access any resources within a one tile radius, representing the tribe moving between various village/camp sites. BUT when it 'accesses' or works a resource, that resource disappears - depleted. some time later it will restore itself, but in the meantime, usually the Tribe, having eaten bare the local area, has moved on.
Let's see, every 5 - 6 turns the Tribe would grow big enough to spawn another Tribal unit, and each Tribal unit spawns with a Military Unit - scout, slinger or warrior, either your choice or random (choice is better - random is probably too much of a nerf). The reasoning is that in a hunting/herding group, virtually every adult male has combat skills: he's constantly using slings, javelins, or other weapons against game or predators.
Sea Resources next to the coast could also be accessed, because coastal fishing predates Start of Game all over the world.
Eventually, you'd convert one or all the Tribal units into Settlers and Cities, and based on how many turns since the Start this takes place, you would start with a certain number of Techs and possibly 1 Civic, so you would not fall too far behind in your wandering years.
Of course, while wandering, you wouldn't be getting any units more advanced than what is available at the Start of the game, but even that could be worked into the system: exploit a certain number of, say, Deer (hunted with slings, provide sinew, leather, bone and horn) and you could develop Archery while still nomadic; exploit a certain number of Sheep or Cattle, and develop Animal Husbandry or The Wheel. I would dearly love to have a system where certain 'nomad' groups (like the Cimmerians who raided the Hittites) in the late Ancient Era are able to field a decent military force without being required to build 'artificial' (historical-speaking) cities to flourish...
