Apparently distance wise at least it wasn't very hard to escape from the grasp of earliest cities and the place where you went - a days walk away - likely was not that different - "Assuming draft animals and carts on a flat alluvial plain, the reach of the earliest states for grain requisitions is unlikely to have extended much beyond a radius of roughly forty-eight kilometers"

Of course leaving ones home is probably a burden if you've used to sedentary life.