Urban Network Evolutions

For millenia, urban networks have shaped the development of human societies. Today, new archaeological approaches are unveiling the evolution of these networks in unprecedented detail. Urban Networks Evolutions reviews the new approaches to urban evolution as archaeology endeavours to characterise both the scale and pace of historical events and processes. Issuing from the work of the Danish National Research Foundation's Centre of Excellence, the Centre for Urban Network Evolutions (UrbNet), the book compares the archaeology of urbanism from medieval Northern Europe to the Ancient Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean World. The 40 contributors demonstrate how new techniques for refining archaeological dates, contexts, and the provenance ascribed to material culture, afford a new high-definition approach to the study of global and interregional dynamics. This opens up for far-reaching questions as to how and to what extent urban networks catalysed societal and environmental expansions and crises in the past.

For millenia, urban networks have shaped the development of human societies. Today, new archaeological approaches are unveiling the evolution of these networks in unprecedented detail. Urban Networks Evolutions reviews the new approaches to urban evolution as archaeology endeavours to characterise both the scale and pace of historical events and processes. Issuing from the work of the Danish National Research Foundation's Centre of Excellence, the Centre for Urban Network Evolutions (UrbNet), the book compares the archaeology of urbanism from medieval Northern Europe to the Ancient Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean World. The 40 contributors demonstrate how new techniques for refining archaeological dates, contexts, and the provenance ascribed to material culture, afford a new high-definition approach to the study of global and interregional dynamics. This opens up for far-reaching questions as to how and to what extent urban networks catalysed societal and environmental expansions and crises in the past.

Acknowledgements by the editors INTRODUCTION Urban network evolutions: Exploring dynamics and flows through evidence from urban contextsRubina Raja & Soren M. SindbAek ROME AND ITS CITIES A high-definition approach to the Forum of Caesar in Rome: Urban archaeology in a living cityJan Kindberg Jacobsen & Rubina Raja Burial and birds in pre-urban RomeNora M. Petersen Caesars Forum: Excavating Italian Iron AgeSine Grove SaxkjAer & Gloria Paola Mittica The Archaic period on the Forum of Caesar: The urbanisation of early RomeNikoline Sauer Petersen A space for Caesar: The heart of Rome and urban developmentLine Egelund Caesars, shepherds and citiesTrine Arlund Hass Doliche and the exploration of Graeco-Roman urbanism in ancient Greater SyriaMichael Blomer Public spaces and urban networks in the Roman Empire: Messene in the Peloponnese as an example of an approachChristopher Dickenson PALMYRA: THE URBAN DESERT Urbanizing the desert : Investigating the diversity of urban networks through the images of deceased PalmyrenesRubina Raja Behind the scenes: Cataloguing as a tool for exploring urban networksOlympia Bobou & Rikke Randeris Thomsen Producing funerary portraits: An urban tradition in the Syrian DesertJulia Steding The urbanization of Palmyra: The dynamics of the family cemeteriesSigne Krag JERASH: FROM ROMAN TO ISLAMIC CITY Urban networks and dynamics seen through urban peripheries: The case of Gerasa on the golden riverAchim Lichtenberger & Rubina Raja Mortar and plaster production in Jerash: Changingaperspective from macro to microKristine Damgaard Thomsen Small change in big cities: Characterising the development of everyday coinage in JerashThomas Birch & Vana Orfanou River archaeology and urban resilience in JerashAchim Lichtenberger & Rubina Raja Urban networks seen through ceramics: Formal modelling approaches to pottery distribution in JerashIza Romanowska, Tom Brughmans, Achim Lichtenberger & Rubina Raja Medieval Jerash: Investigating the pottery of a Middle Islamic hamlet in the Northwest QuarterAlex Peterson Travellers and early urban archaeology in the Levant: The case of JerashEva Mortensen Archaeoseismology in Jerash: Understanding urban dynamics through catastrophic eventsChristian Svejgard Lunde Jorgensen RIBE: GATEWAY TO THE VIKING AGE Northern Emporium: The archaeology of urban networks in Viking-Age RibeSoren M. SindbAek 3D scanning as documentation and analytical tool: First field experiences at the Northern Emporium excavation project, RibeSarah Croix Geoarchaeology and micromorphology at Ribe: A Northern Emporium in high definitionBarbora Wouters Geoarchaeology of the early northern cities: Microscopic and geochemical investigations of urban spaces in DenmarkPernille LAerke Krantz Trant Viking-Age metals and urbanisation: The case of Ribe in DenmarkVana Orfanou & Thomas Birch A new calibration curve for improved radiocarbon dating of urban contextsBente Philippsen & Mikkel Fristrup Schou Missing links: Viking-Age silver rings and urban networksMahir Hrnjic THE MAKING OF MEDIEVAL URBANITY An urban way of life: How to approach the study of networks and practices in medieval Odense, DenmarkKirstine Haase Towards the making of a town: Urbanity as practice and way of life in medieval CopenhagenHanna Dahlstrom The chronology of two medieval cemeteries in central Copenhagen: Bayesian modelling and archaeo logical relative age informationJesper Olsen, Bjorn Poulsen & Hanna Dahlstrom Trade, import and urban development: An archaeobotanical approach to economic change in medieval DenmarkNeeke M. Hammers Urbanisation and commercialisation on the periphery of medieval EuropeOlav Elias Gundersen High-definition urban fashion: Proteins reveal preferred resources for medieval leather shoesLuise Orsted Brandt Interdisciplinary methods in town archaeologyJohan Sandvang Larsen Gardening and food security in early southern-Scandinavian urbanism: Existing evidence and the need for a high-definition approachSoren M. Kristiansen SWAHILI EMPORIA: AFRICAN NETWORK CITIES Defining space in house contexts: Chemical mapping at Unguja Ukuu, ZanzibarFederica Sulas & Stephanie Wynne-Jones Iron production technologies and trade networks in Swahili East AfricaEma Bauzyte Dating Kilwa Kisiwani: A thousand years of East African history in an urban stratigraphyStephanie Wynne-Jones, Mark Horton, Jeffrey Fleisher & Jesper Olsen BETWEEN URBAN WORLDS Through the looking glass: Glass, high-definition archaeology and urban networks in the 8th century CE from North to SouthRubina Raja & Soren M. SindbAek About the authors