| Date | 17-19 September 2025 | |
| Time | 9:00-17:30 | |
| Venue | UrbNet |
The international conference A decade of UrbNet: closing in and zooming out will address fundamental conceptual frameworks in the archaeology of urban societies. The event will feature a series of presentations that critically and constructively reflect on the ideas and outcomes of the research conducted at the centre, as well as its impact on the respective academic fields. The conference aims to facilitate comparative frames of reference through case studies and thematic explorations of past urban societies and networks, structured around four thematic sessions:
The evolution of urban networks: the rise and fall of globalisation
A central feature of UrbNet’s research is the study of ancient urban networks through the circulation of materials, and defining and charting how production (of things for subsistence, cultural and other services) shaped urban dynamics. This research has been boosted by new isotopic and biomolecular research methods and framed by theories ranging from globalization to ANT, new materialism and ecological economics. This outlook was shaped by interest in historical globalization in the 2010s. To what extent has UrbNet succeeded in breaking new ground in this field, and where is this theme heading at a time when global connectivity is increasingly associated with societal and economic threats?
Circular ancient cities and wicked problems: Urban sustainability and resource management
Cities emerge from the dialogue between homo faber and natural agents. Research at UrbNet has explored how ancient urban societies managed natural landscape resources including water, and food production, as well as harnessed internal resources through re-cycling and circular economy. This research highlights how responses have evolved in tandem with changes in the environment and climate. Today, we understand environmental and climate changes as wicked problems for which we do not seem to have a solution yet. Some even speak about an ‘urbanocene’. Wicked problem is here broadly defined as large-scale (transregional?) phenomena driven by natural and/or human factors that affect people across different regions. How can the research and perspectives developed at UrbNet contribute to decipher such problems? Can we see urbanism as a human response to wicked problems? Where should research go from here?
High-definition archaeology and beyond
One of UrbNet's aims was to enhance the precision, scale, and interpretive quality of archaeological data, especially for urban and complex sites. We have pursued high-definition archaeology as a strategy to integrate different forms of data and “an approach which seeks to revise grand narratives by replacing approximate observations with more exact ones.” Specifically, the approach aimed at more precise chronologies that go beyond conventional archaeological timelines, enhanced environmental analysis through micromorphology, soil chemistry, isotope analysis and proteomics, as well as digital data integration. Seeing urban stratigraphies as archives of past urban evolutions, the new methodologies have been able to unpack massive amount of data on widely different scales – from a stratigraphic interface captured in a thin section to the topography of low-density urban landscapes. However, successful methodologies and the theoretical considerations concerning the nature of the archaeological records they trigger ought to carry some degree of transferability – potentially also to other kinds of archaeology. How far has UrbNets research succeeded in developing a transferable methodological vision, and what are the frontier challenges presently? And has this changed the views on past urban worlds?
Networks urbanism and urban networks
UrbNet has aimed to understand ancient and medieval urban societies in terms of their networks, and eventually to reveal “how – and to what extent – urban networks catalysed societal and environmental expansions and crises in the past”. This objective has involved conceptual explorations of urbanism as a theme, and a focus on places and evidence at the limit of common understanding. These themes are explored in particular in the volumes of the Journal of Urban Archaeology, with discussions of “anomalocivitas”, “anomalous giants” and “weak ties”. What are the outcomes and further ramifications of these explorations? As urban settlement emerged and spread, the new settlement form changed the nature and magnitude of human-environmental interactions. Has urbanism had a similar impact – in terms of scale and magnitude – in (re-)shaping social development. If cities were never born, what would our global society look like?
For invited speakers we will cover travel (economy class only) and up to 3 nights of accommodation. Please book your own travel to Aarhus, and we will reimburse you after your stay (please book your ticket directly through an airline and not via a travel search engine). We would appreciate it, if you could book sooner rather than later in order to get a reasonably priced flight.
You will receive a link to Aarhus University's travel reimbursement form. Please keep your receipts as you will be asked to upload documentation for your expenses.
NOTE: As soon as you have booked your flight, please forward your itinerary to Sine Saxkjær (saxkjaer@cas.au.dk), so that the hotel booking can be finalised.
Scandic the Mayor
Banegårdspladsen 14
8000 Aarhus
A speakers’ dinner will be held 19 September, and we will of course cater for you during the conference.
If you have any dietary restrictions (incl. allergies), please let Sine Saxkjær (saxkjaer@cas.au.dk) know no later than 1 July, so that the restaurant/caterers can be notified.
