Spanning 296 pages and 14 contributions, this new volume features a special thematic section titled “Lost Cities and Legacy Data.” Seven of the chapters are availabe open access.

Special section: “Lost Cities and Legacy Data”

Edited by Olympia Bobou and Rubina Raja, the special section critically examines how colonial and orientalist frameworks have influenced archaeological practice in the Near East and Egypt, particularly during the late Ottoman and Mandate periods. It brings together studies that re-evaluate archival records and legacy excavation data to challenge long-standing assumptions and reconstruct more complex narratives of ancient urbanism.

Focusing on sites such as Palmyra, Seleucia in Pieria, Gerasa, and Alexandria, alongside broader Syrian and Western Asian contexts, the contributions explore how excavation, documentation, and interpretation were shaped by the intellectual and political environments of their time. Through a combination of archival research and critical historiography, the volume illuminates how the histories of these “lost” cities were constructed, contested, and reassembled. By confronting the legacies of Western archaeology and restoring local perspectives, this collection offers a vital reassessment of how the ancient urban past has been imagined, recorded, and transmitted.

The special section comes out of the project Lost Cities Rediscovered (LoCi). LoCi is an international collaborative research project funded by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung, headed by Rubina Raja (director; Aarhus University), Olympia Bobou (co-PI; Aarhus University) and Miriam Kühn (co-PI; Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin).

Read more about JUA here.

Full reference

Raja, R. & Sindbæk, S. (eds.) (2025).  Journal of Urban Archaeology 12, Turnhout: Brepols.

Bobou, O. & Raja, R.  (eds.) (2025).  Journal of Urban Archaeology 12, Special section on ‘Lost Cities and Legacy Data’, Turnhout: Brepols.

UrbNet contributions in JUA 12:

Raja, R. & Sindbæk, S. (2025). "The House We Live in", Journal of Urban Archaeology 12, 17–18. https://doi.org/10.1484/J.JUA.5.151424

Bobou, O. & Raja, R. (2025). "Cities ‘Lost’ and ‘Found’: The Impact of Western Research on Ancient Sites in the Perception of their Urbanism", in Bobou, O. & Raja, R. (eds), Lost Cities and Legacy Data, Journal of Urban Archaeology 12, 141–148. https://doi.org/10.1484/J.JUA.5.151430

Bobou, O., Çağlar, F.T., Kühn, M., Neil, E.Q. & Raja, R. (2025). "Shelving Urban Excavations: Revisiting Ottoman and Mandate-Period Archives in Western Asia", in Bobou, O. & Raja, R. (eds), Lost Cities and Legacy Data, Journal of Urban Archaeology 12, 149–176. https://doi.org/10.1484/J.JUA.5.151431

Bobou, O., Kühn, M. & Raja, R. (2025). "Lost Cities in the Near East: Reassembling Knowledge through Archival Research and Excavation Documentation", in Bobou, O. & Raja, R. (eds), Lost Cities and Legacy Data, Journal of Urban Archaeology 12, 177–200. https://doi.org/10.1484/J.JUA.5.151432

Bobou, O. & Raja, R. (2025). "From Tadmor to Palmyra, 1923–1929: The (Re-)creation of an Ancient City", in Bobou, O. & Raja, R. (eds), Lost Cities and Legacy Data, Journal of Urban Archaeology 12, 215–228. https://doi.org/10.1484/J.JUA.5.151434

Blömer, M., Bobou, O., Neil, E.Q. & Raja, R. (2025). "From ‘Secondary’ City to Primary Focus: A Historiographical Approach to the Urbanity of Seleucia in Pieria", in Bobou, O. & Raja, R. (eds), Lost Cities and Legacy Data, Journal of Urban Archaeology 12, 229–243. https://doi.org/10.1484/J.JUA.5.151435

Raja, R. (2025). "The Organization of Archaeological Fieldwork and Selective Publication of Findings as Appropriation of Knowledge: Observations on the 1931 Spring Campaign in Gerasa”, in Bobou, O. & Raja, R. (eds), Lost Cities and Legacy Data, Journal of Urban Archaeology 12, 245–268. https://doi.org/10.1484/J.JUA.5.151436