Adapting to a global urban future requires diverse, long-term perspectives on urbanism. URBank supports this by bringing together global deep-time urban datasets in a modern open-science computing platform. Its design eschews checklist definitions of cities, representing the variability of past urbanism and enabling systematic comparative spatiotemporal research.

Analysis of historic aerial photography has identified a possible monumental formal garden complex on the outskirts of Tabriz, Iran. Here, the authors describe this complex and explain why it is an important addition to our knowledge of elite Persian garden design practice that spread globally over time.

Recent excavations at Gre Fılla, located in the northern part of the Upper Tigris region in modern-day Türkiye, have revealed an architecturally diverse settlement that was occupied during much of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (c. 9300–7500 BC). While early architecture at the site aligns with developments seen more widely in northern Mesopotamia, the typological diversity that fluoresces during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (c. 8800–7500 BC) has previously been under-represented in the region. Here, the author examines the evolution of the architecture uncovered at Gre Fılla, arguing that the increasing architectural complexity reflects the developing social complexity of Neolithic communities.

Discussions of social organisation in early complex societies often rely on traditional narratives of a linear progression to hierarchy, but archaeological evidence is increasingly showcasing a spectrum of social structures. Here, examination of burial practices in 50 tombs from Kedurma, Sudan, helps illustrate social stratification and identity negotiation beyond the binary rendering of elite/non-elite during the Meroitic period (third century BC to fourth century AD). The diversity of architectural forms and grave goods highlights the importance of inter-regional exchange networks and a more fluid social dynamic, contributing to our understanding of early African state formation.

The ability of urban centres to grow and persist through crises is often assessed qualitatively in archaeology but quantitative assessment is more elusive. Here, the authors explore urban resilience in ancient Mesopotamia by applying an adaptive cycle framework to the settlement dynamics of the Bronze and Iron Age Khabur Valley (c. 3000–600 BC). Using an integrated dataset of settlements and hollow ways, they identify patterns of growth, conservation, release and reorganisation across six periods, demonstrating the value of coupling archaeological data with resilience theory and network analysis to understand the adaptive capacities of complex archaeological societies.

Paddy fields are central to the origin and spread of rice agriculture and their development ultimately underpinned the formation of complex societies in Asia. Here, the authors report on the stratigraphy, radiocarbon dating and archaeobotanical record from Shiao, including one of the earliest and largest paddy fields yet identified (c. 6700 cal BP). As at nearby sites, paddy fields were successively overlaid with peat and marine sediments as sea level vacillated. With each iteration, the fields evolved from strip-like to ‘hash’-shaped configurations, representing growing labour input and, crucially, a corresponding increase in sustainable population size.

The Linear Pottery Culture site of Eilsleben, Germany, is the earliest potential fortified settlement in the borderland between the Early Neolithic world and Late Mesolithic populations. Building on extensive excavations and new fieldwork, an interdisciplinary programme investigates models of interaction between early farmers and Mesolithic hunter-gatherers in this region.

Founded in 228/227 BCE, the Carthaginian city of Qart Hadasht in southern Spain became the principal Punic political centre and military port in the western Mediterranean. Its defensive architecture featured a robust casemate wall composed of an outer sandstone face and inner mudbrick walls. Here, the authors present the geoarchaeological analysis of the earthen materials used in the construction of this wall. The results reveal differences in composition and provenance between mudbricks and mud mortars, with the former sourced across distances of 7–8km, highlighting the detailed knowledge of hinterland resources and complex political organisation involved in the wall’s construction.

Two seasons of excavations at the site of Tapeh Tyalineh in western Iran retrieved the largest known corpus of late prehistoric administrative artefacts in the ancient world, including more than 7000 seal impressions, more than 200 clay figurines, several clay tokens and two cylinder seals, dating to 5000 years ago.

This article introduces an archaeological project in the Flinders Islands Group, Queensland, Australia. A collaboration between academics, the islands’ Traditional Owners and Cape Melville National Park, the project focuses on the islands’ important corpus of rock art.

Recent research at the Chimú site of Quebrada del Oso in the Chicama Valley, Peru indicates that the site functioned as a pre-Hispanic agricultural centre. This finding is relevant to debates about the nature and viability of the Chicama-Moche canal built by the Chimú state around the eleventh century AD.

Polished stone axes are one of the most iconic types of tools of Europe’s first farmers. Despite their ubiquity, we know relatively little about how they were used. Here, the authors outline how macroscopic wear analysis is revealing diversity in the use and treatment of axe-heads from Neolithic Orkney.

Preliminary results from the first archaeological excavations of Early Modern mercury-production sites at Idrija, Slovenia, confirm the use of ceramic vessels for mercury roasting following the techniques described in Agricola’s De re metallica, which was published in 1556.

The discussion on decolonisation is now happening everywhere, yet it should be remembered that this outcome is the result of decades-old struggles and that the prominence of this quest is owed to the broader social movements of the preceding century. Here, the author explores the implications for archaeology, suggesting a shift of emphasis from colonisation to coloniality. The principle that decolonisation should entail substantive material and structural changes is proposed as a necessary starting point. In moving forward, the author argues that our efforts to build a decolonial archaeology should be guided by the concepts of refusal, care and repair.

Following the identification of more than 600 suspected house platforms on aerial survey data from Brusselstown Ring hillfort, four test excavations revealed evidence of Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age occupation, positioning the site as the largest nucleated settlement so far identified in prehistoric Ireland and Britain.

Occupied from around 1600 BC and linked to the Cherkaskul and Alekseevka-Sargary cultures, Semiyarka is a newly identified 140ha Late Bronze Age settlement in north-eastern Kazakhstan. The site represents a unique settlement with planned architecture—including a central monumental structure—low-density pottery scatter and evidence for organised tin-bronze production.

Tell Abraq (United Arab Emirates) is a key site in south-east Arabian archaeology, evidencing over three millennia of continuous human occupation. Recent discoveries highlight its inclusion in trade networks across the Persian Gulf and beyond and illustrate how the nature of the site changed through time.

Tarkhan is a cemetery in Egypt’s Nile Valley, best known for its pivotal late Predynastic and Early Dynastic remains. Despite its importance for understanding state formation in Egypt, the site saw limited modern investigation until 2024, when a new Egyptian-Polish archaeological project was launched to provide a reassessment of Tarkhan.

Macroscopic analysis of potsherds used to make herringbone-patterned pavements at two medieval centres in northern Yorùbáland suggests production variations despite shared architectural traditions. Reflecting local production choices and broader regional interactions, these results affect our understanding of pottery production, cultural interaction and social complexity in medieval West Africa.