Despite contemporary relevance in understanding how cities historically overcame demographic, social and economic constraints imposed by the lack of clean, fresh water, the value of estimating aqueduct delivery rates and their potential relationship with population size in the Roman Empire remains uncertain. Here, the authors use settlement scaling theory to examine recent statistics for city size and aqueduct capacity, revealing a systematic but sublinear relationship between these variables, whereby water supply increased at a slower rate than population size. Far from merely ostentatious displays of power, aqueducts were carefully planned to ensure an adequate supply of clean and fresh water.

The analysis of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes in bone collagen can reveal aspects of diet and how this may change between periods and places. Here, the authors apply a ‘whole-town’ approach to isotopic analysis, to characterise and explore variation in diet within medieval Cambridge and its hinterland. By adopting this approach, and a robust isotopic baseline, the authors argue that the number of confounding variables that typically plague archaeometric research are reduced, allowing for more nuanced interpretation of data. For medieval Cambridge, this nuance comes in the form of inter-site comparisons in the lived experience of social differentiation.

Ostrów Lednicki was a centre of the Piast dynasty (tenth–fourteenth centuries AD), laying the foundations for the development of the Polish state. A collapsed tenth-century wooden fortification associated with Bolesław the Brave (the first king of Poland) and its unique sculptural element provide insights into early-medieval construction techniques.

Diet and material culture are interlinked, and examination of organic residues in ceramic vessels permits the simultaneous study of both; exemplified here in the analysis of early-medieval pottery from England and Denmark for biomarkers indicative of fish processing, a possible dietary indicator of Scandinavian migration during the Viking Age (c. AD 793–1066). While almost a quarter of sampled Danish pots were used to cook fish, diagnostic aquatic markers were securely identified in only 13 of 298 English vessels. Geographic homogeneity and temporal persistence in processing terrestrial animal fats instead suggest that Scandinavian settlers pragmatically conformed to Anglo-Saxon culinary traditions.

This project investigates archaeological material collected from north-west China in the 1920s and housed at the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm. Finds and archival materials are examined and catalogued to learn about prehistoric cultural interactions and to reconnect discoveries with the original excavation contexts and excavators.

Debates concerning the roles of sensory perceptions and responses in past societies are increasingly gaining traction in the archaeological discipline, but European medieval archaeology has only recently begun to engage with them. Moving beyond previous approaches in medieval studies that focused on the five physical senses, this article investigates material culture through the conceptual lens of sensory regimes. Drawing on case studies from the sixth to seventeenth centuries and examining diverse archaeological evidence—including artefacts, burial practices and urban environments—the author argues that material culture can facilitate or oppose social, political and religious regimes through sensory practices.

An archaeological survey of Kitsissut, a remote island cluster in the High Arctic of Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland), has revealed a human presence almost 4500 years ago, during the formation of a vital marine environment—Pikialasorsuaq polynya. Kitsissut is accessible only by a difficult open-water journey, and repeated occupation thus permits inferences on the sophistication of watercraft technology and navigational skill. Here, the authors argue that this demonstrable reach of Early Paleo-Inuit communities across marine and terrestrial ecosystems enhances our understanding of their lifeways and environmental legacy, raising critical new questions about Indigenous agency in shaping emerging Arctic ecosystems.

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.

Archaeologists often proclaim that they have much to contribute to the ‘global challenges’ of the twenty-first century, yet they find little space at the policymaking table. In this debate article, the authors argue that archaeologists seeking practical relevance must start with a critical, expanded understanding of the contemporary, including how communities, stakeholders and complex policy structures operate to navigate unfolding socioecological crises. They propose a reversed historical directionality grounded in transdisciplinary research design that integrates contemporary challenges and community-defined priorities from the outset to foster a dynamic, future-facing dialogue that more readily informs pathways to tangible impact.

The history of games is obscured by our inability to recognise indicators of play in the archaeological record. Lines incised on a piece of rounded limestone found at the Roman site of Coriovallum in Heerlen, The Netherlands, evoke a board game yet do not reflect the grid of any game known today. Here, the results of use-wear analysis are used to inform artificial intelligence-driven simulations based on permutations of rules from historic Northern European games. Disproportionate wear along specific lines favours the rules of blocking games, potentially extending the time depth and regional use of this game type.

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.

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.

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.