Abstract

In the early Middle Ages, the model of urbanism, which had formed the backbone of empires for at least a millennium, was transformed in many regions from Europe to South Asia. This marks a remarkable episode of cultural diversification. Urban centres – old and new – became nodes at the intersection of novel human and material interactions. What is urban about these urban networks is not confined to one site or region, but rather is dispersed in resource and production networks that might involve both extended sea journeys and the exploration of marginal terrestrial landscapes. This lecture explores how urbanism may be approached from the “inside out”, by following the effects it had on cultural and economic changes over wide areas. It outlines a common research agenda for global medieval archaeology, in terms of material flows, spatial morphology, social roles and political embedding; this aims to frame an archaeological reassessment of urban developments, which were of and in a world economy.