Urban Opinion (English Edition)

The death of a city is not always a deliberate destruction of a city through war. It is also a recurring disruption within longer urban histories in which human societies repeatedly erase, rebuild, and transform their built environments. This is the twenty-fifth and final episode of Urban Opinion , a podcast where we dive into the fascinating world of past cities. This podcast is funded by the Car...

Palmyra’s funerary portraits allow us to gaze upon a desert city’s elite and explore how they used sculpture to negotiate identity, power, and change across centuries of trade and empire. This is the twenty-fourth episode of Urban Opinion , a podcast where we dive into the fascinating world of past cities. This podcast is funded by the Carlsberg Foundation. It is based on columns written by Rubina...

Excavations at Jerash’s “peripheral” Northwest Quarter reveals how everyday domestic life, industry, and innovation were woven into the city’s fabric before being abruptly frozen by the earthquake of 749 AD. This is the twenty-third episode of Urban Opinion , a podcast where we dive into the fascinating world of past cities. This podcast is funded by the Carlsberg Foundation. It is based on column...

Archaeology can be transformed through archival research. Like the unboxing of Harald Ingholt’s Palmyra archive, it can reveal how stored notes, photographs, and drawings preserve and reshape the study of an ancient desert city. This is the twenty-second episode of Urban Opinion , a podcast where we dive into the fascinating world of past cities. This podcast is funded by the Carlsberg Foundation....

The suburbs and their sprawl might feel like a modern development, but recent archaeological research suggest that cities and countryside often blended into something known as “patch urbanism.” This is the twenty-first episode of Urban Opinion , a podcast where we dive into the fascinating world of past cities. This podcast is funded by the Carlsberg Foundation. It is based on columns written by R...

Archaeology of ancient cities reveals how urban life, not rural necessity, inspired innovation through the dense networks of people, skills, and exchange that come together in urban centres. This is the twentieth episode of Urban Opinion , a podcast where we dive into the fascinating world of past cities. This podcast is funded by the Carlsberg Foundation. It is based on columns written by Rubina...

Humans have had to live alongside rats for millennia, and archaeology can study these little vermin to uncover how ancient cities lived, traded, and changed over time. This is the nineteenth episode of Urban Opinion , a podcast where we dive into the fascinating world of past cities. This podcast is funded by the Carlsberg Foundation. It is based on columns written by Rubina Raja and Søren Sindbæk...

Archaeology reveals how ancient urban life was sustained and shaped by visible and hidden green spaces, from elite villas to public parks and buried traces of cultivation within city fabrics. This is the eighteenth episode of Urban Opinion , a podcast where we dive into the fascinating world of past cities. This podcast is funded by the Carlsberg Foundation. It is based on columns written by Rubin...

Archaeology of urban discovery shows how new sites, from colonial-era excavations to modern LiDAR surveys, they reveal previously unknown urban worlds. This is the seventeenth episode of Urban Opinion , a podcast where we dive into the fascinating world of past cities. This podcast is funded by the Carlsberg Foundation. It is based on columns written by Rubina Raja and Søren Sindbæk, originally pu...

What’s in an ending? Usually it is much more complicated than just ceasing to exist. Archaeology reveals that narratives of collapse often obscure long patterns of adaptation, reuse, and continuity in urban life rather than marking definitive endings. This is the sixteenth episode of Urban Opinion , a podcast where we dive into the fascinating world of past cities. This podcast is funded by the Ca...

From the Pueblo settlements in the American Southwest to the Burning Man festival, archaeologists look at how crowded ancient and modern gatherings alike and reveal cities as “social reactors” where human interaction drives both creativity and stress. This is the fifteenth episode of Urban Opinion , a podcast where we dive into the fascinating world of past cities. This podcast is funded by the Ca...

Archaeology shows how ancient cities functioned as early “megamachines,” revealing long-standing parallels between urban networks of power, technology, and today’s debates about AI. This is the fourteenth episode of Urban Opinion , a podcast where we dive into the fascinating world of past cities. This podcast is funded by the Carlsberg Foundation. It is based on columns written by Rubina Raja and...

Archaeology shows how forgotten excavations and archives hold the “lost cities” of the discipline, where unfinished urban discoveries still reshape our understanding of the ancient world. This is the thirteenth episode of Urban Opinion , a podcast where we dive into the fascinating world of past cities. This podcast is funded by the Carlsberg Foundation. It is based on columns written by Rubina Ra...

Archaeology can reveal how ancient urban networks shaped craft and fine art, and how they are inseparably woven with city life. This is the twelfth episode of Urban Opinion , a podcast where we dive into the fascinating world of past cities. This podcast is funded by the Carlsberg Foundation. It is based on columns written by Rubina Raja and Søren Sindbæk, originally published in Current World Arc...

How many cities are there? Archaeology’s drive to count cities and societies shows how numbers can clarify (complicate) our understanding of the ancient world. This is the eleventh episode of Urban Opinion , a podcast where we dive into the fascinating world of past cities. This podcast is funded by the Carlsberg Foundation. It is based on columns written by Rubina Raja and Søren Sindbæk, original...

As humanity faces increasingly dire environmental crises, looking for answers in archaeological research may prove fruitful. This is the tenth episode of Urban Opinion , a podcast where we dive into the fascinating world of past cities. This podcast is funded by the Carlsberg Foundation. It is based on columns written by Rubina Raja and Søren Sindbæk, originally published in Current World Archaeol...

Archaeological research can be slow, this is especially true if the site is a sprawling metropolis, and this careful pace of excavation often reshapes what we thought we knew entirely. This is the ninth episode of Urban Opinion , a podcast where we dive into the fascinating world of past cities. This podcast is funded by the Carlsberg Foundation. It is based on columns written by Rubina Raja and S...

Long before modern comforts, the changing seasons shaped when cities lived, worked, traded, and even fell to disaster. Archaeology can reveal exactly these rhythms in minute detail. This is the eighth episode of Urban Opinion , a podcast where we dive into the fascinating world of past cities. This podcast is funded by the Carlsberg Foundation. It is based on columns written by Rubina Raja and Sør...

Archaeologists love to disagree about what makes a city: Is it the size? The population density? Or is it something harder to quantify like the exchange of ideas that shape urban life? This is the seventh episode of Urban Opinion , a podcast where we dive into the fascinating world of past cities. This podcast is funded by the Carlsberg Foundation. It is based on columns written by Rubina Raja and...

From ancient Egypt to Viking ports, fragments of glass reveal the hidden networks that connected cities, crafts, and people across millennia. This is the sixth episode of Urban Opinion , a podcast where we dive into the fascinating world of past cities. This podcast is funded by the Carlsberg Foundation. It is based on columns written by Rubina Raja and Søren Sindbæk, originally published in Curre...

Today, we think of cities has crowded and bustling, but in the ancient past some sprawled like living landscapes, reshaping how we understand what a city can be. This is the fifth episode of Urban Opinion , a podcast where we dive into the fascinating world of past cities. This podcast is funded by the Carlsberg Foundation. It is based on columns written by Rubina Raja and Søren Sindbæk, originall...

Is bigger really better? Archaeological research shows that sometimes smaller, overlooked cities often hold the secret to lasting urban success. This is the fourth episode of Urban Opinion , a podcast where we dive into the fascinating world of past cities. This podcast is funded by the Carlsberg Foundation. It is based on columns written by Rubina Raja and Søren Sindbæk, originally published in C...

We explore the complex questions: Are cities an inevitable outcome of human evolution or a reflection of social choice? This is the third episode of Urban Opinion , a podcast where we dive into the fascinating world of past cities. This podcast is funded by the Carlsberg Foundation. It is based on columns written by Rubina Raja and Søren Sindbæk, originally published in Current World Archaeology m...

From ancient dumpsites to desert cities, discarded waste reveals how societies lived, adapted, and sometimes unravelled. This is the second episode of  Urban Opinion , a podcast where we dive into the fascinating world of past cities. This podcast is funded by the Carlsberg Foundation. It is based on columns written by Rubina Raja and Søren Sindbæk, originally published in Current World Archaeolog...

Welcome to Urban Opinion, come join us on a deep-time journey into how people, materials, and ideas wove the networks that constructed and shaped cities across continents. This podcast is funded by the Carlsberg Foundation. It is based on columns written by Rubina Raja and Søren Sindbæk, originally published in Current World Archaeology magazine. Find out more at the-past.com. The research is base...