Why Cities Survive: Measuring Urban Persistence Through Time

What determines whether a city survives for decades or millennia? Working with Arizona State University’s School of Human Evolution and Social Change, our team is building one of archaeology’s most detailed databases of urban settlements. By combining intensive archaeological survey data with historical records, we’re tracking how cities responded to challenges across time and space. This unprecedented detail allows us to untangle the complex relationships between geographic advantages, population dynamics, and institutional structures that helped some settlements persist while others vanished. Our findings offer new perspectives on urban resilience, revealing patterns that connect ancient urban experiences to modern questions of city survival and adaptation.