Summary Cities in the ancient world, much like in the modern era, were not simply a locus for population and a hub for social, cultural, and economic activity, but were themselves the products of urban practices. This volume draws together two often disparate fields - urban space and human practice - to explore the actors and actions that underpinned ancient cities and to offer unique insights into the lives of those who dwelt there. Placing particular emphasis on social practice theory, the contributions gathered together in this book seek to analyse the development of the city, especially public urban spaces, from the archaic period up to Roman Imperial times. A key focus is on infrastructure, public spaces used for politics (particularly the Forum Romanum), and the role of sanctuaries and the way in which they were shaped by cult activity. Through this unique approach, this volume is able, for the first time, to bring the inhabitants of ancient cities to the fore, and in doing so, to offer key insights into the development of spatial routines, the interaction of these routines with the material setting of a city, and the way in which cities themselves played an important role in shaping the people and practices within them. TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface Introduction - ANNETTE HAUG De-centralised Decision-Making Processes in Third-Millennium Syro-Mesopotamian City-Planning: The Example of Tell Chuera - HENRIKE BACKHAUS AND TOBIAS HELMS City and Shore: Natural Change and Human Action - STEFAN FEUSER Streetscapes and Traffic at Selinous from the Archaic City to the Punic-Hellenistic Settlement - NICOLA CHIARENZA Performing Commerce: Everyday Work and Urban Life in Roman Italy - MIKO FLOHR The Production of Diplomatic Space in Ancient Rome - HANNAH CORNWELL The forum Romanum as an Active Action Context - DUNIA FILIPPI Places of Gods and Men: Socio-Political Interactions and Ritual Practice in the Etruscan Sacred Landscape (Eighth to Fifth Centuries BC) - ROBINSON PETER KRÄMER The Appropriation of Space in the Sanctuary of Poseidon at Isthmia - SARAH HERZOG Hellenistic Built Space and Human Action: The Asclepieion of Cos - ASJA MÜLLER Indices