Abstract/Summary

Our world is full of mobility – people, animals, plants, pathogens, ideas and technologies constantly on the move. At any time an entire city, some 2 million people, are mobile in the air. How did we get to this state and what can archaeology tell us about trends and patterns in mobility? In this keynote, I examine some critical aspects of mobility and put forward some suggestions for how the study of mobility might be progressed in future studies that draw on the rich evidence from the past of the ancient Near East.