The department was set up on December 20 2002 and is headed by Dr Gediminas Vaitkevičius to research towns in Lithuania as an historical phenomenon, paying particular attention to: society, economy, culture, ecology, defence, urban studies.

Subjects of research include:

1. Investigating the interaction of historical processes and the eco-environment, the dynamics of the development of the technological and practical qualities of material culture and social-historical processes;
2. revealing socio-economic phenomena and processes and how regularity is achieved;
3. socio-topographical research;
4. increasing the amount of information gained from archaeological sources; developing research methods and theory;
5. revealing the regularity of the instrumental development and interaction of material culture and society.

From 2004 the department publishes its own periodical, Miestų praeitis [Urban Past], covering all aspects of Lithuanian urban history (archaeology, sociology, history, technology and so on).