The Superior craton consists of a series of east-west trending “subprovinces” or terranes. Many geologists have described evidence that the subprovinces represent a series of microcontinents, remnant arcs, oceanic terranes and accretionary prisms and that the Superior craton grew by lateral accretion of these elements. The Superior craton is also characterized by narrow greenstone belts surrounded and intruded by voluminous granitoid plutons. The plutons mostly occur in open domes, whereas greenstones generally occur in narrow synclinal keels. Regional scale shear zones are spatially coincident with the greenstone belts. Two discrete episodes of deformation have been recognized: an earlier recumbent folding and thrusting event and a later upright folding and shearing event. The former was possibly related to terrane accretion and collision, and the latter to the formation of the dome-and-keel structure and the regional scale shear zones. The dome-and-keel structure formed as a result of diapirism and sagduction (vertical tectonism), and the regional scale shear zones have regionally consistent kinematics and were a result of regional horizontal shearing (horizontal tectonism). Results of detailed structural analysis show that diapirism/sagduction and regional horizontal shearing occurred synchronously. The dome-and-keel structures and shear zones overprint and help to obscure earlier accretional/collisional structures, and the shear zones do not necessarily coincide with the terrane boundaries. To test these interpretations, we developed a three-dimensional numerical modelling scheme so that the information about lithological distribution, flow kinematics and finite deformation pattern is directly available as the numerical model evolves. Utilizing this modelling framework, a numerical model is constructed where a density overturn develops under the backdrop of horizontal shearing. The lithological distribution and structural patterns emerging from the numerical model are similar to what is observed in our synthesis of the geological data. By varying the shear strain rate and the crustal rheology, the numerical model produces a wide range of granitoid-greenstone belt geometry that compares favourably with granitoid-greenstone terranes in the Superior Province and worldwide. We therefore postulate that the vertical and horizontal tectonics were not mutually exclusive tectonic regimes and that they both contributed to the establishment of crustal architecture in many Neoarchean terranes. The co-existence of both processes in Neoarchean terranes suggests the Neoarchean was the time in the Earth's history when the transition from vertical tectonism to a modern-day-like horizontal tectonics took place. Furthermore, the curvilinear belts of high accumulated strain developed in our models mimics the characteristics of the major deformation zones in the Superior Province, implying that the nucleation and development of such “crustal-scale” deformation zones in Neoarchean terranes may be the natural product of strain localization in a synchronous horizontal and vertical tectonic regime, rather than strike-slip shear zones with regionally significant accumulated lateral movements.