Mediterranean Archaeology

In consistency with the educational purposes of the whole teaching course, aim of the course is to give students a basic knowledge and comprehension skills in the field of prehistory and protohistory of Western Asia, with the help of advanced textbooks. Moreover, it will make the student able to apply the acquired knowledge in an expert and reflective way, making autonomous judgments, communicating ideas and problems in a clear and correct way, and developing the knowledge required to go further in the studies. A last aim is that of providing the students with methodological and theoretical instruments for the study and analysis of prehistoric contexts in Western Asia. Specific aim of the course is the understanding of the dynamics that have brought to the development of egalitarian agricultural and pastoral societies and later to the development of complex societies, characterised by inequality and economic and technological specialization. The regions investigated shall be the Levant (eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea), Cyprus and Anatolia and particular interest shall be devoted to social and economic organization, technological knowledge, ideological and symbolic characters. Central shall be the issue of relations between these regions and both maritime and terrestrial routes of communication will be investigated for both the Neolithic (10th-6th millennia BCE) and Chalcolithic phases (5th-4th millennia BCE) and the course shall evaluate to what extent these might have contributed to the development of each region. Finally, the role of Western Asia in stimulating the neolithization process in other regions of eastern Europe shall be critically evaluated.