Archaeology

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. By the end of the course students show acquaintance with the main trends of archaeological thought, from the earliest days to recent times. They are familiar with important theoretical areas of contemporary archaeology, including processual and post-processual archaeology, the archaeology of identity and gender, and the relationships between archaeology, history, and politics. They know about central themes such as the evolution of strategies and methods of field research (excavation and survey), the representation and communication of archaeological data. The skills acquired enable students to study different types of archaeological contexts starting from solid theoretical and methodological bases, equipping them to address the planning of field research and interpretation of collected data. Students are also be able to conceive different forms of presentation and communication of archaeological data, based on an in-depth knowledge of the many options existing in this field.

This course explores the main practical and theoretical issues in the field of archaeology. The course starts with a brief history of the discipline, followed by the analysis of some of the most relevant fieldwork case studies (i.e. excavations, surveys and other kinds of archaeological investigations). By the end of the course, students are able to tackle archaeological data from a critical point of view, as much as to understand the theoretical bases which lay behind other scholars' fieldwork.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. This course focuses on the new digital techniques to investigate, document, analyze, and publicize monuments, sites, and archaeological landscapes. Students learn how to use GIS and Web-GIS systems, integrating information sources and mapping techniques. They will appreciate the value of the systematization and computerized management of archaeological data, databases, and interpreted restitution. They study the potential of digital applications for archaeological research, toward a three-dimensional documentation of contexts, serving also for dissemination purposes and public use. Students use digital techniques and tools appropriately in archaeology and are able to choose the most correct approach in relation to the case study or archaeological goal. The course discusses relevant aspects of digital archaeology, i.e., archaeological research conducted through methodologies and technologies derived from the digital revolution, with a critical perspective entrusted from time to time to the analysis of the most up-to-date scientific work.

In the first part of the course, the main basic elements of digital archaeology are discussed:

• Data in Archaeology: the archaeological record.
• Dealing with attribute data: the Database.
• Spatial data acquisition: survey in archaeology.
• Digital maps and the concept of scale.
• GIS

In the second part, some of the areas in which the elements discussed in the first part make a decisive contribution to the creation of new knowledge are presented through case studies based on the most recent scientific literature or currently ongoing projects:

• GIS between the Landscape and the Intra-site level
• GIS and Legacy Data Management
• 2D, 2.5D, 3D, 4D: the many dimensions of digital data
• Digital publication: WebGIS, multimedia publications of large excavation contexts
• Open Data, Big Data, FAIR Data
• Virtual Reality, immersive archaeology, gamification
• Reflexive archaeology

This course is designed to train students in the basic skills of archaeological post-excavation, processing, and results dissemination. It explains the varied methods used by archaeologists to analyze and process different types of archaeological material and provide experience in a number of necessary skills. These skills may include washing and numbering of artifacts, basic conservation, artifact illustration and cataloguing, sample washing and sorting, sample sieving, sample flotation, inking-up and digitizing of excavation drawings. This course includes standard lectures, laboratory-based talks, physical demonstrations, and hands-on experience. The course also explores how and where to publish results, and interaction with the media and the public.

This course introduces the major themes in world prehistory through a global and comparative approach, focusing on the great evolutionary, behavioral, and cultural transitions or “revolutions” in our common past, beginning with the appearance of the first material culture record (the world’s earliest stone tools, dating 3.3 million years ago).  

Considering how power and violence, socio-political stratification, economies and trade, technological innovation, and especially ideology shaped human societies, the course addresses the following periods:  

• The hominin evolution and behavior during the Lower Paleolithic period 

• The first migrations of Homo erectus out of Africa  

• The evolution of archaic humans and their behavior (Middle Paleolithic period), and the emergence of anatomically modern humans and their interactions with archaic humans (Neanderthals and Denisovans). 

• The behavioral revolution of the Upper Paleolithic and the transition from hunting-gathering to village life and farming.  

• The emergence of socio-political complexity, the development of chiefdoms, and formation of state-level societies in the New World and the Old World, including Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, and Mesoamerica. 

How did the cities in the Mediterranean world develop from the 4th to the 8th century? How did the arrival of Christianity and Islam influence the built environments, and how did the urban populations engage with the monuments of the pasts? This course uses texts and material culture (art, architecture and objects) to examine how people lived in, thought about and interacted with the urban space. Students begin with a critical examination of the models that scholars have used to explore the process of urban change. The course adopts a thematic approach by addressing the organization of physical space, examining the fabric of the late antique city, and exploring social and religious practices in the urban environment. Towards the end of the course, students return to the present to explore how archaeological practices and heritage management influences the view of the late antique city.

This course introduces students to the study of the archaeology and history of ancient Egypt from the start of the 1st Dynasty at c. 3000 BC, and through the two Pyramid Ages of the Old and Middle Kingdoms, ending at c. 1650 BC. The course focuses on providing a basic solid grounding on the chronology, geography, society, and political organization of Egypt during this period. It furthermore looks to aspects of religion, daily life, and provide some insights into art and literature, particularly pertinent for the Middle Kingdom, the classic period of Egyptian literature.

This course examines Australian archaeology. It covers topics such as community-based archaeology, decolonization and how the past informs contemporary issues, providing requisite knowledge for working in the archaeological sector in Australia. Following the stratigraphic sequence of an archaeological excavation, this course moves from the present through British invasion and into the deep past to reveal the layers of extraordinary capacity, diversity and complexity of Australia's First Peoples.

This course explores the diverse and changing nature of the discipline of archaeology from the 19th century to the present day. Themes covered include the construction of chronologies, data recovery, classification and interpretation, cultural and processual/post-processual models, and the developing role of archaeological and environmental sciences.

This course focuses on investigating the types of societies that occupied Europe in the Bronze Age and the role they played in shaping an emergent European civilization. A range of themes are addressed including patterns of production, exchange, and interaction, the role of warfare, and the exceptional social and economic developments evident in central Europe, the Aegean, and Iberia. Following these thematic treatments, students investigate more critically the nature of Bronze Age societies in Europe by focusing on how the concept of "chiefdoms" has been developed and used by anthropologists and archaeologists. This involves a close look at some Polynesian chiefdoms that have been used as interpretive models to help understand Bronze Age European societies and then specific European case studies focused on Denmark, Wessex in England, and the Munster region in Ireland.

This course examines topics covering urban settlements, imperial tombs and burials, agriculture, handicrafts, sacrificial rituals and religions, as well as cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries. Taking time as the fundamental axis, the course sorts out the development context of civilization during the Han and Tang dynasties through each thematic topic, comprehensively revealing the cultural features of the Han and Tang dynasties based on archaeological findings.