TOPOGRAPHY AND TECHNICAL ANALYSIS OF ANCIENT MONUMENTS

Academic Year 2023/2024 - Teacher: Enrico FELICI

Expected Learning Outcomes

Through classroom lectures and slide shows, the course aims to give basic knowledge about the methodologies used in topographic research on ancient world, with particular reference to the classical age, in its articulations including the study and documentation of the anthropic organization of the territory, of the urban and rural settlements and infrastructure, even if submerged.

The course also aims to train the basic skills for the recognition of building materials, the interpretation of construction processes and architectural systems of antiquity (also through the comparison between the archaeological remains and the evidence of the sources, especially Vitruvius), as well as for the documentation, through direct archaeological surveys, tools and cartographic survey systems, photographic and photogrammetric means, of monuments and archaeological excavations.

The course is also aimed at develop awareness in the approach to the archaeological potentiality of the territories and subjective ability to interpret monuments, through visual and planimetric comparison and critical contextualization. Notes on the epistemology of ancient topographical science exemplify the negativity of the uncritical reiteration of simplistic or erroneous clichés.

The comparative examination of specialist literature and archaeological topographical evidence also has the development of synthesis capacity among its cross-cutting effects. The communication exempla, literary and enunciated by the teacher, are aimed at the formation of specific expository skills: clarity of content, appropriate language, ethics of communication in its various forms.

The teacher acts so that the student forms his own map of the information, both imparted during the course and contained in the literature, such as to constitute the fundamental methodological grid in which to organically place the data with which he will come into contact in the university career and then in the actual application of the method.

Course Structure

Classroom lectures with slide shows and reading of sources.

Required Prerequisites

No prerequisites required.

Attendance of Lessons

Attendance is not compulsory.

Detailed Course Content

Topics, methods and techniques of research on ancient topography. Aerial photography. Agricultural divisions. Topography of ancient Rome. Notions of ancient town planning. Elements of coastal and submerged ancient topography. Ancient materials and construction techniques. Principles and methods of direct and instrumental archaeological survey.

Textbook Information

J.P. Adam, L'arte di costruire presso i Romani. Materiali e tecniche, (trad. it.) Milano 19902: pp. 23-359 (337).

F. Castagnoli, Le ricerche sui resti della centuriazione, Roma 1958: pp. 7-38 (32).

F. Castagnoli, Roma antica. Profilo urbanistico, Roma 1978 (138).

G. Ceraudo, M.Guaitoli, F. Piccarreta, in (a cura di) M. Guaitoli, Lo sguardo di Icaro. Le collezioni dell’Aerofotoeca Nazionale per la conoscenza del territorio, Roma 2003: pp. 67-102 (36).

F. Coarelli, Roma, Guide Archeologiche Laterza, Roma-Bari 2008: pp. 4-23 (Mura); 122-155 (Fori imperiali).

E. Felici, Archeologia subacquea. Metodi, tecniche e strumenti, Roma 2002: pp. 231-276.

E. Felici, Nos flumina arcemus, derigimus, avertimus. Canali, lagune, spiagge e porti nel Mediterraneo antico, Bari 2016: pp. 109-134 (Canali e porti) (26).

E. Felici, La topografia antica litoranea. Argomenti e metodi, in (a cura di) G. Buscemi Felici, E. Felici, L. Lanteri,  Produzioni antiche sulla costa sud orientale della Sicilia. Saggi di topografia antica litoranea, Bari 2020: pp. 13-33.

P.A. Gianfrotta, Il contributo della ricerca subacquea agli studi di topografia antica in Italia, in La forma della città e del territorio, (S. Maria Capua vetere 1998) Roma 1999:  pp. 75-90 (16).

P.A. Gianfrotta, G. Scardozzi, Strutture costiere e sommerse, in (a cura di) M. Guaitoli, Lo sguardo di Icaro. Le collezioni dell’Aerofotoeca Nazionale per la conoscenza del territorio, Roma 2003: pp. 479-492 (14).

C.F. Giuliani, Archeologia. Documentazione grafica, Roma 1976 (out of print), pp. 11-97 (87).

M. Guaitoli, Appendice III. Nota sulla metodologia della raccolta, dell’elaborazione e della presentazione dei dati, in P. Tartara, Torrimpietra (IGM 149 INO), Forma Italiae 39, Firenze 1999, pp. 357-365 (9).

D. Mertens, E. Greco, Urbanistica della Magna Grecia, in (a cura di) G. Pugliese Carratelli, (cat. d. mostra) I Greci in Occidente, Milano 1996: pp. 243-262 (20).

L. Quilici, S. Quilici Gigli, Introduzione alla topografia antica, Bologna 2004: pp. 23-152 (130).

M. Wegner, Ordini architettonici, in Enciclopedia dell'Arte Antica V, pp. 712-725.

Vitruvio, De architectura, ed. a cura di P. Gros, Torino 1997 (passi scelti).

 

Please remember that in compliance with art 171 L22.04.1941, n. 633 and its amendments, it is illegal to copy entire books or journals, only 15% of their content can be copied.

For further information on sanctions and regulations concerning photocopying please refer to the regulations on copyright (Linee Guida sulla Gestione dei Diritti d’Autore) provided by AIDRO - Associazione Italiana per i Diritti di Riproduzione delle opere dell’ingegno (the Italian Association on Copyright).

All the books listed in the programs can be consulted in the Library.
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