ARCHAEOLOGY OF PROTOHISTORIC ITALY

1) Knowledge and understanding

To provide students with knowledge of the evolution of human societies from the Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age 1 regarding the Italian and Sicilian area, including through the selection of significant case studies for the different chronological phases. The teaching aims to provide the tools to be able to recognize and place in time and space social, economic, symbolic activities and craft productions of the most important phases of Italian and Sicilian protohistory.

2) Applying knowledge and understanding

To make the student able to apply acquired tools and skills by independently tackling in-depth paths in the field of investigation covered in the course; to orient themselves independently in the retrieval and consultation of sources and tools of historical-archaeological research of the protohistoric period.

3) Making judgements

To develop in students a critical approach to texts and methodologies of context analysis, through the analysis of different case studies, encouraging them to deal autonomously with research and comparisons, stimulating the ability to formulate and argue hypotheses in the field of Italian and Sicilian protohistory.

4) Communication skills

Provide students with the specialized vocabulary to make them able to communicate their scientific knowledge adequately and with appropriate terminology, including in written exposition.

5) Learning skills

To develop the ability to independently identify which are the most representative scientific texts and understand them adequately; to be able to critically consult bibliographical tools useful in dealing with in-depth studies and field studies; to be able to independently process data and materials using acquired tools and methodological elements.

The course is organized into three modules.

In the first, a general geographical and chronological overview of the period from the Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age 1 in peninsular and island Italy is provided. Aspects of terminology and the history of studies will also be addressed.

In the second and third, the analysis of protohistory of the Italian peninsula and Sicily, respectively, will be addressed, with reference to the main characteristics and transformations inherent in the social, cultural, economic, and symbolic phenomena of the human groups under consideration. Topics: Bronze Age (2nd millennium B.C.E.), the emergence of complex societies and interactions with the Minoan-Mycenaean sphere; the reorganization of the 11th-10th centuries and the Final Bronze Age; the transformations of the Iron Age and related issues; the beginning of the formation of urban communities and civilizations of indigenous peoples (late 10th- first half of the 8th century B.C.E.). Delving into some specific case studies, the main elements characterizing the various protohistoric cultures will be presented: demographic expansion, organization of society, development of settlements, control of resources, funerary practices, craft activities, artistic productions, ritual, and ceremonial activities, etc.

MODULE 1 – Geographical and chronological framework (1 CFU)

-       A. Guidi, The Historical Development of Italian Prehistoric Archaeology: A Brief Outline, Bulletin of the History of Archaeology 20(2), November 2010, pp. 13-19.

-       C. Renfrew, P. Bahn, Archaeology. Theories Methods and Practice, Thames & Hudson 2012, 6th edition, pp. 21-48; 121-145; 169-173.

 

MODULE 2 – Protohistory of Italy: from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age (3 CFU)

-       A.M. Bietti Sestieri, A reconstruction of historical processes in Bronze and Early Iron Age Italy based on recent archaeological research, P. Attema, A. Nijboer, A. Naso (eds.), Papers in Italian Archaeology VI, vol. I, 2005, pp. 9-22.

-       A.M. Bietti Sestieri, L. Salzani, C. Giardino, G. Verly, Ritual Treatment of weapons as a correlate of structural change in the Italian Late Bronze Age Communities, Rivista di Scienze Preistoriche LXIII, Firenze 2013, pp. 155-169.

-       A.M. Bietti Sestieri, A. De Santis, Relative and absolute chronology of Latium vetus from the Late Bronze Age to the transition to the Orientalizing period, in D. Brandherm, M. Trachsel (eds.), A New Dawn for the Dark Age? Shifting Paradigms in Mediterranean Iron Age Chronology, Oxford 2008, pp. 119-131.

-       C. Albore Livadie, A First Pompeii: The Early Bronze Age village of Nola-Croce del Papa (Palma Campania phase), Antiquity 76, 2002, pp. 941-942.

-       C. Albore Livadie, M. Pearce, M. Delle Donne, N. Pizzano, The effects of the Avellino Pumice Eruption on the Population of the Early Bronze Age Campanian Plain (southern Italy), Quaternary International 499, 2018, pp. 205-216.

-       A. Cazzella, G. Recchia, Settlement patterns and developments towards urban life in central and southern Italy during the Bronze Age, Origini XLI, 2018, pp. 339-353.

-       A. Guidi, The Archaeology of Early State in Italy, Social Evolution & History, Vol. 6 No. 2, September 2006, pp. 55-67; 75-90.

-       A. Guidi, The Archaeology of Early State in Italy: New Data and Acquisitions, Social Evolution & History, Vol. 9 No. 2, September 2010, pp. 12-24.

-       M. Bettelli, Southern Italy and the Mycenaean world, Summary, R. Peroni (ed.), Grandi contesti e problemi della Protostoria italiana 5, Firenze 2002, pp. 215-262.

 

MODULE 3 – Protohistory of Sicily: from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age (2 CFU)

-       R. Leighton, Sicily before History, Duckworth 1999, pp. 113-217.

 

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The teachers undertake, within the limits of the financial resources, to ensure as far as possible that a copy of the adopted texts is available in the departmental library or (in the case of hard-to-find texts, articles and essays) to make them available on Studium, in accordance with the applicable copyright laws.