PREHISTORY OF THE NEAR AND MIDDLE EAST

The course is among the activities characterising the Archaeology topic, and among those integrating/affiliated to Philology, Literatures and History of Antiquity.
The scope of the course is to inform students of some aspects of the prehistoric archaeology of the Near and Middle East, from the Levant to the Arabian Sea and part of Central Asia, from the beginning of the Palaeolithic period to the Bronze Age. Moreover, attention will be paid to the prehistory of the two coasts of the Arabian Sea from the beginning of the Holocene to the Bronze Age and to the prehistory of the Indus Valley in present day Pakistan

The aim of the course is to Improve the knowledge of the archaeology of a large territory that extends from the Levant, in the west, to central Asia and the Indian Subcontinent, in the east. In this region the some of the most important problems of archaeology tookplace and developed, among which are: 1) the origin of the city, the development of urbanism and the complex societies of the Bronze Age, and 2) the reasos why food production took place in the Levant during a well-defined climatic period, midway between the end of the Pleistocene and the beginning of the Holocene. These two problems, among many others, will be explaned and discussed during the course. They will be further extended to other territories of Asia and part of southeastern Europe.

It would be better for the students to have already achieved a few basic concepts of prehistoric archaeology, for example having attended Palaeoethnology courses in order to to possess a reasonable knowledge the most important terms used during the course. In any case additional papers and further reading will be provided. The teacher is at disposal in case of any problem in case any student is not equipped with basic concepts of prehistoric archaeology

It regards the prehistory of a vast area from the Levant to the Arabian Peninsula and the Indian Subcontinent from the fisrt Early Palaeolithic humal dispersal to the metal ages. A few hours will be devoted to the prehistory of the Arabian Sea. The following topics will be discussed: 1) the First Humans and their "out of Africa", 2) Neanderthals distribution and dispersal, 3) the spread of the modern Humans, 4) the last hunter-foragers of the Early Holocene, 5) the first food producing cultures, 6) the shell middens of the Arabian Sea, 7) urbanism and collapse of the urban civilisations of the Bronze Age in the Indian Subcontinent

All power point shown during the course will be available via moodle platform, provided by the University system. Apart from the images, the students will find here texts and further reading regarding each topic discussed in each lesson

Fundamental reference books available from the BAUM

1) ALLCHIN, B. and ALLCHIN, R. 1982 – The Rise and Civilization in India and Pakistan. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
2) AURENCHE, O. et KOZLOWSKI, S.K. 1999 – La naissance du Néolithique au proche Orient. Errance, Paris.
3) LAHIRI, N. 2000 – The Decline and Fall of the Indus Civilization. Permanent Black, New Delhi.
4) VIDALE, M. 2010 - A Oriente di Sumer. Archeologia dei primi stati euroasiatici 4000-2000 a.C. Carocci, Roma

At the end of each lesson, or group of lessons, will be specified the chapters of each book to be read for the final exam

The programme for non-attending students is identucal: it consists of the power points, their captions and texts, their relative bibliographical references and the above reported volumes whose chapters will be specified from time to time

At the end of the course the students will have to pass an examination. Its scope is to verify the grade of comprehension of the different topics discussed during the lessons, the texts to read, as well as an appropriate knowledge of the terminology to employ.

Each lecture is accompanied by a Power point that can be downloaded from the University moodle platform. The Power point texts are in English

Italian

Captions of the Power points in English. Tutorship in English is available. Lectures in both English and Italian according to the requests of the foreing (Erasmus etc...) students.

written

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development