AEGEAN BRONZE AGE ARCHAEOLOGY AND ANTIQUITIES

The course is part of the programme of the master's degree course in "Ancient Civilizations". The course wants to provide the student with a thorough knowledge of the archeology of the Aegean world (in primis Mainland Greece, Crete and Cyclades) in the Bronze Age, specifically with the historical and theoretical foundations of the discipline, typologies and hierarchies of settlements, forms of the material culture and processes of political and cultural transformations that interested the communities of the Aegean world.

It is expected that at the end of the course the student will know:
- the research methodologies applied to the study of the Aegean civilizations
- the historical and theoretical foundations of the discipline
and will be able to:
- contextualise sites of the Aegean world, with particular reference to mainland Greece, the Cyclades and Crete
- correlate events occurring in different areas of the Aegean world (primarily Continental Greece, Crete, Cyclades) in the Bronze Age
- carry out a critical analysis of the artistic productions of the Aegean civilizations
- recognize and analyze contexts and classes of materials that are fundamental for the areas and the periods discussed
- formulate hypotheses and discuss specific topics of the Aegean archeology
- evaluate critically crucial aspects of Aegean prehistory, with specific attention to those related to the social and political organization of the Aegean civilizations
- communicate data and topics concerning the Aegean archeology with technical language and proper terminology
- consult critically bibliographic tools in order to address in-depth studies and analyses.

It is advisable, but not mandatory, to have attended the classes and underwent the exam of the undergraduate programme's course of Prehistory and Protohistory of the Eastern Mediterranean.

The aim of the course is to provide students with the historical-cultural development of the societies of the Aegean world (in primis Mainland Greece, Crete, Cyclades and other Aegean islands) during the Bronze Age. Moving from the archaeological data, the 2018/2019 course will focus on the processes of political and socio-cultural transformations of the Bronze Age Aegean communities.

1) Handbook to study to prepare the exam:
- E. H. CLINE (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean (Oxford Handbooks in Archaeology) Oxford University press, Oxford 2010.
or
- C. W. SHELMERDINE (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to the Aegean Bronze Age, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2008.

2) Papers and book chapters to study to prepare the exam:
- Banou E. – Hitchcock L. 2009, The 'Lord of Vapheio': the social identity of the dead and its implications for Laconia in the Late Helladic II–IIIA period, in H. Cavanagh – W. Cavanagh – J. Roy (eds.), Honouring the Dead in the Peloponnese, Nottingham: CSPS, pp. 1-23.
- Borgna E. 2006, Tombe e riti funerari alle origini della civiltà micenea: alcune osservazioni, in M. Faraguna, V. Vedaldi Iasbez (eds.), Dynasthai didaskein. Studi in onore di Filippo Cassola, Trieste, pp. 33-55.
- Dickinson O. 1977, The Origins of Mycenaean Civilisation, Göteborg, pp. 61-64.
- Driessen J. 2002, ‘The King Must Die.’ Some Observations on the Use of Minoan Court Compounds, in J. Driessen - I. Schoep, R. Laffineur (eds.), Monuments of Minos. Rethinking the Minoan Palaces, Aegaeum 23, Liège, pp. 1-14
- Driessen J. 2018, Beyond the collective ... The Minoan Palace in action, in M. Relaki - Y. Papadatos (eds.), From the Foundations to the Legacy of Minoan Archaeology: Studies in honour of Professor Keith Branigan, (SSAA 12), Oxford - Philadelphia, pp. 291-313.
- Galaty M.L. - Parkinson W.A. 1999, Putting Mycenaean Palaces in their Place: an Introduction, in Galaty M.L. - Parkinson W.A (eds.), Rethinking Mycenaean Palaces. New Interpretations of an Old Idea, pp. 1-8.
- Graziadio, G. 1991, The Process of Social Stratification at Mycenae in the Shaft Grave Period: A Comparative Examination of the Evidence, AJA 95, pp. 403-440.
- Hamilakis Y. 2002, Too many chiefs? Factional competion in Neopalatial Crete, in J. Driessen - I. Schoep, R. Laffineur (eds.), Monuments of Minos. Rethinking the Minoan Palaces, Aegaeum 23, Liège, pp 177-199.
- Hitchcock L. 2016, Entangled Threads: Who Owned the West House at Akrotiri?, JPR 25, pp. 18-34.
- Maran J. 2015, Tiryns and the Argolid in Mycenaean times: New clues and interpretations, in A. Schallin – I. Tournavitou (eds.), Mycenaeans up to date: The archaeology of the north-eastern Peloponnese - current concepts and new directions, ActaAth 4°, 56, Stockholm.
- W.-D. Niemeier 1995, Ägina – First Aegean “State” Outside of Crete?, in R. Laffineur - W.-D. Niemeier (eds.), Politeia: Society and State in the Aegean Bronze Age, Liège-Austin, pp. 73-80.
- Schoep I. 2006, Looking Beyond the First Palaces: Elites and the Agency of Power in EM III-MM II Crete, AJA 110.1, pp. 37-64.
- Schoep I. – Knappett C. 2004, Dual Emergence: Evolving Heterarchy, Exploding Hierarchy, in J.C. Barrett - P. Halstead (eds.), The Emergence of Civilisation Revisited, (SSAA 5), Oxford, pp. 21-37.
- Schoep I. 2012, Bridging the divide between the ‘Prepalatial’ and the ‘Protopalatial’ in I. Schoep - P. Tomkins - J. Driessen (eds.), Back to the Beginning. Reassessing Social and Political Complexity on Crete during the Early and Middle Bronze Age, Oxford, pp. 403-428.
- Voutsaki, S. – Milka E. 2017, Social change in Middle Helladic Lerna, in C. Wiersma – S. Voutsaki (eds.), Social Change in Aegean Prehistory, Oxford - Philadelphia, pp. 98-123.

The exam will be in oral form, but includes also the presentation of an essay on a specific topic assigned to each student. For the exam it is necessary: 1) to study one of the suggested handbook and the suggested papers/book chapters; 2) to participate to the seminar that will take place at the end of the classes (date to be set). During the seminar, each student will present a Power Point presentation on a specific topic, which has to be presented also in a written form (essay). Individual oral presentations will be followed by a final discussion, to which all students are required to participate.
During the exam, the level of preparation of the student will be verified through: 1) questions on the chosen handbook and suggested papers/book chapters; 2) evaluation of the essay and relative oral presentation held during the seminar.

Traditional classroom lessons will take place together with a seminar, where . The Power Point Presentation will be used to show images and texts.

Italian

Attendance of the classes is not mandatory, but highly recommended.

written and oral