ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE LEVANT

Welcome to Archaeology of the Levant! This is a course tailored for Master's Degree students in Ancient Studies. Even if you're pursuing a Master's in another field, you're more than welcome to join us, though you'll need to slot this course among your optional exams.

By the end of the course, students will be able to analyse critically urban open spaces and plazas in the ancient Levant, situating them within their archaeological, urban and historical contexts and applying explicit comparative methods.

### 1. Knowledge and understanding

Students will:

* be familiar with the principal theoretical approaches to the study of open space, public space and plazas;
* understand the distinction between unbuilt space, collective space, public space and the public sphere;
* be familiar with the main archaeological problems involved in identifying, delimiting and interpreting plazas;
* understand the relationship between spatial form, accessibility, movement, visibility, social practices, performance and control;
* be familiar with the principal interpretative models concerning inclusion, exclusion, consensus, conflict, collective action and political participation;
* acquire comparative knowledge of case studies from the ancient Levant and other ancient and modern urban contexts.

### 2. Applying knowledge and understanding

Students will be able to:

* read archaeological plans, excavation reports and scholarly publications critically;
* identify and describe the morphological, spatial and contextual attributes of an open space;
* distinguish observable data, indicators, inferences and interpretations;
* apply a multidimensional analytical framework to a case study;
* assess access points, boundaries, routes, capacity, visibility and surrounding buildings;
* compare cases from different periods and regions using explicit criteria;
* recognise the limitations imposed by archaeological preservation, the quality of documentation and missing data.

### 3. Making judgements

Students will be able to:

* assess critically the interpretations proposed by excavators and in scholarly literature;
* formulate alternative hypotheses compatible with the available evidence;
* recognise problems of equifinality and unsupported inferential steps;
* avoid automatic associations between plazas, assemblies, political participation and democracy;
* state the degree of confidence attached to their conclusions;
* revise their interpretations in light of comparison with other cases and collective discussion.

### 4. Communication skills

Students will be able to:

* present a case study orally in a clear, well-argued and methodologically transparent manner;
* use relevant archaeological and theoretical terminology correctly;
* integrate plans, images, tables and analytical frameworks into their presentations;
* distinguish clearly between the description of evidence and its interpretation;
* discuss their own work and that of others critically;
* contribute to the collective construction of comparisons between archaeological cases.

### 5. Learning skills

Students will be able to:

* identify relevant archaeological documentation and scholarly literature independently;
* assess their reliability, completeness and suitability for the research question;
* transfer the analytical method acquired during the course to new case studies;
* use comparison and feedback to improve data collection, coding and argumentation;
* undertake independently a focused research project on an ancient urban open space.

Passion, interest, and curiosity for the topic. Affinity for cooperative work and group discussion. Commitment to actually reading the texts we're going to discuss!

The course examines urban open spaces and plazas in the ancient Levant through an archaeological, theoretical and comparative approach. Its purpose is to investigate how these spaces can be identified and described and to what extent their form, location and material characteristics allow us to reconstruct social practices and forms of access, gathering, control and participation.

The first part of the course addresses the archaeological definition of open space. It examines the differences between deliberately designed spaces, interstitial spaces, courtyards, widened streets, areas near city gates and plazas. Particular attention will be devoted to the concept of urban “emptiness”, the creation and preservation of unbuilt spaces, their temporalities and the everyday or ephemeral uses that may leave limited archaeological traces. Open spaces will be analysed at the household, neighbourhood and civic scales, with particular attention to maintenance, appropriation, conflict and control.

The second part investigates the public character of space. It distinguishes ownership, management, physical accessibility, collective use, visibility, social inclusion and political participation. The course will consider whether a space can be public without constituting a public sphere and without implying equality, assembly or democracy. It will also examine access points, routes, viewsheds, boundaries, doorways and the interfaces between open spaces and surrounding buildings. Further topics include plaza capacity, the inclusion and exclusion of participants, performance, ritual and the relationship between monumentality and power.

The third part is devoted to developing a comparative method. Students will learn to distinguish theoretical concepts, operational definitions, attributes, indicators, observations and interpretations. Problems of comparability, equifinality, missing data, documentation quality and degrees of confidence will be discussed. On the basis of the readings and classroom activities, students will develop and test a multidimensional attribute framework for the description of archaeological plazas.

The concluding part will critically assess the proposal that the presence of plazas can be used as an indicator of assemblies, political participation and the transmission of democratic forms from Mesopotamia to the Levant and the Mediterranean. Students will reconstruct the chain of reasoning that leads from open space to political interpretation, distinguishing evidence, inference and alternative explanations.

During the final four classes, eight case studies from the ancient Levant will be presented and discussed. Each case study will address:

1. the site, its chronology and urban context;
2. excavation history and the quality of the available documentation;
3. the criteria used to identify and delimit the plaza;
4. form, dimensions and state of preservation;
5. access points, routes, visibility and capacity;
6. boundaries, doorways and surrounding buildings;
7. finds, installations and documented activities;
8. relationships with palaces, temples, city gates, neighbourhoods or harbours;
9. interpretations proposed in the scholarly literature;
10. application of the attribute framework;
11. alternative hypotheses and the degree of confidence attached to the conclusions.

The cases will be analysed in comparative pairs in order to test and progressively refine the shared method.

## Required readings

The course is organised around required weekly readings. For the books included in the bibliography, only the specified chapters or selected excerpts will be required. The reading schedule and the materials available in digital format will be published on the Moodle platform. All required readings are in English.

### Required readings

1. Stanley, Benjamin W., Barbara L. Stark, Katrina L. Johnston and Michael E. Smith. 2012. “Urban Open Spaces in Historical Perspective: A Transdisciplinary Typology and Analysis.” *Urban Geography* 33.8: 1089–1117. https://doi.org/10.2747/0272-3638.33.8.1089 .

2. Jervis, Ben, Paweł Cembrzyński, Jeff Fleisher, Dries Tys and Stephanie Wynne-Jones. 2021. “The Archaeology of Emptiness? Understanding Open Urban Spaces in the Medieval World.” *Journal of Urban Archaeology* 4: 221–246. https://doi.org/10.1484/J.JUA.5.126601 .

3. Smith, Monica L. 2008. “Urban Empty Spaces: Contentious Places for Consensus-Building.” *Archaeological Dialogues* 15.2: 216–231. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1380203808002687 .

4. Low, Setha M. 2000. *On the Plaza: The Politics of Public Space and Culture*. Austin: University of Texas Press. Chapter 2, “Public Space and Culture: The Case of the Latin American Plaza”; additional excerpts from Chapter 6, “Spatializing Culture: The Social Production and Social Construction of Public Space”.

5. Fisher, Kevin D. 2009. “Placing Social Interaction: An Integrative Approach to Analyzing Past Built Environments.” *Journal of Anthropological Archaeology* 28.4: 439–457.

6. Dovey, Kim and Stephen Wood. 2015. “Public/Private Urban Interfaces: Type, Adaptation, Assemblage.” *Journal of Urbanism* 8.1: 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549175.2014.891151 .

7. Hanson, Kelsey E., Kathleen Barvick, Rebecca Harkness, Evan Giomi, Scott G. Ortman and Barbara J. Mills. 2025. “From Exclusive to Inclusive: The Changing Role of Plaza Spaces in the Ancestral Pueblo World (AD 800–1550).” *American Antiquity* 90.3: 508–529. https://doi.org/10.1017/aaq.2025.4 .

8. Moore, Jerry D. 1996. *Architecture and Power in the Ancient Andes: The Archaeology of Public Buildings*. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Selected sections from Chapter 3, “The Architecture of Monuments”, and Chapter 5, “The Architecture of Social Control: Theory, Myth, and Method”.

9. Smith, Michael E. 2011. “Empirical Urban Theory for Archaeologists.” *Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory* 18: 167–192. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-010-9097-5 .

10. Lopes, João V., Alexandra Paio, José N. Beirão, Eliana Manuel Pinho and Luís Nunes. 2015. “Multidimensional Analysis of Public Open Spaces: Urban Morphology, Parametric Modelling and Data Mining.” In *Real Time: Proceedings of the 33rd eCAADe Conference*, vol. 1, 351–360.

11. Kaufman, Brett. 2025. “The Town Square and the Origins of the Democratic State from Mesopotamia to the Phoenician Mediterranean.” In *Phoenicia, Carthage, and Popular Government in the Pre-Classical Mediterranean: The Other Democracy*, 78–194. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chapter 4; selected sections specified in the reading schedule.

### Materials for the final seminar and the exam

For the final classes and the exam, each participant will prepare a dossier on a case study from the ancient Levant (case studies will be presented at the beginning of the course). Each dossier will include:

* a legible site plan;
* a concise analytical report;
* the attribute table;
* a short bibliography;

Learning will be assessed through an individual oral examination. The discussion will begin with the dossier devoted to the case study assigned to each student during the course.

During the examination, students will be expected to:

* provide a concise presentation of the site, its chronology and its urban context;
* discuss the quality and limitations of the available archaeological documentation;
* explain the criteria used to identify and delimit the space as a plaza;
* justify their selection and coding of attributes;
* distinguish clearly between observable data, indicators, inferences and interpretations;
* discuss access points, routes, visibility, capacity, boundaries and surrounding buildings;
* assess critically the interpretations proposed in the scholarly literature;
* formulate and discuss possible alternative hypotheses;
* state the degree of confidence attached to their conclusions;
* relate the case to at least one other context examined during the course and to the principal theoretical and methodological problems addressed in the required readings.

The examination will therefore not consist simply of a description of the dossier. It will focus on a critical discussion of the analytical decisions and inferential steps on which the dossier is based.

The assessment will take into account:

* knowledge of the course content and required readings;
* the ability to assess archaeological documentation critically;
* the correct application of the attribute framework;
* the ability to distinguish evidence from interpretation;
* independent judgement and the formulation of alternative hypotheses;
* the ability to compare different cases;
* clarity of presentation and appropriate use of disciplinary terminology;
* the ability to answer questions in a relevant and well-argued manner.

The final grade will be expressed on a scale of thirty.

oral

The instructor is responsible for ensuring the authenticity and originality of all examinations and coursework. In cases of suspected academic misconduct, an additional on-site assessment may be required during the exams, which may differ from the standard format.

Regarding the grading scale (the method by which grades will be assigned), regardless of whether the student is attending or non-attending:

Scores in the 18-22 range will be given in the presence of:

Sufficient knowledge and applied understanding related to the syllabus;
Limited ability to gather and/or interpret data, forming independent judgments;
Sufficient communication skills, particularly in relation to the use of specific and appropriate terminology;

Scores in the 23-26 range will be given in the presence of:

Fair knowledge and applied understanding related to the syllabus;
Fair ability to gather and/or interpret data, forming independent judgments;
Fair communication skills, particularly in relation to the use of specific terminology;

Scores in the 27-30 range will be given in the presence of:

Good to excellent knowledge and applied understanding related to the syllabus;
Suitable to excellent ability to gather and/or interpret data, forming independent judgments;
Wholly appropriate communication skills, particularly in relation to the use of specific and appropriate terminology and language;

Honors will be awarded in the presence of excellent knowledge and applied understanding related to the syllabus, judgment capability, and communication skills.

The course adopts a seminar- and workshop-based approach combining:

* short introductory lectures by the instructor;
* advance reading and critical discussion of the assigned texts;
* direct analysis of archaeological plans, images, and documentation;
* individual and small-group exercises;
* case-study presentations;
* comparative discussion and collective revision of the analytical framework.

Readings, plans, guiding questions, worksheets, and instructions for preparing the dossiers will be made available through the course’s online learning platform.

Foreign-language students are welcome to attend, but are invited to contact the teacher in advance (email me).

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