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 Bronze Age Aegean archaeology. The focus of the 2020/2021 course will be the exchanges of Crete with Egypt and Near East from Early to Late Bronze Age.

It is expected that at the end of the course the student will know:
- the research methodologies applied to the study of the Aegean archaeology
- the historical and theoretical foundations of the discipline
and will be able to:
- contextualise sites of pre- and protohistoric Greece (Mainland, Crete and Cyclades)
- correlate events occurring in different areas of the Eastern Mediterranean world (mainland Greece, Crete, Cyclades) in the Bronze Age
- carry out a critical analysis of the artistic productions of pre- and protohistoric sites of the Aegean world
- 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 Aegaen archeology
- evaluate critically crucial aspects of Aegean prehistory, with specific attention to the exchanges and relationship of Crete with Egypt and the Near East
- 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 course is divided into two parts. The first (8-10 hours) wants to provide students with the historical-cultural development of the island of Crete from the Early to the Late Bronze Age. The second part (20-22 hours) will focus on exchanges of Crete with Egypt and Near East throughout the Bronze Age.

Mandatory books/papers to study to prepare the exam:
1) Cline, E. H. 2009, Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea. International Trade and the Late Bronze Age Aegean (British Archaeological Reports 591), Oxford.
2) Karetsou, A. (ed.) 2000, Crete – Egypt. Three thousand years of cultural links, Athens, pp. 21-70, 78-127, 154-161.
3) Wiener M. H. 2013, Contacts: Crete, Egypt, and the Near East circa 2000 B.C., in J. Aruz, S.B. Graff, Y. Rakic (eds.), Cultures in Contact: From Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean in the Second Millennium B.C., New York and New Haven, pp. 34-43.

Only for the illustrations:
A. Karetsou, M. Andreadaki-Vlazaki, N. Papadakis (eds), Crete - Egypt. Three thousand years of cultural links (Catalogue), Heraklion-Cairo 2001.

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 the suggested books; 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 suggested books; 2) evaluation of the essay and relative oral presentation held during the seminar.

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

Italian

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

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