ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE LEVANT

Welcome to Archaeology of the Levant, a course tailored for Bachelor'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.

This year's course, "The Stone Guest: The Social Life of Cult Statues in the Ancient Near East," will take you on a journey through time and space, exploring the social entanglements of monuments in the ancient Near East. You'll learn about the creation, use, and destruction of cult statues, including the symbolism of the chosen materials, the rituals of animation, and the practices of care, feeding, and dressing deities.

The course is designed to be both informative and engaging, with a focus on cultural anthropology and the new archaeology of the senses. If you're interested in delving deeper into the methodological aspects of the course, we also offer a joint course in History and Anthropology of Images in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Finally, if you're passionate about the Ancient Near East, we encourage you to explore our other courses in Oriental Studies, including History of the Ancient Near East, Assyriology, Egyptology, Archaeology of Anatolia and the Caucasus, Archaeology of the Syro-Mesopotamian region, Hittitology, and Islamic Archaeology. Our expert faculty is here to help you build a path that is tailored to your goals and interests, so don't hesitate to seek advice and guidance.

Knowledge and Understanding:
- You will learn about the ontological status of images and figurative objects in the ancient Levant.
- You will become familiar with the main typologies of cult objects in the ancient Near East.
- You will learn to accurately distinguish traces of creation, use, and destruction on stone monuments, and to use them to reconstruct the biography of an artistic artifact.
- You will delve into the rituals, myths, and magical formulas concerning cult statues of the ancient Near East.
- You will begin to understand the historical-anthropological issues and the methods of cultural anthropology and social sciences related to the study of ancient cult statues.

Application of Knowledge and Understanding:
- You can recognize and interpret ancient cult statues using archaeological and anthropological tools.
- You will strengthen your skills in reading and interpreting archaeological contexts.
- You will practice identifying study methodologies appropriate to the type of sources available.
- You will refine your ability to connect the sources and materials discussed in class with broader historical-anthropological problems.

Judgment Skills:
- You will independently formulate realistic interpretative hypotheses for typical disciplinary contexts and materials.
- You will critically evaluate the study texts and reference materials used in class.

Communicative Skills:
- You will cooperate in groups to solve problems posed by sources.
- You will present and discuss the results of brief micro-research using appropriate terminology.

Learning Skills:
- You will be able to quickly identify the structure and essential points of an article or scientific essay.
- You will refine you ability to study scientific literature in foreign languages.
- You will exercise your ability to effectively present your scientific idea to a public audience.

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

To get in the mood, you can peek into F. La Cecla, "Non è cosa. Vita affettiva degli oggetti", Milano: elèuthera 2013, cap. II, "Oggetti anima, oggetti feticcio", pp. 33-59.

Prospective students who feel that they want to know more about History and Archaeology of the Near East before coming to the course can leaf through Rafael Greenberg, "The Archaeology of the Bronze Age Levant: From Urban Origins to the Demise of City-States, 3700–1000 BCE", Cambridge 2019 and M. Liverani, The Ancient Near East: History, Society and Economy, London 2014.

"Every sign by itself is dead. What gives it life? Is the breath of life within it? Or is it the use its breath?"
L. Wittgenstein, Philosophische Untersuchungen, I, §432

This year's course, "The Stone Guest: The Social Life of Cult Statues in the Ancient Near East," will take you on a journey through time and space, exploring the social entanglements of monuments in the ancient Near East. You'll learn about the creation, use, and destruction of cult statues, including the symbolism of the chosen materials, the rituals of animation, and the practices of care, feeding, and dressing deities.

The course is designed to be both informative and engaging, with a focus on cultural anthropology and the new archaeology of the senses. If you're interested in delving deeper into the methodological aspects of the course, we also offer a joint course in History and Anthropology of Images in the Eastern Mediterranean.

You can explore the detailed course structure on the Moodle platform, currently under construction. Here are some examples of short key texts that will animate our class discussions:

Nadali, Davide and Verderame, Lorenzo. "Neo-Assyrian Statues of Gods and Kings in Context: Integrating Textual, Archaeological and Iconographic Data on their Manufacture and Installation" Altorientalische Forschungen, vol. 46, no. 2, 2019, pp. 234-248.

Whitehead, A. (2018). Touching, crafting, knowing: religious artefacts and the fetish within animism. Body and religion, 2(2), 224-244.

Zaia, S. (2015). State-Sponsored Sacrilege:“Godnapping” and Omission in Neo-Assyrian Inscriptions. Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History, 2(1), 19-54.

Adcock, J. S. (2023). Rules of Disfigurement: 1 Samuel 5: 1-5’s Dagon Idol Paradigm of Decapitated Heads and Amputated Hands for Israel’s Archaeological Iconoclasms. Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society, 36(1), 1-27.

Bahrani, Z. (2018). The phenomenal sublime: Time, matter, image in Mesopotamian antiquity. In Time in the History of Art (pp. 171-183). Routledge.

Neumann, K. (2021). A tactile exploration of the Apadana reliefs at Persepolis. The Routledge Handbook of the Senses in the Ancient Near East, 77ff.

Bahrani, Z. (2017). Mesopotamia: ancient art and architecture. Thames and Hudson.
Pongratz-Leisten, B. (2021). Seeing and Knowing. Art/ifacts and ArtWorks in the Ancient World, 115.
Nadali, D., & Verderame, L. (2023). Behind the Cultic Statue: The Materiality of Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia. The Bloomsbury Handbook of Material Religion in the Ancient Near East and Egypt, 69.

The successful student is required to participate proactively in-class activities, including homework and presentation assignments (50% of final grade) and b) to author an essay on a topic discussed in class (50% of final grade).

Directed Reading, integrated by research and study activities in class. Participants are required to prepare recommended readings before the lecture, to prepare presentations and to engage in class activities.

Italian

English-speaking students without or with only basic knowledge of the Italian language are welcome to attend, but are invited to contact the teacher in advance (email me).

Students planning to pass the final examinations without attending lectures are required to contact the teacher via email in due advance in order to discuss the possibility of tailored contents and an appropriate timetable.

written

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "International cooperation" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development