508783 - ANCIENT WESTERN ASIA: HISTORY AND CIVILIZATIONS

The following program is organized as a basic introductory course, aimed at students with little or no prior knowledge of the civilizations of the ancient Near East.
Classes will consist of lectures in which the teachers present, with the aid of PowerPoint presentations, the main content—facts, names, and dates—drawn from written and archaeological historical sources, covering selected chapters of the history of Anatolia, Syria, Upper Western Mesopotamia, and the Levant. The focus is therefore on the westernmost part of the Near East, while inevitably taking into account Mesopotamia proper (Sumer, Babylonia, Assyria) and Egypt.

The course is divided into different units. Following a general introductory section, aimed at presenting the political context of Western Asia in the pre-classical period and the main historical sources (both written and archaeological), the subsequent units will focus on the various periods of the history of Anatolia, Syria, Upper Western Mesopotamia, and the Levant during the Early and Middle Bronze Age, the Late Bronze Age, and the Iron Age.

A) INTRODUCTORY GENERAL PART (4 hours)
We. 4 Nov – Class 1 (Giorgieri): General introduction to Western Asia in pre-classical age (3rd-1st millennium BCE): geography; peoples, languages and civilizations; the chronological frame and a brief historical outline (2 h.)
Fri. 6 Nov – Class 2 (Giorgieri-Capardoni): The sources for the reconstruction of history and culture of the Western Asia:
a) Writing(s) and written sources in Anatolia and Syria in the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC: the cuneiform writing and the Anatolian Hieroglypic script (1 h.)
b) Archaeological sources (1 h.)


B) POLITICAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY OF WESTERN ASIA BETWEEN 3RD AND 1ST MILL. BCE.: ANATOLIA, SYRIA, UPPER WESTERN MESOPOTAMIA AND LEVANT IN THE CONTEXT OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN HISTORY
B1) Early Bronze Age (3rd millennium BC; 6 hours)
Tue. 10 Nov – Class 3 (Capardoni): The Urban Revolution and the political developments in 3rd Millennium Southern Mesopotamia (2 h.)
We. 11 Nov – Class 4 (Capardoni): Rise and fall of the urbanisation in Syria (2 h.)
Fri. 13 Nov – Class 5 (Capardoni): The Early Bronze Age in Anatolia (2 h.)

B2) Middle Bronze Age (ca. 2000-1600 BC; 6 hours)
Tue. 17 Nov – Class 6 (Giorgieri-Capardoni): Movements and shifts of populations in Anatolia, Upper Mesopotamia and Syria between the 3rd and the 2nd mill. BCE (end of the EBA and beginning of the MBA): Amorites, Hurrians and Indo-Europeans: the written and the archaeological evidence (1 h. +1 h.)
We. 18 Nov – Class 7 (Capardoni): Nomads and sedentary people: the Middle Bronze Age in Syria (2 h.)
Fri. 20 Nov – Class 8 (Capardoni): The political landscape of Anatolia during the MBA (2 h.)

B3) Late Bronze Age (ca. 1600-1200 BC; 10 Hours)
Tue 24 Nov – Class 9 (Giorgieri): The new political scenario of the Late Bronze Age and the emergence of new Great Powers in Western Asia in the 16th-15th centuries: the Old and Middle Hittite Kingdom; beginning and development of the Mittani Kingdom (2 h.)
We. 25 Nov – Class 10 (Giorgieri): The Age of Amarna and the Mittani Empire in the 14th century (2 h.)
Fri. 27 Nov – Class 11 (Giorgieri): The Hittite Empire in the 14th-13th centuries (2 h.)
Tue. 1 Dec – Class 12 (Giorgieri): The Hurrian-Hittite cultural symbiosis: religion and mythology (2 h.)

B4) Iron Age (ca. 1200-700 BC; 10 hours)
We. 2 Dec – Class 13 (Matessi): The transition between the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age in Anatolia and Syria (2h.)
Fri. 4 Dec – Class 14 (Matessi): Technological innovations in Iron Age Western Asia (2h.)
Fri. 11 Dec. – Class 15 (Matessi): Multilingualism and multiculturalism in Iron Age Syria and the Levant (2h.)
Tue. 15 Dec – Class 16 (Matessi):The emergence of the Urartian kingdom (2h.)
We. 16 Dec – Class 17 (Matessi): The emergence of the Assyrian Empire (2 h.)
Fri. 18 Dec – Class 18 (Matessi): Assyrians and Arameans (2 h.)