508783 - ANCIENT WESTERN ASIA: HISTORY AND CIVILIZATIONS

Il seguente programma è organizzato come corso introduttivo di base, rivolto a studenti con scarsa o nulla conoscenza preliminare delle civiltà del Vicino Oriente antico. Sono previste lezioni frontali, dove il docente presenterà, con l’ausilio di presentazioni PowerPoint, i contenuti principali—fatti, nomi e date—tratti da fonti storiche scritte e archeologiche, coprendo capitoli selezionati della storia di Anatolia, Siria, Alta Mesopotamia occidentale e Levante. Il focus è quindi sulla parte più occidentale del Vicino Oriente, pur considerando inevitabilmente la Mesopotamia propriamente detta (Sumer, Babilonia, Assiria) e l’Egitto.

Il corso è suddiviso in diverse unità. Dopo una sezione introduttiva generale, volta a presentare il contesto politico dell’Asia occidentale nel periodo pre-classico e le principali fonti storiche (sia scritte che archeologiche), le unità successive si concentreranno sui diversi periodi della storia di Anatolia, Siria, Alta Mesopotamia occidentale e Levante durante l’Età del Bronzo Antica e Media, l’Età del Bronzo Tarda e l’Età del Ferro.

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.)