PREHISTORY AND ANCIENT HISTORY OF NEAR AND MIDDLE EAST

Course objectives

In consistency with the educational purposes of the whole teaching course, aim of the teaching unit is to give students a basic knowledge and comprehension skills in the field of PREHISTORY AND PROTOHISTORY OF NEAR AND MIDDLE EAST, with the help of advanced textbooks. Moreover, it will make the student able to apply the acquired knowledge in an expert and reflective way, making autonomous judgments, communicating ideas, problems and reflections in a clear and correct way, and developing the knowledge required to go further in the studies. Specific aim of the course is the understanding of the dynamics that have brought to the development of agricultural and pastoral socities, the characters of egalitarian communities that live in the Near East (social, economic, symbolic and technological aspects), and their development into urban and state societies. A further aim is that of providing the students with methodological and theoretical instruments for the study and analysis of prehistoric contexts in the Near East.

Channel 1
FRANCESCA BALOSSI RESTELLI Lecturers' profile

Program - Frequency - Exams

Course program
the course that took place during academic year 2024-5 has been: The end of the Ubaid period and the beginning of the Late Chalcolithic in Upper Mesopotamia (increasing social and political complexity, urbanization, craft specialization). the course taking place in 2025-6 is: At the Origins of Domestication: Communities, Rituals, and Landscapes in Southeastern Anatolia (10th–9th millennium BCE) students interested in given one or the other exam are invited to contact the professor.
Prerequisites
Have attended the basic course of Prehistory and Protohistory of the Near and Middle East I
Books
specific texts shall be handed out during the course
Frequency
compulsory but it is also possible to settle an exam program with the professor and not sit in the class
Exam mode
The course is organized as a seminar work to which they will actively participate. Students will thus be followed and also evaluated as work is in progress.
Lesson mode
The course shall be organised as a seminar. A few lectures shall open the course and later presentations by the participants shall be planned. Presentations shall alternate with discussions on the single topics and analysed contexts
FRANCESCA BALOSSI RESTELLI Lecturers' profile

Program - Frequency - Exams

Course program
the course that took place during academic year 2024-5 has been: The end of the Ubaid period and the beginning of the Late Chalcolithic in Upper Mesopotamia (increasing social and political complexity, urbanization, craft specialization). the course taking place in 2025-6 is: At the Origins of Domestication: Communities, Rituals, and Landscapes in Southeastern Anatolia (10th–9th millennium BCE) students interested in given one or the other exam are invited to contact the professor.
Prerequisites
Have attended the basic course of Prehistory and Protohistory of the Near and Middle East I
Books
specific texts shall be handed out during the course
Frequency
compulsory but it is also possible to settle an exam program with the professor and not sit in the class
Exam mode
The course is organized as a seminar work to which they will actively participate. Students will thus be followed and also evaluated as work is in progress.
Lesson mode
The course shall be organised as a seminar. A few lectures shall open the course and later presentations by the participants shall be planned. Presentations shall alternate with discussions on the single topics and analysed contexts
  • Lesson code1035727
  • Academic year2025/2026
  • CourseArchaeological Sciences
  • CurriculumArcheologia preistorica, classica, medievale
  • Year3rd year
  • Duration12 months
  • SSDL-ANT/01
  • CFU6