Archaeology

In consistency with the educational purposes of the whole teaching course, aim of the teaching unit is to give students knowledge and comprehension skills in the field of ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY OF ISLAMIC ART II, that complete and/or reinforce those acquired in the first grade of studies. Moreover, it will make the students able to approach orginal themes in a research context, making more complex judgments, communicating knowledge and its process, and studying the subject in an independent and self-educational way. The purpose of the course is an approach to the understanding of Islamic material culture and artistic expression of the first centuries of Islam, by means of archaeological evidences and sources: from the Roman-Byzantine castrum to the Islamic palace, from the Byzantine thermae to the Islamic baths, from the Sasanian audience hall to the Islamic audience hall; the typical buildings: the mosque, the madrasa, the caravanserai, the suq/bazaar. The aims of the caliphate will be extensively studied, from town planning to the so-called iconoclasm (and its relations with Byzantine and Hebrew iconoclasm), to the achievement of the emancipation processes from the Byzantine and the Persian civilizations (starting from the coinage).