Teaching code

4S004609

Teacher

Mara Gioia Migliavacca

Coordinator

Mara Gioia Migliavacca

Credits

6

Also offered in courses:

• Prehistory (i) of the course Bachelor’s degree in Humanities

Language

Italian

Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD)

L-ANT/01 - PREHISTORY AND EARLY HISTORY

Period

2 A, 2 B

Lessons timetable Moodle Seminars 0

Learning objectives

The aim of the course is to prepare the student to manage the general topics on the cultural and economic evolution of the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic and Copper Age societies, in relation with the most relevant ecological changes. The geographic contexts are the African and the South-western Asiatic continents, but above all Europe, due to the dramatic geographic, climatic and bio-cultural changes which mostly occurred during the Middle and Late Pleistocene. Neolithic and Copper Age will be treated with reference to northern Italy.

Prerequisites and basic notions

The student must:
1. have a good knowledge and command of the language of instruction (Italian) or possibly English
2.have acquired in the previous school cycles a method of study that enables him/her to take notes, effectively summarise what has been studied in the textbooks and adequately present any further study.

Program

Programme
The course covers the chronological and cultural interval spanning from the oldest appearance of Modern Human Behaviour in Africa, represented from a set of different evidence, up to the complex record of last hunter-gatherers and the first productive neolithic societies.
Out of Africa: following the geographic dispersion from the African continent of the species of Hominins which succedeed up to the Anatomically Modern Humans, the most important steps in the evolution of culture will be taken into consideration.
The chronology of the Palaeolithic, the Mesolithic and the Neolithic will be the reference scale for discussing the impact of innovations in technology that have supported the human population to interact in a more complex way with the ecological context than in earlier times. The dynamics of human peopling will be assessed in relation to modifications in the distribution of lithic, vegetal and alimentary resources.
The main topics are listed below:
Introduction
Object and methods of Prehistoric Archaeological Research.
Sources of information for Prehistory. Sciences involved in the reconstruction of prehistoric life.
Data interpretation.
Unit 1: Lower Palaeolithic
-- Quaternary Chronology
- General notions of Palaeoanthropology
- Basic notions of Physical Geography, Palaeoclimatology and Palaeoecology
- the emergence of the first knapping stone technologies in Africa and their impact;
- the first southeuropean peopling, contests and models;
- appearance of bifaces, the Acheulean and the North-european peopling.
Unit 2: Middle Palaeolithic
- from the Lower to the Middle Palaeolithic, technological changes and in the Human-resources interaction;
- the age of the Neandertal Man: economy, technologies, settlements;
- the appearance of Homo sapiens in Africa and the first spreads;
- Anatomically Modern Humans and the Others: the state of art. Hypotheses, models and methodological problems;
- The Neandertal demise in Eurasia.
Unit 3: Upper Palaeolithic
- The lower and middle phases of the Upper Palaeolithic: Aurignacian and Gravettian and climatic and ecological interactions;
- The Upper Palaeolithic during the Late-Glacial, demographic increase;
Unit 4: Mesolithic and Neolithic
- The Holocene, the Mesolithic, the colonization of the ecological extremes, the demographic increase.
- The Neolithic, the first colonization of Europe and Italy, settlements and cultures.
Unit 5: Neolithic and the beginning of Copper Age
- cultures and settlements of Northern Italy
- metallurgy and transformation processes
- Settlements, funeral practices and economy of Copper Age

Bibliography

Didactic methods

The course includes:
1. lectures with projection of images and summary of contents;
2. workshop experiences related to the working of stone, leather, gut, wood, ceramics, metals;
3. seminars held by external experts on specific topics;
4. guided tour(s) to museums and the local area;
5. participation on request in archaeological fieldwork experiences.

Learning assessment procedures

The aim of the examination is to check the achievement of the educational objectives already described.
The examination will be an oral interview. In the first step, the student will describe and further develop a topic or a case study connected to the programme that she/he has freely chosen; some questions will verify the knowledge and comprehension of the programme, as far as both methods and contents are concerned.
Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, and in accordance with the University of Verona guidelines, the assessment modality can be modified as follows: online oral exam.

Evaluation criteria

The following will be assessed
1. knowledge acquired through the course;
2. expository competence;
3. the ability to make connections and formulate autonomous judgements;
4. effective participation, if the student is attending, in the proposed workshop and teaching experiences.

Criteria for the composition of the final grade

The first part of the interview, in which the student presents an in-depth study of his/her choice, will be evaluated 10/30; the questions in the second part will be evaluated 20/30. Actual participation in the workshops and in the proposed visits and experiences, if the student is attending, and the ability to reason about them, will be a significantly positive element in the assessment.

Exam language

italiano inglese se necessario