Teaching code

4S010603

Academic staff

Federico Giusfredi, Simonetta Ponchia

Coordinator

Federico Giusfredi

Credits

6

Language

Italian

Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD)

L-OR/03 - ASSYRIOLOGY

Period

CuCi 1 A, CuCi 1 B

Courses Single

Authorized

Lessons timetable Moodle Seminars 0

Learning objectives

The course is meant to provide the students with a basic knowledge of the origin, contexts of production, and use of writing in Mesopotamia and the ancient Near East, an introduction to the epigraphic documentation, and the languages of the area. The course also aims to provide them with a basic knowledge of individual languages of the area from a comparative perspective. The students will acquire a basic competence and method to approach texts in their original language, begin to employ the fundamental tools of the philological work, improve their knowledge, awareness, critical autonomy, and method in the study of ancient history, epigraphy, and archaeological heritage, approach a more in-depth study of Mesopotamia and ancient Near Eastern textual patrimony.

Prerequisites and basic notions

General linguistic and grammatical competence.

Program

The first part of the course provides a general presentation of the contexts of written production in the Syro-Mesopotamian area beginning with the origin of writing and illustrating the main textual collections and archives and the various types of texts preserved. The main part of the course is devoted to the study of the Akkadian language (Assyro-Babylonian) and its main grammatical elements, to allow the students to read and translate a selection of texts with progressive grammatical complexity. Part of the course is devoted to the illustration of other types of writing systems, especially alphabetic scripts used in the Levantine and east Mediterranean regions.

Bibliography

Didactic methods

The classes are integrated with a seminar specially designed to guide and train the students in the reading and interpretation of the texts in Akkadian. The seminar includes basic notions of cuneiform and practical exercises on grammatical rules.

Learning assessment procedures

Final oral assessment. The purposes of the assessment are to verify the acquired knowledge; language skills; the ability of textual analysis.
The assessment will consist of questions on the topics treated during the course, the bibliography indicated during the lessons, the texts studied, those of the seminar included, and the synthesis provided in the slides.
Not attending students and Erasmus students are kindly requested to contact the teacher at the beginning of the course in order to agree on the programme and assessment modalities.

Evaluation criteria

The evaluation concerns: the acquisition of the specific language skills covered by the course, the ability to organize and apply the acquired knowledge and methodologies, correctness and expository properties.

Criteria for the composition of the final grade

evaluation of the final oral exam

Exam language

italiano