Learning objectives

The course is aimed at preparing the students on the general topics on the cultural and economic evolution of human societies from the Palaeolithic to the Neolithic, continuing through the Copper, Bronze and Iron Ages to Romanization. Particular attention will be paid to the relationship between humans and the environment, both in reference to the main climatic and ecological variations of the Pleistocene, and to the changes induced by human societies on the environment during the Holocene. Another underlying theme will be the study of the formation of social complexity in human organizations, most evident in the Metal Ages. As far as Palaeolithic and Neolithic are concerned, 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. For the age of metals a synthetic but organic knowledge of the protohistory of northern Italy will be provided, emphasizing the connections with the central and northern European areas and the Italic and Mediterranean world.