98915 - Urban Archaeology (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

The student, at the end of the class, will be familiar with the methods necessary for investigations both in the area of preventative and emergency urban archeology and of abandoned sites. To reach this result, the student, initially, will acquire the necessary knowledge base to understand the shape and development of cities and their main architectonic features.

Course contents

URBAN ARCHAEOLOGY AND ABANDONED CITIES:

THEORY AND PRACTICE

Cities represent an exceptional training ground for the archaeologist who must deal with particularly complex contexts and adapt research methodologies accordingly. Since the ancient cities have come down to us with phenomena of continuity and discontinuity conditioned by environmental variations, these methodologies must in turn be declined differently in abandoned cities and in those with continuity of life (urban archaeology). For this reason, the archaeology of the city can be considered a discipline in its own right, requiring specific skills necessary for those who wish to approach the profession of archaeologist.


The study of the city cannot be exhausted in theoretical aspects, which is why in the initial part of the course a number of field projects will be presented (Butrint, Paestum, Ravenna, Suasa) in which students may ask to participate by putting into practice what they have learned in class.

ROME, EPIRUS, THE ADRIATIC CITIES
Studying an ancient city means knowing how to recognise its shape and the buildings that make it up, inspired by urban planning schemes matured in the main monumental centres of the Mediterranean. This is the case of Rome, which grows conditioned by topography and develops innovative solutions thanks to the synthesis of architectural traditions coming both from the Italic peninsula and from the great season of Hellenism spread throughout the Mediterranean. In the same period, the Greek cities also underwent a significant evolution partly inspired by similar ideas and partly characterised by characteristic solutions. The outcome of the contact between these two dominant cultures is particularly interesting in some marginal areas of the Hellenic peninsula, such as Epirus, where field research is underway that may provide unpublished data.

On the dawn of the great Hellenistic season, Rome also became the propulsive centre of urban culture in the peninsula and the rest of the Mediterranean. As in a laboratory of town planning, models of cities are developed that are differently declined in their respective regional traditions. Some areas with no urban traditions, such as the Middle Adriatic, offer the opportunity to analyse unusual solutions that escape the canons of the better-known Tyrrhenian town planning, once again using first-hand data gathered from field projects.

THE CITIES OF CITIZENS
But the archaeology of cities cannot be understood without the archaeology of citizens, that is, without comparing the various forms of citizenship developed in Greece and Rome or in the autonomous communities of the Italic peninsula and the Greek world. Forms of citizenship, moreover, require spaces that necessarily condition the shape of the city.

 

TOPICS AND STRUCTURE

In light of these considerations, the course will address the archaeology of abandoned cities and cities with continuity of life (urban archaeology), with a focus on the Hellenistic and Roman periods in the Mediterranean area.

In all cases, the archaeology of cities will be linked to the historical geography of the places in which these centres developed and to the archaeology of the surrounding landscape, seeking to highlight the phenomena of continuity and discontinuity with respect to pre-Roman and medieval times.

Through a number of case studies, attention will also be paid to some of the methodological aspects that make urban archaeology and the archaeology of the city in general a modern discipline, capable of dialogue with experts of various backgrounds.


To achieve these objectives, after presenting the course topics and the modalities of the final examination, the course will be organised in two sections.

The FIRST SECTION of the course, introductory and methodological in nature, will serve to define the concept of the city itself, regardless of historical periods, in an attempt to highlight the distinctive features that can be recognised in the field by archaeologists. For this reason, certain interpretative models will be recalled, starting with Vere Gordon Childe's theory of the urban revolution. At the same time, the forms of citizenship in the ancient world (politeia/civitas) and the settlement models (oppidum, vicus, pagus, urbs/kome, chora, asty, polis) in the Greek (poleis and federal systems) and Roman (federated cities, Roman colonies, Latin colonies, municipalities, praefecturae, fora, conciliabula) spheres will be examined.

Then, the source categories (geography, archaeology, literature, cartography, toponymy) and the main methodologies of urban archaeology and the archaeology of abandoned cities (remote sensing, geophysics, topography) necessary to produce archaeological maps will be focused on.

To this purpose, the role of physical geography will also be considered, both in the choice of location and in the conditioning imposed on urban development by its topography. These dynamics translate into the perception of the stratified urban landscape, i.e. of the different cities insisting on one another in different historical periods (topographic plans) from an original geographical context that must be reconstructed (palaeo-topography).

The SECOND SECTION of the programme will be devoted to the genesis and monumental development of Rome and Roman cities and the urban phenomenon in a particular region of Greece corresponding to ancient Epirus. Various case studies will be compared through dialogue and discussion in the classroom.


As far as Rome is concerned, the changes in the republican city triggered by the new Hellenistic architectural models, the development of the Roman Forum, the Imperial Forum and the Campus Martius will be considered in particular. Particular attention will be paid to the urban renewal programme commissioned by Augustus. The archaeology of Rome makes it possible to address the theme of urban stratification that conceals different cities that followed one another in time up to the present day, even though they occupy approximately the same geographical space, and this theme will also be developed through the reading of the textbook


Finally, the models of the Roman city will be analysed by means of some exemplary cases spread throughout the rest of the peninsula. The relationship between town planning and military encampments, the programmatic plans typical of planned town planning, defensive systems, and the relationship with roads and waterways will be discussed.

Using data from the excavations of the University of Bologna in Suasa and Monte Rinaldo, some characteristic urban parabolas of the Picenian and Gallic ager in the mid-Adriatic area will be analysed, forcing us to review the city models elaborated on the Tyrrhenian side.

With regard to Epirus, the forms of aggregation that led to the genesis and development of the city will be analysed, referring to the differences that characterise this area compared to other regions of Greece with a greater urban tradition, such as Athens itself. In order to develop this theme, reference will also be made to some sites that are still under investigation, such as Phoinike and Butrint with their respective territories.

 

OTHER EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES AND FIELD STAGES
As part of the course, a number of opportunities will be organised to meet with other archaeologists involved in the investigation of ancient cities, in order to explore specific themes and case studies.
Right from the start of the course, some research projects of the University of Bologna on ancient cities such as Butrint in Albania, Paestum in Campania and Suasa in the Marche region will be presented.
Students attending the course and those wishing to devote their thesis to these topics will be offered the opportunity to participate in field research, subject to logistical availability.


For further information, please refer to the project websites:


https://site.unibo.it/butrint/en


https://cumarcheologia.it/


http://www.progettosuasa.it/

Readings/Bibliography

EXAMINATION TEXTS

Students attending the course are required to study:


- Lecture notes with the help of the presentations available on the course website

- the followiong mandatory book: D. Manacorda, Roma. Il racconto di due città, Roma 2022.

Students who will not be attending lectures are required to study the following textbook in addition to the previous compulsory textbook:

· N. Terrenato, La grande trattativa. L'espansione di Roma in Italia tra storia e archeologia, Carocci 2022.

Foreign students attending classes may replace the compulsory textbook in Italian with the following text:

· A. Launaro, Roman Urbanism in Italy, Oxford 2024.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

(Readings not compulsory but useful for optional further reading or for class discussion)

Methodology:

F. Boschi, Looking for the Future, Caring for the past. Preventive Archaeology in Theory and Practice, Bologna University Press 2016;

F. Vermeulen, G.-J. Burgers, S. Keays and C. Corsi (eds.), Urban Landscape Survey in Italy and the Mediterranean, Oxbow 2012 (un articolo a scelta);

P. Johnson, M. Millett (eds.), Archaeological Survey and the City, Oxbow 2012 (un articolo a scelta).

Ancient Cities:

R. Meneghini, R. Santangeli Valenzani, I Fori Imperiali, Roma 2023.

F. Fabiani, L'urbanistica: città e paesaggi, Carocci 2014.

P. Gros, M. Torelli, Storia dell’urbanistica. Il mondo romano, Laterza 2010;

Citizenship:

C. Bearzot, Il federalismo greco, il Mulino 2014;

C. Bearzot, La polis greca, il Mulino 2009;

U. Laffi, Colonie e Municipi nello Stato romano, Roma 2007;

Sul popolamento romano

T. Stek, J. Pelgrom, Roman Republican Colonization. New perspectives from archaeology and ancient history, Rome 2014.

E. Todisco, I vici rurali dell’Italia Romana, Bari 2011;

T. Stek, Cult Places and Cultural Change in Republican Italy: A Contextual Approach to Religious Aspects of Rural Society after the Roman Conquest, Amsterdam 2009;

L. Capogrossi Colognese, Persistenze e innovazione nelle strutture agrarie dell’Italia romana, Napoli 2002;

Epirus:

E. Giorgi, G. Lepore, Comparing Phoinike and Butrint. Some remarks on the walls of two cities in Northern Epirus, in L.M. Caliò, G.M. Gerogiannis, M. Kopsacheili (eds.), Fortificazioni e società nel Mediterraneo occidentale. Albania e Grecia settentrionale, Roma, pp. 153-181;

E. Giorgi, The destruction of Epirus after Pydna. Archaeology and literature, in Dialoghi sull’Archeologia della Magna Grecia e del Mediterraneo V, Paestum 2022, pp. 91-106;

E. Giorgi, Another Greece. The population of northern Epirus and the genesis of Butrint in the Archaic period, in Schemata. La città oltre la forma, Roma 2022, pp. 461-485.

E. Giorgi, B. Muka, Sulle orme di Enea. Pascoli, laghi e città d'Epiro: le vie d'accesso a Butrinto, in Atlante Tematico di Topografia Antica 33 (2023), pp. 239-257.

Adriatic Towns:

E. Giorgi, J. Bogdani, A. Gamberini, S. Morsiani, I. Rossetti, Scavi di Suasa II. La Necropoli Orientale, Roma 2024;

F. Belfiori, Mare Superum Romani latini e l’Italia adriatica di mezzo (sviluppi culturali e fenomenologia religiosa, secoli III-I a.C.), Roma 2022;

F. Boschi, E. Giorgi, F. Vermeulen, Picenum and the Ager Gallicus at the Dawn of the Roman Conquest: Landscape Archaeology and Material Culture, Oxford 2020;

E. Giorgi, F. Demma, F. Belfiori, Il santuario di Monte Rinaldo, La ripresa delle ricerche (2016-2019), Bologna 2020;

M. Silani, Città e territorio: la formazione della città romana nell'ager Gallicus, Bologna 2017;

F. Vermeulen, From the mountains to the sea. The Roman Colonisation and Urbanisation of Central Adriatic Italy, Peeters 2017;

F. Vermeulen, D. Van Limbergen, P. Monsieur, D. Taelman (eds), The Potenza valley survey (Marche, Italy): settlement dynamics and changing material culture in an Adriatic vally between Iron Age and Late Antiquity, Ghent 2017.

E. Giorgi, F. Demma, Riflessioni sulla genesi e lo sviluppo urbano di Asculum nel Piceno. Dalla città federata alla colonia romana, in Atlante Tematico di Topografia Antica 28 (2018);

E. Giorgi, Suasa: genesi e sviluppo di un municipio romano dell’agro gallico, in «Atlante Tematico di Topografia Antica» 30 (2020), pp. 95-114.

E. Giorgi, Diramazioni della Salaria sul versante adriatico, in «Atlante Tematico di Topografia Antica», 31 (2021), pp. 147-166;

E. Giorgi, L’appoderamento agrario dell’agro suasano alla luce delle nuove ricerche, in «Agri Centuriati», 18 (2021), pp. 9-26.

Teaching methods

Lectures will have seminar settings with the use of presentations and case studies in which teacher-led research is being conducted.


Students will be asked to intervene actively in the course of the lectures.


Depending on the number of students, it will be possible to propose in-class readings of passages from the reference bibliography that will be critically discussed and analysed.


Lecture series, additional and open to the public, will be organised on specific topics by researchers working on relevant aspects.

Assessment methods

The active participation in lessons, conferences and teaching activities will also be evaluated.

The final vote will be determined by an oral exam.

The questions will cover the following topics:

1. Urban Archaeology and Archaeology of Ancient Cities (Methods and typology);

2. Urban and Monumental Development of Rome;

3. Urban genesis and Development inAncient Epirus.

For non-attending students, the interview will focus on the same topics, paying particular attention to the volumes being studied.

The following evaluation parameters will be adopted, for attending students and non-frequenting students.

Attending Students

Excellent Evaluation (30 and praise-28): active participation of the student in the lessons; the student will have to demonstrate the possession of high level knowledge, the ability to interpret the landscape problems correctly and showing a certain autonomy of reasoning. The student will demonstrate the ability to move well within the "parure" of sources presented in class. Excellent oral expression skills including in the technical languages presented.

Good Grade (27-23): The student has attended the course and will demonstrate possession of knowledge at a good level, but mainly mnemonic; the interpretation of the problems proposed will be correct, but not always precise and autonomous. The language used will be appropriate with some problems in the more technical aspects.

Sufficient Rating (22-18): The student has attended the course, demonstrates possession of the basic knowledge of the discipline, but assumed in mnemonic form; the interpretation of the problems is mostly correct, but conducted with inaccuracy and little autonomy. The language used will be fair, but lacking in technical language.

Insufficient Evaluation: the lack of acquisition of the basic concepts of the discipline, combined with a poor ability to make use of the sources presented and an adequate language will be evaluated with insufficient score, which provides for the repetition of the exam.

Non-Frequenting Students
Non-frequenting students will be evaluated primarily on the basis of their ability to gain awareness of the issues inherent in Landscape resulting from manual and bibliographic study, combined with adequate language.

Excellent Evaluation (30 cum laude -28): the student will demonstrate a solid understanding of the subject matter, the demonstration of a critical sense in evaluating the sources to be drawn upon in reconstructing the ancient landscape. He/she will express him/herself in language appropriate to the subject, even in its technical parts.

Good Evaluation (27-23): the student will demonstrate a good knowledge and understanding of the subject, but will not have fully succeeded in developing a critical sense, with verbal expression and reasoning on the issues proposed not always perfect.

Sufficient Rating (22-18): the student will demonstrate sufficient knowledge of the subject matter, but will have failed to develop a critical sense, with verbal expression and reasoning on proposed problems not fully satisfactory.

Insufficient Assessment: lack of acquisition of basic concepts of the discipline, coupled with a poor ability to make use of the sources presented and adequate language will be assessed with an insufficient score, which requires retaking the exam.

Teaching tools

The presentations used during the lessons will be available on the web portal of the course.

Students who require specific services and adaptations to teaching activities due to a disability or specific learning disorders (SLD), must first contact the appropriate office: https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students .

Office hours

See the website of Enrico Giorgi