Syllabus
This course is intended as a follow up of the course “Archaeology of Production”, proposed in 2021. The previous course aimed to give the basic notions of production.
In this new course we intend to present the main issues regarding the production activities in ancient societies, by mainly focussing on pottery craft, metallurgy, textile, and salt production from an archaeological and an archaeometric point of view. The similarities and differences between different crafts and processes will be critically discussed.
Moreover, a specific interest will be dedicated to the “invisible” part of productions activities, such as the social involvement, the skills and the possible physical repercussions that characterized every productive operation. The course aims to understand the production chain, clarifying the difficulties in recognizing and correctly analysing the evidence left from production activities and their evidential value for socio-cultural research of ancient societies.
The course is meant as a path that leads from the methodological base, thereafter through discussion of relevant topics via articles on seminars to practical lessons at the end. The course is going to be divided into frontal lessons and seminars, during which students will be motivated and involved by proposing and discussing relevant papers or chapters on the production topic.
The last two lessons will be practical in order to let the students experience on their own hands what they previously learnt in theory. They will have the possibility to shape a ceramic vase (hand-making process) and to refine it through different methods.
Regarding metallurgy, they will be able to produce their own jewellery from copper wires and rods by combination of hammering, drawing and annealing. The aim of the course is to offer a possibility to critically reflect on archaeology and archaeological methods, thanks both to the combination of lessons and seminars and to the practical experiences of producing objects.
Students from bachelor and master courses are welcomed.