PHD in PHD SCHOOL OF ARCHAEOLOGY

The PhD School in ARCHAEOLOGY, with its articulation into 6 curricula relating to the different chronological or thematic fields of the discipline, represents the highest and most comprehensive level of post-graduate training and is the only doctorate totally dedicated to Archaeology in the national university system. There are different goals depending on the different curricula:

- CLASSICAL ARCHAEOLOGY - Coordinator Prof. Maria Teresa D'Alessio

The curriculum in Classical Archaeology was established in order to form and train to scientific research a number of graduates in the disciplines of archaeological areas and similar field. The main topic of this curriculum is the complex context of the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean societies, with a particular focus on the Greek and Roman worlds. The courses are organized so that we can focus the student's work on the methodology of theoretical and practical research, in particular the aims and methods of carrying out the research, the critical examination of the studied materials and achieved initial results. The launch and operation of a conscious critique of their production is considered an essential exercise of the courses, achieved by critical and organizational comparison with what has been published about the research of graduate students.

- ARCHAEOLOGY AND POST-CLASSICAL ANTIQUITIES - Coordinator Prof. Max Victor David

The PHD in Archaeology and Post-Classical Antiquities, organized into seminars and educational meetings, aims to train experts in specialist topics relating to the disciplinary field of Late Antique, Christian, and Medieval Archaeology (10/ARCH-01/E). The scientific and educational objective is to prepare students for research on archaeological topics related to Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, with particular attention to material culture, productive activities in the artistic and craft fields, and the dynamics of urban and territorial transformations.

- ORIENTAL ARCHAEOLOGY - Coordinator Prof. Lorenzo Nigro

{C}{C}{C}{C}{C}{C}The Oriental Studies programme aims to provide students with in-depth specialist knowledge in the field of ancient pre-classical civilisations of the Near East, covering the period from the emergence of urban civilisation (in the 4th millennium BC) to the death of Alexander the Great (323 BC) and, in terms of geographical scope, from Anatolia to the Levant (Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan), to Mesopotamia, Iran, Arabia and as far as the Indus Valley. It also encompasses the coastal regions of the Mediterranean and its major islands (Cyprus, Rhodes, Crete, Malta, Sicily, Sardinia and the Balearic Islands) with regard to the expansion and presence of the Phoenicians and Carthaginians in the West. The main focus of the specialisation lies in the two courses corresponding to the disciplines ‘Archaeology and Art History of Ancient Western Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean’ and ‘Phoenician-Punic Archaeology’. The methodology focuses on the study of contexts (archaeological landscape, settlement systems, urban planning and architecture), material culture (production, circulation, function) and artistic culture (creation, function, enjoyment) from a historical-archaeological perspective. The training activities of the Oriental Studies Programme include participation in field research conducted by Sapienza in Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, the Iberian Peninsula, the Aegean, Crete, Malta, Sicily and Sardinia. Each PhD student must conduct original and innovative research, both theoretically and methodologically, on an aspect of the ancient pre-classical cultures of the Near East or the Mediterranean, with the aim of producing, under the guidance of a supervisor, a final dissertation for publication.

 - PREHISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY - Coordinator Prof.ssa Marina Gallinaro

The aim of the course is to prepare young scholars for research in the fields of prehistory and protohistory by conducting an original study of some of the many aspects of the central themes of the disciplinary sector, such as: human evolution, the origins of livestock farming and agriculture, the birth of inequality, and urbanization. Doctoral students and doctoral students will apply the methodologies specific to prehistoric and protohistoric archaeology to their research, also through the use of archaeometric, bioarchaeological and paleoenvironmental analyses, with the support of tutors. To this end, as part of their research project, doctoral students and doctoral students will take into particular consideration some of the following aspects and their transformations in a given geographical context in the chronological span of the period examined: 1) the characteristics of the natural environment and subsistence activities; 2) the settlement system, both with regard to its relations with the environment itself and to the relationships of cooperation or competition, of subordination or equality between the different settlements; 3) the extraction and circulation of raw materials; 4) the transformation of products and the exchange circuits of artefacts; 5) the socio-political relationships deducible from the study of settlements, necropolises, ritual contexts, both within a community and between multiple human nuclei, also in relation to the impact that economic and ideological factors can have on these aspects; 6) symbolic and artistic production.