Italic and Etruscan Antiquity

Overview of the main fields of study of the pre-Roman cultures of ancient Italy, with particular attention to recent discoveries. Development of an interpretative approach.

COURSE OUTLINE

PART I - THE WORLD OF THE LIVING: urban planning and domestic architecture. A. Urbanism and housing in Etruria. B. Urbanism and housing in archaic Rome and Latium. C. Urbanism and housing of Italic peoples. PART II - THE WORLD OF THE GODS: religion and religious arts. Introduction: Etruscan and Italic religions. A. Religious archaeology in Etruria. B. Religious archaeology in archaic Rome and Latium. C. Religious archaeology in the Italic sphere. PART III - THE WORLD OF THE DEAD: conceptions of the afterlife and funerary art. Introduction: beliefs in the afterlife. A. From the Bronze Age to the Iron Age: legacies and upheavals. B. The great orientalist movement or the "culture of princes". C. The Archaic period: the time of the warrior kings. D. The classical period: crisis, resistance and awareness of the end. E. Defeat and assimilation into the Roman world.