Logo UAB

Protohistory of the Mediterranean

Code: 100732 ECTS Credits: 6
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
2500241 Archaeology OT 3
2500241 Archaeology OT 4
2503702 Ancient Studies OB 3

Contact

Name:
David Asensio Vilaró
Email:
david.asensio.vilaro@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

No one.


Objectives and Contextualisation

The objectives are to provide the student with a basic training in archaeology, history and other social disciplines, and to become familiar with historical-archaeological content. The course has as content the exposition of the basic features of historical-archaeological research applied to the field of the protohistoric period in the geographical context of the different sectors of the Mediterranean Sea. The contributions of instrumental methodologies and analytical techniques in the debates that the discipline has addressed will be considered. The main discoveries and points that have aroused the greatest controversy in the investigation of the different periods and territories considered will be studied. The contents include the contributions of the different areas of the social and human sciences from which the hypotheses are elaborated (anthropology, sociology, etc.) to interpret the information and empirical evidence from the archaeological record.

This nuclear subject is conceived as a continuation and extension of the basic subject HISTORY. 

Specifically, the main objectives are:

1.- Analyze the current lines of research and thought in protohistoric archaeology, from its origins to the present day. 

2.- Provide the student with a global vision of the subjects and fields that are part of what today is called protohistoric archaeology in the framework of the Mediterranean Sea. 

3.- Reflect on the link between protohistoric archaeology and other disciplines (ancient history, anthropology, archaeological theory...).


Competences

    Archaeology
  • Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  • Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethic relevant issues.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
    Ancient Studies
  • Identify and interpret ancient historical remains to relate them to social, political and economic events in the Mediterranean societies of the period of Antiquity.
  • Interrelate linguistic, historical and archaeological knowledge of the ancient world with knowledge of other areas of the humanities, mainly ancient literature, philosophy and art.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Analysing the creators of an artistic phenomenon in a specific cultural context.
  2. Autonomously searching, selecting and processing information both from structured sources (databases, bibliographies, specialized magazines) and from across the network.
  3. Describe the main characteristics of Iberian Peninsula archaeological sites from the Pre-Classical, Greek and Roman periods.
  4. Effectively expressing themselves and applying the argumentative and textual processes of formal and scientific texts.
  5. Identify different types of Greco-Roman pottery and relate them to their political and cultural context.
  6. Identifying the characteristic methods of Archaeology and its relationship with the historical analysis.
  7. Interpreting material and documentary sources.
  8. Transmitting the results of archaeological research and clearly communicating conclusions in oral and written form to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  9. Using the specific interpretational and technical vocabulary of the discipline.

Content

The contents of the subject are partially determined by the desire not to repeat topics and aspects already taught in other subjects of the Degrees in Antiquity Sciences and Archaeology. This explains that in the development of the subject, the protohistoric themes and realities corresponding to the eastern Mediterranean areas and, especially, the central Mediterranean (almost never dealt with) will have a greater weight than those of the pre-Roman cultures of the Iberian Peninsula. There will also be a preferential orientation towards the local communities or 'indigenous peoples' on the shores of the Mediterranean, over the Greek or Pheno-Punic colonial contingents established in their territories.

Subject script:

1:- Presentation. Definition of protohistoric societies.

2.- The protohistoric societies of the second millennium BC: the Eastern Mediterranean.

2.1.- The Minoan civilization of Crete and the Mycenaean civilization of Continental Greece.

2.2.- Other state societies of the Eastern Med.: Cycladic Islands, Hittites, Canaanites and Cypriot Bronze.

3.- The protohistoric societies of the first millennium BC: Central and Western Mediterranean.

3.1- The precedents of complex societies in the Italian Peninsula and Sicily.

3.1.1- The Mycenaean impact in southern Italy and Sicily.

3.1.2.- The Poladian culture (Ancient Bronze Age in the alpine regions).

3.1.3- The Terramare culture (Middle Bronze Age in the Po Valley).

3.2.- The complex societies of the first millennium in the central Med.

3.2.1.- The proto-Vilanovian horizon (Final Bronze Age in Tuscany and Lazi).

3.2.2- The precedents: the Vilanovian culture and other horizons of late bronze/first iron.

3.2.3- The Etruscan world. A state civilization of the highest complexity.

3.2.4.- Other lesser known Italic peoples: Latinos, Oscos, Messapis, Lucanos, Siculos, Sicanos, etc.

3.3.- The complex societies of the first millennium in the Iberian Peninsula.

3.3.1.- The precedents: the episodes of complexity of the Bronze Age; Argaric southeast, motillas, Valencian bronze.

3.3.2.- The 'crisis' and new dynamism in the final bronze, precolonial contacts.

3.3.3.- The Tartessian civilization.

4.- A case of cultural interaction in a colonial context: Western peoples and Phocean colonization.

4.1.- The South Gauls.

4.2.- The Iberians of the North.


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
theoric classes 130 5.2 2, 4, 6, 7, 9

1. Directed training in the classroom. Theoretical presentations will be offered to introduce and analyze the most relevant aspects of Mediterranean protohistoric archaeology. These contents will be complemented with PowerPoint sessions, images, explanatory tables, documentaries and interactive websites. There will also be exercises (readings, comments, analysis of examples, etc.) and some debates will be proposed.

2. Archaeological visit. It intends to complement the contents of the subject with a visit to an archaeological site in Catalonia that is significant in terms of relations and cultural influences between western indigenous societies and colonial agents and the evolution of interpretations on this issue.

3. Individual work. The elaboration of a mandatory individual work is proposed that will consist of a written exercise of analysis of different texts on the main thematic blocks considered, in which the different problems raised in class are incorporated, the relationship between the arguments and interpretative options of the texts and the main theoretical or conceptual frameworks of reference and, finally, also the contribution and personal criticism of the articles.

Note: 15 minutes of a class will be reserved, within the calendar established by the degree, for the completion by the students of the surveys to evaluate the performance of the teaching staff and the evaluation of the subject/module.

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Exam 40% 2 0.08 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9
Exam 40% 2 0.08 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9
task about published articles 20% 16 0.64 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

1. Theoretical test (80%) - 1 final exam. Assessment system: The concepts taught in class will be evaluated from a written exercise.

2. Individual work described in the previous section, on 'individual work' (20%).

3. Reassessment conditions. Only those who have taken the exam and have submitted all the individual works requested will be able to re-evaluate.

This course incorporates the UNIQUE EVALUATION system.

The evaluation activities of the Single Evaluation system are the same as those of the Continuous Evaluation system, with the same proportion of evaluation.

The same assessment method as continuous assessment will be used.

Students will obtain a Not assessed/Not submitted course grade unless they have submitted more than 1/3 of the assessment items.

 


Bibliography

Aubet, Maria Eugènia (1994): Tiro y las colonias fenicias de occidente. Ed. Crítica. Barcelona.

Aubet, Maria Eugènia (2007): Comercio y colonialismo en el Próximo Oriente antiguo; los antecedentes coloniales del III y II milenio aC. Bellaterra Arqueología. Barcelona.

Calvo, M.; Guerrero, V.M.; Salvà, B. (2002): "Los orígenes del poblamiento balear, una discusión no acabada", Complutum, 13, pp. 159-191.

Costa, B.; Benito, Núria (2000): "El poblament de les illes Pitïuses durant la prehistòria. Estat actual de la investigació". Colonización humana en ambientes insulares: interacción con el medio y adaptación cultural. Universitat de les Illes Balears, pp. 215-321. 

Cristofani, M. (Ed.) (2000): Etruschi, una nuova immagine. Giunti Ed. Firenze. Dickinson, O. (2000): La Edad del Bronce egea; Akal Ediciones, Madrid.

Dickinson, O. (2010): El Egeo, de la Edad del Bronce a la Edad del Hierro; Bellaterra arqueología, Barcelona.

Dietler, M. (1990): Driven by drink: the role of drinking in the political economy of the case of early Iron Age France, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 9, pp. 352-406. 

Dietler, M. (1999): Rituals of commensality and the politics of state formation in the 'princely' societies of early Iron Age Europe, Les princes et l'émergence de l'État: Actes de la table ronde internationale de Naples (1994), Collection Centre Jean Bérard, 17, Bibliothèque de l'École Française de Rome, 252, pp. 135-152. 

French, Elisabeth (2005): Micenas, capital de Agamenón. Bellaterra Arqueología, Barcelona. 

Gracia, F. (1995): Comercio del vino y estructuras de intercambio en el NE. de la Península Ibérica y Languedoc-Rosellón entre los siglos VII-V aC. In: Celestino (S.) ed. Arqueología del vino. Los orígenes del vino en Occidente, Jerez de la Frontera, p. 297-331. 

Guerrero, V.M.; Calvo, M.; Salvà, B. (2002): "La cultura talayótica. Una sociedad de la Edad del Hierro en la periferia de la colonización fenicia", Complutum, 13, pp. 221-258.

Lilliu, G. (1999): La Civiltà Nuragica. Sardegna Archeologica, Studi e Monumenti, 2, Roma.

Lilliu, G. (1999): La Civiltà Nuragica. Sardegna Archeologica, Studi e Monumenti, 2, Roma.

Llull, V.; Micó, R.; Rihuete, Cristina; Risch, R. (2001): La prehistoria de las Islas Baleares y el yacimiento arqueológico de Son Fornés (Montuiri, Mallorca). Edició Fundació Son Fornés. Barcelona.

Pacciarelli, M. (2001): Dal villagio alla città: la svolta protourbana del 1000 a.C. nell'Italia tirrenica. Grande contesti e problema della protostoria italiana, 4, Firenze.

Pallotino, M. (1987): Etruscologia. Ed. Hoepli. Milano.

Pericot, L. (1975): Las islas Baleares en los tiempos prehistóricos. Barcelona.

Plantalamor, Ll. (1991): L'arquitectura prehistòrica i protohistòrica de Menorca i el seu marc cultural. Maó.

Py, M. (1993): Les gaulois du midi; de la fin de l'age du bronze à la conquete romaine. Hachette Ed.

Py, M. (2009): Lattara (Lattes, Hérault), comptoir gaulois méditerranéen entre Etrusques, Grecs et Romains. Collection Hauts lieux d'Histoire, Editions Errance, Paris.

Sanmartí, J. (2004): From local communities to early states. Pyrenae,35-1, Universitat de Barcelona, pp. 7-41. 

Sanmartí, J.; Santacana, J. (2005): Els ibers del Nord. Rafael Dalmau Eds., Barcelona, 232 p.

Sanmartí, J.; Asensio, D.; Belarte, Maria Carme ; Noguera, J. (2009): Comerç colonial, comensalitat i canvi social a la protohistoria de Catalunya, Citerior, 5, pp. 219-238.

Stein, G. (2005): Archaeology of Colonial Encounters: Comparative Perspectives.

Van Dommelen, P. (1997): "Colonial Constructs: Colonialism and Archaeology in the Mediterranean", World Archaeology, Vol. 28, No. 3, Culture Contact and Colonialism, pp. 305-323.

Wolf, E.R. (1987): Europa y la gente sin historia. Fondo de Cultura Económica. México.


Software

No one.


Language list

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(PAUL) Classroom practices 1 Catalan second semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 1 Catalan second semester morning-mixed