CHRONOLOGY AND CULTURES OF THE PALEOLITHIC
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- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2022/2023
- Teacher
- MARCO PERESANI
- Credits
- 6
- Didactic period
- Primo Semestre
- SSD
- BIO/08
Training objectives
- The aim of the course is to prepare the student to manage the general topics on the cultural, socila and economic evolution of the Palaeolithic populations, in relation with the most relevant ecological changes. The geographic contexts are the African and the South-western Asiatic continents, but above all Europe, due to the dramatic geographic, climatic and bio-cultural changes which mostly occurred during the Middle and Late Pleistocene.
Prerequisites
- The following prerequisites are required for attending the course :
- Quaternary Chronology;
- General notions of Palaeoanthropology;
- Basic notions of Physical Geography, Palaeoclimatology and Palaeoecology;
- Methods of Prehistoric Archeological Research. Course programme
- The course covers the chronological and cultural interval spanning from the oldest appearance of Modern Human Behaviour in Africa, represented from a set of different evidence, up to the complex record of last hunter-gatherers. Following the geographic dispersion from the African continent of the species of Hominins which succedeed till the Anatomically Modern Humans, the most important steps in the evolution of culture will be taken into consideration.
The chronology of the Palaeolithic will be the reference scale for discussing the impact of innovations in technology which has supported Palaeolithic people to interact in a more complex way with the ecological context than in earlier times. The dynamics of human peopling will be assessed in relation to modifications in the distribution of lithic, vegetal and alimentary resources.
The main topics are listed below:
- emergence of the first technologies in Africa and their impact;
- the first southeuropean peopling, contests and models;
- appearance of bifaces, the Acheulean and the North-european peopling;
- from the Lower to the Middle Palaeolithic, technological changes and in the Human-resources interaction ;
- the age of the Neandertal Man: economy, technologies, settlements;
- the appearance of Homo sapiens in Africa and the first spreads;
- Anatomically Modern Humans and the Others: the state of art. Hypotheses, models and methodological problems;
- The disappearance of the Neandertals from Eurasia.
- The lower and middle phases of the Upper Palaeolithic: Aurignacian and Gravettian and climatic and ecological interactions;
- The late phase of the Late Palaeolithic during the Late-Glacial, the demographic development;
- The transition to the Mesolithic. Didactic methods
- Lectures and seminars.
Learning assessment procedures
- The exam mode does not vary for both attending and non-attending students.
Reference texts
- - The Cradle of Humanity, Oxford University Press, 2017
- Human Evolution: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2005
- Prehistory: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2018
- The Ice Age: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2014
Vandermeesch B. & Maureille B., 2009, Les Néandertaliens. Biologie et Culture. Comité travaux historiques et scientifiques. Parigi.
De Beaune S.A., 2008, L'homme et l'outil. Invention technique durant la préhistoire. Edizioni del Conseil National Recherche Scientifique, Paris.
Dijdjian F., Koslowski J., Otte M., 1999. Le Paléolithique supérieur en Europe. Edizioni Colin, Paris.
