Ancient History and Civilizations

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The Ancient History and Civilizations area deals with research and teaching activities pertaining to Classical and pre-Classical cultures, with a focus on Ancient Greek History, Roman History, and the History of the Ancient Near East. The main research topics studied by our area are as follows: Political and Cultural History, Law, Social and Economic History, Religion, Historiography, and Epigraphy. Our staff are committed to interdisciplinary approaches to the ancient past. This enables us to carry out reasearch that crosses whatever kind of boundaries and frontiers, covering a broad range of times, places, and peoples.
Edoardo Bianchi
Associate Professor
Alfredo Buonopane
Temporary Professor
Federico Giusfredi
Associate Professor
Simonetta Ponchia
Associate Professor
Research interests
Topic People Description
Ancient history standard compliant  ERC
Languages and Cultures of the Ancient Near East Federico Giusfredi
 		Historical philological and linguistic study of the cultures of the Ancient Near East.
Auxiliary sciences of History CN Inscriptions. Epigraphy Alfredo Buonopane
 		Edition of Roman age inscriptions in Latin and Greek. Update of the most important Corpora and implementation of the Epigraphic Database Roma (EDR). Studies about inscriptions on manufacts and daily use objects (instrumentum inscriptum). Epigraphy of production, distribution, consume and recycle.
History of the Mediterranean from the Archaic age to the Hellenistic period. Edoardo Bianchi
 		My research focuses on: the history of the Mediterranean basin in the Archaic period; the political and cultural relations between the Greeks, the Romans and the Etruscans (VI-III centuries BCE); modern historiographical perspectives on Archaic Greece and Rome.
History of the Ancient Near East Federico Giusfredi
 Simonetta Ponchia
 		History of ancient civilizations of the Syro-Mesopotamian and Anatolian regions, especially in the first millennium BC; history of socio-political and juridical institutions; Mesopotamian literary texts; contacts and cultural transmission in the ancient Mediterranean area
History of the Ancient Near East and Mesopotamia Simonetta Ponchia
 		Cultural Heritage of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East Sumero-Akkadian literary tradition History of slavery in Syro-Mesopotamian societies Institutions, administrative structures, juridical procedures (First Millennium BC esp.)
Philology and palaeography; historical linguistics (see  ERC )
Anatolian philology Federico Giusfredi
 		"Anatolian philology studies the documents, scripts, languages, cultures and history of the civilizations of pre-classical Anatolia, from the III and the I millennia BCE. It deals with sources and documents written in cuneiform, Anatolian hieroglyphs, Semitic alphabets and Greek alphabets of Asia Minor.
Gruppi di ricerca
Name Description URL
Culture e lingue in contatto nel Vicino Oriente antico Studio dei contatti linguistici e culturali nel Vicino Oriente antico, con particolare riferimento all’Anatolia pre-classica e alle attività di ricerca del progetto PALaC.
EstOvest Il gruppo coltiva da tempo interessi di tipo storico-geografico per le aree di contatto fra mondo greco e mondo vicino orientale nel I millennio a. C. Si propone di affrontare la documentazione in maniera realmente interdisciplinare, evitando prospettive troppo limitate e limitanti.
Rituali antichi: un approccio multidisciplinare. Il Progetto propone un approccio archeologico allo studio dei rituali antichi. Mitraismo, rituali funerari romani e vita monastica medievale saranno studiati sul campo e attraverso analisi di laboratorio (paleobotaniche, archeozoologiche, chimiche) per scoprire alcuni aspetti particolari dei riti (e in particolare che cosa si mangiava e usava durante i rituali e pasti cultuali). An archaeological way to studying religions is proposed. The Roman Mithraism and funerary rituals, and medieval monastic life will be investigated in field campaigns and laboratory analyses in order to discover what they ate and used during rituals and cultic meals.
Projects
Title Managers Sponsors Starting date Duration (months)
Municipal promotions in Africa Proconsularis and Numidia between Caesar and Gallienus: institutions, society, economy Riccardo Bertolazzi 9/28/23 36
PRIN 2022 Mediterranean Multipolarity and Roman Unipolarity 3rd-2nd Centuries BCE Edoardo Bianchi PRIN 2022 - assegnato e gestito dal Dipartimento 9/28/23 24
La violenza domestica nel mondo romano Sofia Piacentin 6/1/23 36
Inequalities in Education, Religion, and Gender: New Insights from Ancient Greek History (InERG) Irene Salvo 12/20/22 36
RESP - The Roman Emperor Seen from the Provinces. Imaging Roman Power in the Cities of the Empire from Augustus to the Tetrarchs (31 BC - AD 297) Dario Calomino 9/1/21 60
TeAI Federico Giusfredi F.A.R.E. - assegnato e gestito da un ente esterno all'ateneo 6/22/20 48
PRIN 2017 - The Transmission of Ancient Linguistics: Texts and Contexts of the Roman Grammatical Studies. Paolo De Paolis 1/20/20 36
PRIN 2017 Studiosi italiani di fronte alle leggi razziali (1938-45): storici dell'antichità e giuristi Edoardo Bianchi MUR - Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca 1/13/20 36
ShaBo. La formazione dei confini nell’area del Mediterraneo orientale nel I millennio a. C. Fattori etnici e geografici Luisa Prandi Ricerca di Base di Ateneo - assegnato e gestito dal Dipartimento 9/15/19 30
PALaC Federico Giusfredi Commissione Europea 2/1/18 66
Alexander's Swat: Toponymy Project Luisa Prandi 3/23/17 60
Ancient rituals. A multidisciplinary approach Attilio Mastrocinque 2/15/16 36

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