Prerequisite:

Admission open to all students with an interest in medieval history and archaeology. Students are recommended, but not required, to take EUH-3122 (High Middle Ages), EUH-3931 (Medieval Italy), or EUH-3182 (Medieval Archaeology) in advance.

Enrollment:

For a summer period of six weeks, the course enrollment is no more than 10 undergradutate students. Graduate students can register for this course as a "trailer" and should expect to have an additional amount of work assigned. Students taking this course cannot re-take it for more academic credit.
 
 

Credit

This course is offered for six (6) semester hours of coursework. The credit for these hours is to be applied entirely to History (EUH-4186). The course is offered in cooperation with the Dipartimento di Beni Culturali of the University of Lecce  and will take place in Muro Leccese, Salento (Italy). Classes will be taught , using lectures and class discussions, supplemented by on-site visits, laboratory work and fieldwork. Participation in an ongoing research excavation will be an integral part of the course. Two week-end field trips are included in the course schedule. For more details, see the handout.

Textbooks:

• Kevin Greene. Archaeology. An Introduction. The History, Principles and Methods of Modern Archaeology. 4th edition. Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press, 2002 [hereafter Greene]
• Coursepack

Assignments:

There is no attendance policy, but you are responsible for attending all lectures and reading the required texts. The basis for evaluation of performance will be class participation, one take-home exam, and satisfactory fieldwork. The exam will consist of  two parts: an identification and/or multiple-choice part, and a short essay, in which you will be asked to synthesize your knowledge of the topic, dropping in facts to show that you understand the concrete aspects of that topic. Make-up exam will be given for very serious reasons, in which case you will have to produce some official proof. The exam counts for twenty percent of your final grade. The fieldwork component will count for 70 percent, of which forty percent represents the journal kept during the four weeks of fieldwork. The remaining ten percent of your overall grade is for participation in class discussions.
 

July 2-28: Fieldwork

August 3-11: Class meetings (at UF)

Course weekly schedule (lectures and discussions):

July 15 (on site): Introduction.  What is medieval archaeology?

• see also a short essay on artifacts

• Greene 8-36
• Timothy Champion, "Medieval archaeology and the tyranny of the historical record," in From the Baltic to the Black Sea. Studies in Medieval Archaeology, ed. by David Austin and Leslie Alcock (London, 1990), pp. 79-95 (Coursepack)
• see a brief presentation of Thomsen's Three-Age system, as well as the short biographies of Gustaf Kossinna

• Greene 159-184

August 3: Excavation and interpretation

• Greene 37-100
• see some aerial photographs
• see also a GIS application to an archaeological project in Burgundy (France)
• visit the site of the Harris Matrix

• Greene 101-129
• Edward Roberts, "The potential of tree-ring dating," in Vernacular Buildings in a Changing World: Understanding, Recording and Conservation, ed. bySarah Pearson and Bob Meeson (York: Council for British Archaeology, 2001), pp. 111-121 (Coursepack)
• visit the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona

• Paul Arthur, "From vicus to village: Italian landscapes, AD 400-1000," in Landscapes of Change: Rural Evolutions in Late Antiquity and the EArly Middle Ages, ed. by Neil Christie (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), pp. 103-133 (Coursepack)
• Paul Arthur, "Masseria Quattro Macine -- a deserted medieval village and its territory in southern Apulia: an interim report on field survey, excavation and document analysis," Papers of the British School at Rome 64 (1996), 181-237 (Coursepack)
  
• Riccardo Francovich and Gian Pietro Brogiolo, "Some problems in the medieval archaeology of Italy," in Die Vielfalt der Dinge: Neue Wege zur Analyse mittelalterlicher Sachkultur. Internationaler Kongreß Krems an der Donau 4. bis 7. Oktober 1994, ed. by Helmut Hundsbichler, Gerhard Jaritz, and Thomas Kühtreiber (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1998), pp. 117-141 (Coursepack)
  
• Tadeusz Baranowski, "Polish-Italian excavations in Southern Italy (Capaccio Vecchio and Civita di Ogliara)," Archaeologia Polona 40 (2002), 73-82 (Coursepack)
• visit the vicus of San Giusto, Lucera (province of Foggia) and Poggibonsi (province of Tuscany)
• see the apse exterior of the fifth-century basilical church in Le Centoporte and the tenth- to eleventh-century church in Quattro Macine
  
• see the plans of sunken-featured buildings excavated on  Via Alberto Mario in Brescia and a model of the incastellamento
• read about the medieval village of Kootwijk (Netherlands) and see images from archaeological experiments performed at West Stow (England) and Brezno (Czech Republic)

• Polydora Baker, "Archaeozoological evidence for medieval Italy: a critical review of the present state of research," in Archeologia medievale 20 (1993), 45-77 (Coursepack)
• Annie Grant and Graeme Barker, "Ancient and modern pastoralism in central Italy: an interdisciplinary study in the Cicolano mountains," Papers of the British School at Rome 59 (1991), 15-88 (Coursepack)
• Samuel Evans, "The archaeo-botanical remains of Piazza Walther (Bolzano-Bozen) (XI-XII century AD)," in Bozen: Von den Anfängen bis zur Schleifung der Stadtmauern. Berichte über die internationale Studientagung, veranstaltet vom Assessorat für Kultur der Stadtgemeinde Bozen, Schloß Maretsch - April 1989, ed. by Reimo Lunz and Lorenzo dal Ri (Bozen: Athesia, 1991), pp. 304-315 (Coursepack)
• see an image of Biferno (province of Molise) and another of Bolzano (autonomous province of Trento-Adige)
• see images of the Broletto of Pavia and of the Castello di Manzano (province of Udine), as well as a reconstruction of the castle at Montaldo di Mondovi (province of Cuneo)
  
• see a view of the Cicolano Mountains in central Italy and of the Rascino Castle (province of Lazio)
  
• see an example of coppicing (with an example of resulting growth) and an explanation of pollarding
  

• P. Comodi, "The production and technology of glazed ceramics from the Middle Ages, found in the saepinum territory (Italy): a multimethodic approach," Archaeometry 46 (2004), 405-419 (Coursepack)
• Cristina Tonghini, "Fatimid ceramics from Italy: the archaeological evidence," in L'Egypte fatimide: Son art et son histoire. Actes du colloque organisé à Paris les 28, 29 et 30 mai 1998, ed. by Marianne Barrucand (Paris: Presses de l'Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 1999), pp. 285-297 (Coursepack)
• K. Francis and M. Moran, "Planning and technology in the early Middle Ages: the temporary workshops at San Vincenzo al Volturno," in I Congresso Nazionale di Archeologia Medievale, ed. by Sauro Gelichi (Florence: Edizioni all'Insegna del Giglio, 1997), pp. 373-378 (Coursepack)
• see examples of pinching, coiling, casting, and wheel-throwing as basic techniques of pottery production
• see examples of medieval wares: stoneware (fourteenth century, Germany), glazed (twelfth century, Corinth), protomaiolica (thirteenth century, Castel del Monte) and maiolica (late fourteenth-early fifteenth century, Valencia; read more about the Renaissance maiolica of Italy), fritware (fourteenth century, Persia)
• see also examples of combed ware (thirteenth century, Syria), stamped ware (sixth to seventh century, Milan)
• see examples of bacini from Pisa
  

• Lucia Travaini, "Saints and sinners: coins in medieval Italian graves," Numismatic Chronicle 164 (2004), 160-181 (Coursepack)
• C. I. Smith, "The strange case of Apigliano: early 'fossilization' of medieval bone in southern Italy," Archaeometry 44 (2002), 405-415 (Coursepack)
• see a modern example of cremation (India) and an aerial photography of the inhumation graves found in Apigliano
• see an example of inhumation in prone position, possibly a human sacrifice in the eastern part of the Sutton Hoo cemetery and a group of burials aligned in rows (Zoellnitz, Germany)
  

 

          Program costs  (meals and land transportation)  -       $3,050
          Tuition & fees                                                   -       $1,050
          Total cost per student                                        -       $2,765 ($3,581 for graduate students)

Airfare tickets, passports, visas, adequate medical insurance (including emergency repatriation insurance), and other travel expenses are the responsibility of students. Upon request, assistance with group rates for airfare may be provided.

The excavation site is Muro Leccese, located in central Salento (Italy), southeast of Lecce. Housing will be offered in one of the Dominican Priory (lodging free of charge), meals (lunch and dinner) in the L'Antico Borgo restaurant in town. There will be field trips around the area, and a mini-van will be rented at a rate included in the total cost above.

© 2005 Florin Curta