Master on “Water Awareness, Consciousness, Knowledge and Management” (Academic Year 2019/2020)

The main object of the course is to provide the students with a wide historical framework on the theme, useful to contextualize the history of water management in a broader perspective.

• Water and the components of the Cosmos in the Western Culture
• Water and the components of the Cosmos in the Eastern Culture
• Water and Time
• Water, afterlife and the unknown
• Water and Death. The Mesopotamian Flood.
• Water and Death. The Biblical Flood.
• Water and Death. Atlantis.
• Water and Life: Greek and Christian thought.
• The birth of the earliest energetic systems.
• Water, sea and peace.
• Rescuing the temples at Abu Simbel and Philae (Egypt).
• Water Wars.
• Venice, the city born out of water.
• Water and rearing.
• Water and vegetable oils (biofuels)
• Conclusions.

Mandatory bibliography:

1) Christer Bruun, “Roman emperors and legislation on public water use in the Roman Empire: clarifications and problems”, in Water History 2012, 4, pp. 11–33 (available online)

2) Delphine Driaux, “Water supply of ancient Egyptian settlements: the role of the state. Overview of a relatively equitable scheme from the Old to New Kingdom (ca. 2543–1077 BC)”, in Water History 2016, 8, pp. 43-58 (available online)

3) Evy Johanne Haland, “Water Sources and the Sacred in Modern and Ancient Greece and Beyond”, in Water History 2009, 1, pp. 83-108 (available online)

4) Zena Kamash, “An exploration of the relationship between shifting power, changing behaviour and new water technologies in the Roman Near East”, in Water History 2012, 4, pp. 79-93 (available online)

5) Anna Leone, “Water management in late antique North Africa: agricultural irrigation”, in Water History 2012, 4, pp. 119-133 (available online)

6) Tony James Wilkinson, Louise Rayne, “Hydraulic landscapes and imperial power in the Near East”, in Water History 2010, 2, pp. 115-144 (available online)

7) Andrew Wilson, “Water, power and culture in the Roman and Byzantine worlds: an introduction”, in Water History 2012, 4, pp. 1-9 (available online)

Open-answer questions.