Ricerc@Sapienza

General entry on the Garamantes, which underlines their role in developing the earliest state formation in the heart of the Libyan Sahara, from the 1st millennium BCE to the 5th century AD.

‘European archaeology’ is an ambiguous and contested rubric. Rooted in the political histories of European archaeology, it potentially unites an academic field and provides a basis for international collaboration and inclusion, but also creates essentialized identities and exclusionary discourses. This discussion article presents a range of views on what European archaeology is, where it comes from, and what it could be.

Varro’s approach to his subjects is usually systematic and synchronic, but there are frequent diachronic
digressions and observations on time and the past, often divided into three stages (remote past, near past, and
present). I discuss Rust. 2.1, with a progressive concept of three successive stages in human history from
Dicaearchus, and a fragment from Censorinus, where Varro distinguishes tria discrimina temporum. A significant
affinity emerges between etymological research and the study of origins: both involve the study of antiquitas or the

War in the Ancient Near East has been (and it still is) a preferred theme of research by scholars who have been analyzing the composition and formation of the armies, the way war was fought and therefore the different techniques and strategies of fighting.

Recensione al volume di Norbert Nebes nel quale si presenta l'edizione completa del testo Sirwah 2005-50 e relativo commento storico-epigrafico.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the semantics of the Old Persian verb duruj-, usually translated as ‘to lie’, to deceive’. In order to better understand the semantic nuances and the contextual meanings of the Old Persian verb and to offer a comprehensive – albeit concise – description, this paper is divided into two main sections. The first part is devoted to a brief overview of various cultural-historical aspects starting from Iranian mythology, which – as is known – is closely linked to the world of ritual.

The International System of units used nowadays in most of the word experienced a turning point in the first half of the XX century with the introduction of the ampere (A) as a fourth unit in addition to the original length (M – meter), mass (K – kilogram) and time (S – second), hence turning from a MKS to a MKSA system. This addition was a non-trivial and lengthy process mainly carried on by the Italian engineer Giovanni Giorgi. This contribution retraces this revolution in the measurement system.

The book under review addresses two interrelated issues: what constitutes history and how references to the past enable the present to acquire new meanings and legitimacy. Challenging the dominant trend of the rationalist, post-Enlightenment linear conceptualization of history, the two editors, Frank Heidemann and Philipp Zehmisch, aim at presenting alternate understandings by highlighting complex, entangled, and contested counter-narratives. Arguing that history can be space-bound as well as time-bound, the editors make a bid for the recognition of spatiality as a framework of history.

Scholars of colonial and post-colonial India have widely agreed that the earliest Indian manifestation
of history as a rational-positivist discipline occurred in the nationalist historiography of the late-19th
and early-20th centuries. The British colonizers’ use of history as a tool of self-legitimation rested on
the stereotypical assumption that India lacked a proper historical consciousness. This should not,
however, erase other possible forms of historical memory which existed even in pre-colonial times.