Program of study

The topic of  knowledge, preservation and  fruition of the cultural heritage, considered as a unitary system composed of environmental, naturalistic and cultural aspects, continues to be proposed with greater attention. The present Doctorate is a natural prosecution, with a high scientific and cognitive value, of the educational courses of graduate and master degrees and specific curricula activated by the University of Ferrara, which are all characterized by a strong interaction between Science and Humanities and that offer an interdisciplinary training system.  

This Doctorate represents, therefore, the logic conclusion of an educational program, characterized by international courses (es. Master in Quaternary and Prehistory ERASMUS MUNDUS) and that has his main cognitive and scientific strong point in the participation of  numerous partners both Italian (University of Siena, Modena) and international (Musée de l’Homme in Paris (F), University of Tarragon (ES), Instituto Politecnico of Tomar (PT), University of Tràs-os-Montes (PT), Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals, Polish Academy of Science). 

For this reason the objectives of the doctorate wish to answer to the increasing demand of training both in the field of research and of new professions related to Heritage.   

The Doctorate focuses on the following training contents:  

- Origin and evolution of living beings within their natural environment;  

- Human natural history (hominization process), through palaeoanthropological,  behavioural and cultural characterization; 

- Studies of the most ancient evidence of social aggregation up to the development of complex societies in the context of their behavioural, cultural and symbolic peculiarities; 

- Integrated analyses of palaeontological prehistoric, archaeological, palaeoenvironmental and cultural data by means of advanced digital and multimedial systems for the analysis, cataloguing and archiving of the heritage aimed at the safeguard, management and fruition of museum collections; 

- preservation and dissemination of the palaeontological, prehistoric, archaeological, artistic and cultural heritage, by means of diagnostic analysis; identification of the structure, production techniques and degree of preservation of archaeological and artistic artefacts intended for planning restoration of the artefact itself and of its environment in order to prevent its