The School is one of the foremost schools of its type in Italy. Its lecturers and students can boast innovative fieldwork around the Mediterranean, the Near East, North Africa and the Black Sea. Its curriculum is broad based, extending from Palaeolithic to Modern times, and covers not only archaeology, bioarchaeology, landscape studies and ancient topography, but also art history, numismatics, museum studies and dating techniques. Recent additions to the syllabus include human ecology, cultural heritage management and economics.

The School is also actively involved in investigating the effects of environmental change and increasing cultural tourism on our unique heritage. The School’s offices and lecture rooms are located within the Department of Cultural Heritage buildings, which also contain various specialist laboratories and one of the best archaeological libraries south of Rome. The Department also manages the University’s archaeological museum (MUSA) and the archaeological park in Cavallino (Lecce, Italy).

The Department, itself, is close to the centre of Lecce, whose Baroque old town is famous all over the world. In fact, much of the School’s fieldwork, which gives our students valuable experience, is concentrated in and around Lecce. The school also organizes many international seminars and conferences at the headquarters located in the seventeenth-century convent of the Dominican friars in Cavallino. Since 2020, the School Director is Gianluca Tagliamonte.