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Module

HCA1008 : Global Ancient Histories

  • Offered for Year: 2020/21
  • Module Leader(s): Dr John Holton
  • Lecturer: Dr Micaela Langellotti, Dr Simon Corcoran, Dr Christina Mobley, Dr Philip Garrett, Dr Matthew Haysom
  • Owning School: History, Classics and Archaeology
  • Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters
Semester 1 Credit Value: 20
ECTS Credits: 10.0

Aims

This module aims to look beyond ancient Greece and Rome and investigate a range of global ancient histories, prior to c. 500 CE (though this will be a flexible boundary). This global focus is in concert with the School-wide aim of supplementing traditional focuses with new, inclusive ways of thinking about the world’s historical past. Drawing on wide interests and expertise across the School, this module aims to explore significant historical issues in global antiquity and their recurrent or connected place in a diversity of regions and cultures. Methodologically, this module is committed to investigating evidence from the widest possible range of sources and viewpoints, and to contextualising and interpreting that evidence through exposure to interdisciplinary approaches (including various theoretical models). Overall, this module aims to promote the development of a broader and enhanced perspective on ancient history and to provoke a reassessment of traditional boundaries in our knowledge and understanding of the world’s past.

Outline Of Syllabus

The module’s syllabus will cycle, dependent on available staff’s expertise and with a commitment to creating a coherent programme of learning. Typically, the syllabus will be divided along the lines of important issues, themes, or questions in world history, with treatments of geographically diverse histories included within the ambit of each but also across issues where possible. Emphasis will also be placed on comparison, and on drawing patterns of connection, throughout.

Central issues that may be covered include:
•       religion and beliefs
•       urbanism and cities
•       oral and written cultures
•       empires and royal states
•       inequality and status
•       historiography and conceptions of the past

Regions of the ancient world that may be covered include:
•       Anatolia
•       China
•       Central Asia
•       Egypt
•       Ethiopia
•       India
•       Japan
•       Mesoamerica
•       Mesopotamia
•       North America
•       Persia

Assessment support drop-ins are built into the syllabus to assist students with preparing the module’s two assessment components.

Teaching Methods

Module leaders are revising this content in light of the Covid 19 restrictions.
Revised and approved detail information will be available by 17 August.

Assessment Methods

Module leaders are revising this content in light of the Covid 19 restrictions.
Revised and approved detail information will be available by 17 August.

Reading Lists

Timetable