Ancient History and Archaeology BA

Examine a piece of ancient evidence – such as an inscription, a piece of literature or an ancient artwork or artefact – and build key skills in source analysis and presentation.  

You will be given a case study to explore in groups. Your job is to analyse what it can tell us about ancient societies, before presenting and discussing your findings as well as writing an essay. This is designed to train you for the critical thinking and discussion needed in your final year research project.  

You will build skills in: 

• oral and written presentation  

• teamwork 

• critical thinking and creative analysis of ancient evidence 

• assessing the effectiveness of arguments and their basis in potentially incomplete evidence

Archaeological knowledge is built through analysing material remains. We then use theory to create research questions, building interpretations of those remains. Together, these two elements act as evidence for societies in the past and present.

In this module, you will focus on the relationship between concepts, interpretive approaches and analytical frameworks in the design and implementation of archaeological research projects.

We introduce the development of archaeological theory and interpretation. Special attention is given to the paradigms put forward over the last 30 years, and the resulting debates.

Topics include:

• uniformitarianism
• ethnography
• typology
• ‘New Archaeology’
• processualism and post-processualism
• economic archaeology
• neo-Marxist paradigms

You will develop your knowledge further through in-depth studies of key issues and themes. You will also explore archaeological research in a wide range of different areas and projects.

This module is worth 20 credits.

This module focuses on the history and development of the scholarship on ancient Greece and Rome and on specific theories, approaches and methods used by modern scholarship. The aim is to sharpen your engagement with and understanding of scholarship, and to give a deeper appreciation of the ways the ancient world has been appropriated. Studying the history of scholarship in its socio-political context will show you how the questions we ask depend on the situations we live in; it will also allow you to judge the merits and limitations of scholarly approaches and will develop your skills of research and analysis, as preparation for your third-year dissertation. As with the Extended Source Study, you will choose a work-sheet relating to an area of the ancient world which particularly interests you; the module is assessed by an oral presentation and a 4,500-5,000 word essay.

Content to be confirmed.

In 600, the Middle East was divided between two historic empires, Rome and Persia. By 700, however, this longstanding political order had been overthrown by the armies of the new Islamic caliphate. The Islamic conquests had profound and transformative consequences for Middle Eastern society (and beyond).

In this module, you will examine the remarkable speed and success of the conquests, and consider the conquerors’ approaches to managing their vast new territories. Following recent trends in historical research, it will also examine how the non-Muslim majority of the Middle East, including Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians, viewed their new rulers and adjusted to their new situation.

The module will reflect the diversity of the caliphate, drawing upon sources (in English translation) written in languages including Arabic, Greek, Syriac, Pahlavi, and Armenian, in genres ranging from scholarly Islamic histories to Christian and Jewish apocalyptic accounts.

You’ll also focus on the impressive material culture of the period, including monumental architecture such as the Dome of the Rock and the Umayyad Desert Palaces, as well as coinage and inscriptions. It will tackle big questions about cultural interaction, religious belief and belonging, conversion and community formation, and ask what had really changed between 600 and 800?

This module focuses on the history and development of the scholarship on ancient Greece and Rome and on specific theories, approaches and methods used by modern scholarship. The aim is to sharpen your engagement with and understanding of scholarship, and to give a deeper appreciation of the ways the ancient world has been appropriated. Studying the history of scholarship in its socio-political context will show you how the questions we ask depend on the situations we live in; it will also allow you to judge the merits and limitations of scholarly approaches and will develop your skills of research and analysis, as preparation for your third-year dissertation. As with the Extended Source Study, you will choose a work-sheet relating to an area of the ancient world which particularly interests you; the module is assessed by an oral presentation and a 4,500-5,000 word essay.

This module will examine what we can learn from human and non-human skeletons, and therefore the lives of people and animals who lived in the past. The module will involve handling real archaeological human and non-human skeletons, learning how to identify their age, sex, stature, pathologies and taphonomy. We will also examine the demography of 19th century Nottingham on a fieldtrip to one of the city’s largest cemeteries. 

From the Bronze age to the emergence of the Classical world, this module will provide you with an overview of the archaeology of the Mediterranean basin. You’ll examine the differing trajectories of different parts of the prehistoric Mediterranean and will be introduced to key subject areas including Mycenaean Greece, Minoan Crete and prehistoric Italy including the Etruscans and other contemporary Iron Age peoples. Throughout the module, you will gain an understanding of the highly specific regional histories of different parts of the Mediterranean and develop the knowledge of the societies that underpinned the emergence of the Greco-Roman world.

Explore archaeological evidence from a time of significant social, political, economic and climate change, which laid the foundations of the modern world. 

We'll focus on the development of European societies around the Mediterranean, Africa and across Eurasia in the medieval period. You will study the:

• Transformation of European and Mediterranean landscapes and settlement patterns, from the Fall of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance
• Towns of western Europe, Byzantium and the Islamic world
• Impact of climate change, epidemic disease and population growth
• Rise of kingdoms, states and empires
• Development of nearly global trade networks in Europe, Africa and Asia, resulting in permanent European settlement in the Americas

Your lectures and seminars consider interdisciplinary approaches to these topics. They will also consider what they can tell us about social and economic change, ideologies and social identities over 1000 years of human history.

The teaching on climate, societal and economic change, is driven from the module tutor's European ice-core research, which gained national media coverage. You can also benefit from hands-on learning, using the Medieval European collections at our on-site Archaeology Museum.

This module is worth 20 credits.

Take a case-study based approach to archaeology and apply professional techniques to a subject of your choice.

In the first half of the module, you will attend lectures looking at typological, statistical and other approaches to subject areas such as cemetery analysis, approaches to buildings, study of Roman coins, or faunal remains.  

You will then choose an area and topic to explore for the remainder of the module. In small groups, you will complete a detailed study of a site or assemblage of material. 

You will:

• Complete detailed analysis of a site or body of material

• Locate and critically analyse a diverse array of primary and secondary sources

• Evaluate and bring together theories, techniques and methodologies 

• Develop research questions, assess their originality, and design a course of investigation.

Your chosen topic could also be an ideal stepping-stone to develop ideas for the final year research project.

What did daily domestic life look like in the ancient world? In this module, you’ll examine domestic life in classical antiquity in an interdisciplinary way embracing archaeological, historical and literary perspectives. Topics may include: 

·         gender roles within the home 

·         developments in domestic architecture and furnishings 

·         the wider household including master-slave and patron-client relationships 

·         ancient parties and dining practices 

·         literary representations of ideal or dysfunctional families 

·         the incorporation of religious cults within the domestic space 

Objects act as windows into what life was like in the ancient world. Each object has its own story of design and making, use, repair and repurposing, display or destruction. They are entwined with the lives of people as they become entangled in individual and social identities and relationships.

In this module you will critically assess interdisciplinary perspectives on ancient material culture from ancient history, art history and archaeology. You’ll explore modern historiography such as the concepts of object biography and materiality, as well as the later reception and reinterpretation of ancient objects in more recent centuries. By examining individual objects as in-depth case studies, you’ll consider how they inform us about life in the ancient Mediterranean world, covering themes including:

• mythology and religion

• monumentality

• memory and topography

• conflict and diplomacy

• the body and the senses

• economy and technology

• trade and colonisation 

From Archaic Greece through to late Antiquity, explore how law is understood and formulated, the impact of law on society, and how society in turn influences the creation of law. Through different period-based case-studies in the Greco-Roman world, you’ll examine these questions and relate them to diverse topics such as: 

• constitutional change 

• the institution of slavery 

• the status and role of women and the family  

• economic life 

• religion 

You’ll consider how to adopt a perspective sensitive to the state of the evidence, developments over time, and the variety of methodological approach available (for example differences between how historians and modern lawyers might read ancient legal texts). 

Public performance of various kinds was an important aspect of the life of communities in the ancient Mediterranean world. In this module, you’ll explore a range of sources that illustrate how ancient people created public representations of themselves and others, and what this tells is about ancient cultures. Topics may include: 

• symposia 

• drama and mime 

• rhetoric  

• public displays of wealth and status 

• or athletic and gladiatorial spectacles 

You’ll learn to combine approaches drawn from various sub-disciplines, including the study of literature, history and visual culture from different time-periods. 

What was the role of personal faith in ancient religious belief? How do we characterise the nuanced differences between religious and magical practices in ancient civilisations? In this module, you’ll bring together archaeology, history, and literature to examine religious beliefs and practices in classical antiquity, alongside other beliefs in the supernatural. Topics may include: 

·         religious rituals and festivals 

·         hymns and prayers 

·         votives, temples and other material offerings 

·         religious motivations for major historical events 

·         encounters with neighbouring religious systems including the rise of Christianity 

·         dreams 

·         amulets 

·         ghosts, witches and vampires 

You can choose to study either Latin or Classical Greek if you’d like to. The level you study at will depend on your existing knowledge and experience.

Beginners level

For complete beginners and anyone who has done some study of Latin or Classical Greek before (anything up to GCSE).

You’ll be introduced to the grammar and vocabulary of your chosen language - and you’ll be supported to analyse and understand basic sentences and to translate short passages.

You may find it reassuring that, unlike modern language study, there is no speaking and listening element. The main focus is on developing your reading skills so you can read almost unadapted passages from Latin or Classical Greek texts.

Intermediate level

For students who already have an A level in their chosen language - or who have successfully completed their introduction to the language in our Beginners’ level modules.

You will consolidate your knowledge of the vocabulary and grammar of your chosen language. You’ll also begin the detailed linguistic and literary study of unadapted Latin or Greek texts, developing your ability and confidence to read, appreciate and analyse texts in an ancient language.

• In Latin, you will typically read a text such as Cicero’s Pro Archia or a book of Virgil or Ovid.
• In Greek, the text might be a speech by Lysias or selections from a longer work such as Homer's Odyssey or a Greek tragedy. 

Advanced level

For students who have successfully completed our Intermediate level modules for the relevant language.

You will study prose and verse texts in your chosen language, building on the skills you have already learned. You’ll undertake in-depth study of either a single text or a group of texts representative of an author, genre, period or theme, combining literary and linguistic discussion with consideration of the historical and social background.  

The texts covered change each year. In Latin, recent modules have focused on the following topics: 

• Flavian personal poetry (Martial and Statius) 
• The emperor Claudius (Suetonius and Tacitus) 
• The Cupid and Psyche story from Apuleius’ novel Metamorphoses 
• Ethnicity and Empire in Latin Epic (Virgil and Silius Italicus) 
• The Power of Love (Ovid and Propertius) 

In Greek, recent topics have included: 

• Tragedy (Euripides’ Antigone) 
• Selections from Homer’s Iliad 
• Longus’ novel Daphnis and Chloe 
• Plutarch’s Life of Antony 
• Paradoxography (a range of texts exploring the weird and marvellous)

This module is based around a challenge: how do we use the digital humanities?

You are presented with a series of problems about how we can use the arts and humanities to address some of the major issues we face in technology and society.

For example, the acceleration of technology in both private and public life is immense, but this rapid pace of change should not prevent reflection.

In this module, you consider the major contemporary issues of how technology shapes our present and our future. We respond to these concerns using the specific skillset of the arts and humanities, where we ask: what does it mean to be human?

This module is worth 10 credits.

Stand out in your job search with employability skills and hands-on experience.

Learn key skills, from constructing an outstanding CV to practicing interview technique, before completing a part-time placement in the spring. This will be for one day a week, or equivalent, for up to eight weeks.

You can apply for placements in relevant local organisations. The dedicated faculty placement team have an established list of providers, or you can arrange your own placement, subject to approval.

Our placements include a range of sectors, including:

• creative and cultural industries
• media
• marketing
• heritage and museums
• the music industry
• education
• charitable and third-sector organisations

These are subject to change each year.

You will develop a wide range of transferable skills, including:

• communication
• presentation
• organisation
• professionalism
• time management skills

Assessment is through an online portfolio of materials, including application materials, reflective writing and a research report.

This module is worth 20 credits.

Community engagement is important in many careers, from politics and social work to marketing and business.

We do not work in a vacuum - our research and activities are linked to individuals and groups across society. By learning to engage with communities, researchers can reach wide audiences, learn from them and collaboratively make a real contribution to overcoming social problems. 

We need to understand how engagement works in order to work collaboratively, respectfully and sustainability with communities.

In this module, we will:

• Explore how our staff and students work with communities – from supporting immigrant communities settling into Nottingham, to engaging with schools to promote literacy and career opportunities
• Discuss how activism and advocacy can become part of academic work
• Explore how community engagement is structured and organised and how we can ensure our work within the arts and humanities has relevance and impact for diverse audiences

This module will prepare you for your future career, by focusing on the key skill of the arts and humanities: our ability to support and engage with those around us.

This module is worth 10 credits.

Explore the histories and legacies of colonisation, alongside the routes to justice through decolonisation.

Using examples from across the globe, we explore the impact of colonisation on society, politics, economics, and culture.

You will consider contemporary examples and a wide range of evidence, sources and perspectives, including from:

• art
• film
• literature
• archive materials and documents
• music and performance

You will also explore the debates around reconciliation, restitution and justice.

Together we will build an interdisciplinary analysis, drawing upon the research of the whole faculty to uncover, assess and deconstruct the practices of colonialism and their implications for our contemporary world.  

This module is worth 10 credits.

Doing an arts and humanities degree means you’ll gain the skills which are essential for changing the world we live in. Not only that, you are uniquely positioned to understand people, processes and culture.

This module lets you apply that knowledge to solve a real-life problem. The aim is for you to develop your understanding of your degree, and the range of careers open to you.

You will work in an interdisciplinary team on a real project connected to impact, which we define as our ability to ‘make change happen’. These projects have been designed by individuals, groups and organisations that are looking to make a difference to our world. This might be about sustainability, business, equality, culture, politics or society.

Teams will be given a project brief. You will then be guided through how to shape a project, and how to work as a team and deliver results. This will give you the employment skills and experience to show how you can make an impact as an arts and humanities graduate.

This module is worth 20 credits.

Wellbeing, the crisis in mental health care, and clapping for NHS staff during the Covid pandemic are all examples of health humanities. On this module, you will be exploring contemporary challenges in this area.

To build a healthier society, enabling access to healthcare for all, we must consider how people act, behave and build connections.

You will look at:

• how the arts and humanities respond to major issues in health, medicine and wellbeing – i.e. exploring how individuals use art, literature and culture to understand pain and loss, or analysing human behaviour with regard to new medicines and our relationship to health sciences
• topics such as cultural representations of health, places of medical treatment, or the relationship between medicine and emotions

The major challenges in health provision and healthcare can be influenced and directed by the arts and humanities. This module shows you how this field can be a powerful tool for change.

This module is worth 10 credits.

Discover how our world is experienced through language.

We live in a global society, where different languages build our perceptions, ideas and values. In this module, we respect that difference and participate in it.

You will:

• Use multilingualism as a tool to challenge our own thinking and to comprehend the lives of others in society
• Work through etymologies and translations from a wide range of languages, including Russian, Spanish, French and German
• Learn how understanding languages - not just speaking and reading them - can be vital in contributing to our community, enriching your experience, and participating in a global society

No knowledge of any language is needed, as we focus on understanding what it means to live in our multi-lingual world.

This module is worth 10 credits.

Explore how Nottingham creates ideas, identities, culture and products, alongside how you as a student are also ‘Made in Nottingham’.

This module will help you begin shaping your skills for the career you want, drawing upon the way arts and humanities work has transformed the city.

From the entrepreneurs who have set up businesses or those who have created and enriched charities and social projects, to the writers, artists, musicians and teachers who have all been created in Nottingham. We use their experience, their understanding and their skills to help you define your own path for after university.

You will be able to build your profile through this module, develop your own career narrative to use in your future work as well as engage in the variety of opportunities that are open to you as an arts graduate.

Through this module, we’ll address what it means to be ‘Made in Nottingham’.

This module is worth 10 credits.