Cultures in Contact: A Diverse Ancient World

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Explain your own views on debates about cultural encounters within the Ancient World
• Analyse critically a diverse range of primary and scholarly material
• Explain the significance of cultural encounters for the history of the Ancient World, and for understanding relations between and within ancient societies
• Interpret critically a variety of primary sources from the Ancient World
• Evaluate critically the theoretical and methodological approaches used by scholars working on the Ancient World

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• The representation of the ‘other’ in sources from the Ancient World
• The complexity of relationships between and within ancient societies or groups
• Key primary sources that provide evidence for relations between ancient societies
• Key events and environments in the history of the Ancient World
• The latest research on the subjects of cultural encounters in the Ancient World

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Display effective time management
• Work independently and unsupervised on complex tasks
• Organise and structure material to write and present confidently
• Communicate a coherent and convincing argument in written formats

The module will likely focus on one of the following topics and time periods:

• Greeks and others in the Classical and Hellenistic periods (e.g., Persia, Egypt, Macedon, Rome);
• Contact, conflict, response and exchange: Jews and/or Christians and/or Muslims in the context of the Roman world;
• Contact and assimilation in Rome’s western provinces;
• Christians and Pagans in the Late Roman Empire.

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods focus on weekly seminars analysing key events, chronology and concepts, including examination and discussion of primary and scholarly source material and the key issues of debate they raise.

Learning activities include:

• Preparatory reading before each seminar
• Participation in group and seminar discussion
• Independent reading of the sources provided and of related scholarly works
• Preparing and delivering short oral presentations on primary sources
• Independent research of additional information and source materials

Seminars will provide you with general knowledge and understanding about chronology, sources and key concepts. This will be consolidated through readings and seminar discussions of primary and scholarly source material. Discussion in seminars will help you to develop your own ideas about a topic, to analyse a range of source material and to articulate a critical argument.

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

Berkey, Jonathan (2003). The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600-1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Schwartz, Seth (2014). The Ancient Jews from Alexander to Muhammad.

Rutherford, Ian, ed. (2016). Greco-Egyptian Interactions: Literature, Translation, and Culture, 500 BCE – 300 CE.

Roisman, Joseph and Ian Worthington, eds (2010). A Companion to Ancient Macedonia.

Esler, Philip, ed., (2000). The Early Christian World. London: Routledge.

Watts, Edward J. (2015). The Final Pagan Generation.

Gruen, Erich S.. Rethinking the Other in Antiquity.

Miller, Margaret C.. Athens and Persia in the Fifth Century B.C.: A Study in Cultural Receptivity.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External