BA Ancient History
About this course
Ancient history is the study of the civilisations of Greece and Rome, the cultures they came into contact with across the Mediterranean and Near East, and the long afterlife of their ideas, institutions and texts in the societies that followed them. It is a discipline that demands linguistic skill, analytical rigour and genuine historical imagination: the ability to reconstruct past societies from fragmentary evidence and to ask why they worked as they did, what they valued, how power was organised, and what eventually changed. The ancient world is not simply a curiosity for specialists; it has shaped Western law, politics, philosophy, literature and religion in ways that remain visible today. At the University of Exeter, this three-year full-time degree gives you the intellectual tools to study the ancient world seriously: close reading of ancient texts in translation, engagement with archaeological evidence, critical analysis of scholarly debates and the development of your own historical arguments. You will engage with political history, social and cultural history, religion, gender, economy and the historiography of the discipline itself. The programme includes a sandwich year with work placement opportunities and a year abroad, giving you both professional experience in a relevant field and the chance to study at a partner institution in a different country, bringing a broader perspective to your understanding of the ancient world and its modern legacies. Typical entry is around 152 UCAS tariff points. Graduates from ancient history programmes go on to careers in education, museums and heritage, law, the civil service, publishing, journalism, arts administration and public affairs. The skills developed, careful analysis of complex evidence, precise argument, the ability to write clearly and persuasively, transfer well across almost any professional context. Many graduates also pursue postgraduate study in ancient history, classical archaeology, museum studies or related disciplines.
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