Ancient History units living up to it's namesake? (1 Viewer)

[rockatheart]

Hi to all,
I was wondering if anyone esle feels that the ancient history units focus heavily upon the philosophy and works of the classical periods. I don't feel like I'm not getting taught enough about historical events and people. Does it get better with time? I'm possibly considering to transfer to Macquarie for ancient history though I've been reading that their archaeology isn't quite up to standard in comparison to usyd, that is the only subject I enjoy and feel like it's living up to it namesake. I'm also considering a transfer due to the writing units offered at Mac, whereas at usyd it's very limited as only two units are really offered. I'm just wondering if anyone 2nd year or 3rd years would be able to comment on whether the units focus less on philosophy and the works and more so on the happenings of the historical period?

 

[izzy88]

Sorry it took me so long to see this post! I majored in Ancient History at usyd, and completed my Honours in ancient history last year.

I guess the first question is whether you are interested in Ancient History or Archaeology? I can only give my experience of the ancient history at usyd - I only did intro to archaeology in first year and then decided that ancient history (rather than archaeology) was what I wanted to focus on.

So my first point on Ancient History at usyd is that it is all classical period - greek and rome. There is no egypt etc and there hasn't been for many, many years - there's also no talk at this time of bringing it back. In this case, USYD is good for the classical languages and classical history - it focuses on it, but if you want a broader ancient history learning experience, then Macquarie uni's ancient history program covers significantly more ancient civilisations and languages (eg. heiroglyphics, sanscript etc).

I very much enjoyed my ancient history - although I think looking back on it, I did in the end learn a lot about only a couple of historical periods - eg. about 4 subjects on Republican Rome and Rome under Augustus. There wasn't that much variety on offer. Saying that, I believe they have been broadening the program (ie. a subject on imperial rome etc). I wasn't that much into the Greece, but I did a lot of the subjects in the end.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean about the philosophy in contrast to the events and the people. I think one aspect of ancient history as taught at university is that there is less of the memorising facts/dates etc and more looking behind the mere occurrence of such events and looking at the politics, the society as a whole, the underlying factors etc, theories etc. I think it is the same for history - and in the end I believe that is what makes it more academic as a whole. Its the analysis of events or literary works and what that tells you about the society that is focused on - not memorising facts or dates - and I may be wrong here, but I'm pretty sure that is what most universities focus on.

On a good note for usyd - the ancient history lecturers at usyd are all very good in their field - a lot have come from oxford etc/well recognised and are excellent lecturers (well I enjoyed my ancient history lectures anyway).

I've done quite a few of the ancient history subjects over time, so if you want I could probably find some of the outlines for any of them for you to look at if you want to see what some subjects are like (although, depending on lecturer etc they may have changed since I did them)

Foundations for Ancient History: Greece (first year)
Power and Persuasion in Rome (first year)
Rome: Making a World City,
SPQR: The Senate and people of Rome.
Ancient Historians Rethink History (with Julia Kindt)
Ancient Greek Democracies
Ancient Imperialism
Research Issues in Roman History
Greek and Roman Literature - Epic​

Hope that helps

 

[Scorch]

Paul Roche is amazing in every conceivable way, and you should take every course that he teaches and every one that he so much as guest lectures in.

Just sayin'.