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Course: 2024/2025

Prehistory and ancient history

(13791)

Bachelor in Humanities (Plan: 407 - Estudio: 213)

Coordinating teacher: ROMERO RECIO, MARIA MIRELLA

Department assigned to the subject: Humanities: History, Geography and Art Department

Type: Basic Core

ECTS Credits: 6.0 ECTS

Course: 1º

Semester: 1º

Branch of knowledge: Arts and Humanities

Requirements (Subjects that are assumed to be known)

It is necessary to have a good knowledge of Spanish in order to be able to follow and pass this subject.

Objectives

1. Knowledge of the long-term historical processes that affect the study of Prehistory and Early History. 2. Knowledge of economic, social, political and cultural processes in Antiquity with special emphasis on the most relevant aspects for the expert in Humanities. 3. Knowledge of the main historiographical trends concerning the Ancient World. 4. Knowledge of the interconnection between past and present. 5. Acquisition of basic understandings regarding the sources and the methodology of the subject. a. Archaeology as an instrumental source and its problems. Current trends for the analysis of cultures with and without writing. b. Writings in the Ancient World and the problems arising from the use of the written sources. 6. Acquisition of skills in locating and using the different sources of information in the field of the Classical Studies (ancient sources and secondary literature). 7. Acquisition of specific skills in developing the ability to analyze and synthesize historical problems, as well as to undertake book reviews and basic research. 8. Acquisition of skills related to research and information management.

Skills and learning outcomes

Link to document

Description of contents: programme

UNIT 1. PREHISTORY Item 1. Prehistory: UNIT 2. THE MIDDLE EAST AND EGYPT Item 2. The origin of the state in Mesopotamia and Egypt and its evolution until the end of the third millennium. Item 3. The second millennium in the Middle East and Egypt. Item 4. The first millennium in the Middle East and Egypt. UNIT 3. GREECE Item 5. The Greek world, from its origins to the Homeric times. Item 6. The origins of the polis. The Archaic period in Hellas. Item 7. Greece in the Classical times. Item 8. Greece in the fourth century and the conquests of Alexander the Great. Item 9. The Hellenistic world. UNIT. ROME Item 10. The origins of Rome and the early Republic. Item 11. The imperialist Republic until Julius Caesar. Item 12. Augustus. Item 13. The Early Empire. Item 14. The Late Antiquity.

Learning activities and methodology

Total hours of student work : 150 h. Number of hours : Basic teachings : 21 h ( 14 classroom sessions of 1.30 h ) . Following the course schedule, the keys for the study of each topic will be presented to the students in order to provide them with an understanding of the historical processes that they will have to address in their individual training. Practical teachings: Tasks ( text commentaries and images, reviews, questionnaires , work) : 21 h given in 14 h of face-to-face classes of 1:30 h each. Specialised tutorials (online): 16 h. Individual autonomous learning : 98 h . a ) Study of basic lessons : 50 h. b ) Study - development of practical works : 48 h. Assessment tests and / or exams: 10 h. Assessment test and / or written exams : 3 h.

Assessment System

% end-of-term-examination 50
% of continuous assessment (assigments, laboratory, practicals...) 50

Calendar of Continuous assessment

The evaluation system is based on the acquisition of the general and specific knowledge required in the subject, as well as the skills and abilities described.  Students will have to pass 85% of class attendance. 
The evaluation is composed of two parts:

1) A written test (50% of the final mark) to be taken during the ordinary call.
2) Evaluation of the practical work and the student's follow-up of the course (50% of the final grade):
     a) Completion of three compulsory practicals (two readings and examination of these readings; one oral presentation in class). 
     b) Reading of a book throughout the term and search for cultural manifestations related to these readings.
    
3) Elaboration of a voluntary course work. Individual or in groups (up to 4 people). at: blog, WordPress, Twitter, Instagram, videos. They must be supervised and carried out by the teacher.

Students who do not pass the subject will have an extraordinary call to pass it, which will consist of an exam, where the whole programme will be assessed, with a value of 100% of the total grade of the subject. The stipulations of the "Normativa reguladora de los procesos de evaluación continua en los estudios de grado, aprobada por el consejo de gobierno en su sesión de 31 de mayo".

Extraordinary call: regulations

Basic Bibliography

C. Gamble. Origins and revolutions. Human identity in earliest prehistory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2007
C.W. Shelmerdine (ed.), . The Cambridge Companion to the Aegean Bronze Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2007
G. Forsythe. A critical history of early Rome. From prehistory to the First Punic War. Berkeley, Los Angeles & London: University of California Press. 2005
G.D. Farney & G. Bardley (eds.). The peoples of ancient Italy. Boston & Berlin: De Gruyter. 2018
H.H. Scullard. From the Gracchi to Nero. London & New York: Routledge. 1959
H.I. Flower. Roman Republics. Princeton & Oxford: Princeton Univeristy Press. 2010
I. Shaw (ed.), . The Oxford history of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2000
J.G. Manning. The last Pharaohs. Egypt under the Ptolemies (305-30 BC). Princeton & Oxford: Princeton University Press. 2010
M. Dillon & L. Garland. Ancient Greece. Social and historical documents from Archaic times to the death of Alexander the Great, . London & New York: Routledge. 2010
M. Van De Mieroop. A history of the Ancient Near East (ca. 3000-323 BC). Malden, Oxford and Victoria: Blackwell. 2007
N. Rosenstein & R. Morstein-Marx (eds.), . A companion to the Roman Republic. Malden, Oxford & Victoria: Blackwell. 2006
O. Dickinson. The Aegean from Bronze Age to Iron Age. New York: Routledge. 2006
P. Green. Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age. A short history. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 2007
P. Heather. The fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians. London: Macmillan. 2005
R. Osborne. Classical Greece (500-323 BC), . Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2000
S. Bell & A.A. Carpino (eds.). A companion to the Etruscans. Malden, Oxford & ChichesterWiley Blackwell. 2016
S. Deger-Jalkotzy & I.S. Lemos (eds.). Ancient Greece. From the Mycenaean palaces to the Age of Homer. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 2006
S. Milisauskas (ed.). European prehistory. A survey. New York, Dordrecht, Heidelberg & London: Springer. 2011
S. Mitchell. A history of the later Roman Empire (AD 284-641). Malden, Oxford & Chichester: Wiley Blackwell. 2015
S. Mithen. The prehistory of the mind. A search for the origins of art, religion and science. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd, . 1996
T. Buckley. Aspects of Greek History (750-323 BC). A source-based approach. London & New York: Routledge. 2010
W. Eck. The age of Augustus. Malden, Oxford & Victoria: Blackwell Publishing. 2003

Additional Bibliography

A.B. Lloyd. A companion to ancient Egypt, . Malden, Oxford & Chichester: Blackwell. 2010
C. Gosden. Prehistory. A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, . 2003
C. Renfrew. The emergence of civilization. The Cyclades and the Aegean in the Third Millennium BC. Oxford & Philadelphia: Oxbow,. 1972
C. Scarre (ed.), . The human past. World prehistory and the development of human societies. London: Thames and Hudson, . 2013 (3rd ed.)
C. Steel. The end of the Roman Republic, 146 to 44 BC. Conquest and crisis, . Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 2013
C.W. Shelmerdine (ed.), . The Cambridge companion to the Aegean Bronze Age,. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, . 2010
D.L. Smail. On deep history and the brain,. Berkeley, Los Angeles & London: University of California Press. 2008
G.M. Cohen. The Hellenistic settlements in Syria, the Red Sea basin, and North Africa. Berkeley, Los Angeles & London: University of California Press. 2006
H. Mouritsen. Politics in the Roman Republic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2017
H.I. Flower (ed.), . The Cambridge companion to the Roman republic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2004
J.M. Kelder. The kingdom of Mycenae. A great kingdom in the Late Bronze Age Aegean. Bethesda: CDL Press. 2010
K. Kuiper. Ancient Egypt from Prehistory to the Islamic Conquest. NEW YORK. 2011
M. Chazan. World prehistory and archaeology. Pathways through time. Oxon & New York: Routledge. 2014 (3rd ed.)
M. Finkelberg. Greeks and Pre-Greeks. Aegean prehistory and Greek heroic tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, . 2006
M. Ronnick. Ancient Rome. An illustrated history. New York: Cavendish. 2011
P.J. Rhodes. A history of the Classical Greek World (478-323 BC). Malden, Oxford & Victoria: Blackwel. 2006
R. Castleden. Minoans. Life in Bronze Age Crete. London & New York: Routledge. 1990
R. Osborne. Greece in the making (1200-479 BC),. London & New York: Routledge. 2009 (2nd ed.)
T. Harris. Ancient Greece. An illustrated history. New York: Marshall Cavendish. 2011
T. Stevenson. Julius Caesar and the transformation of the Roman Republic. London & New York: Routledge. 2015
T.J. Cornell. The beginnings of Rome. Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c. 1000-264 BC). London & New York: Routledge. 1995

The course syllabus may change due academic events or other reasons.