Module description
Ancient Western Asia in Focus enables students to study the history of peoples and polities between the Mediterranean and the Indus Valley in the mid-first millennium BCE. The two-semester span enables us to trace the political history of the vast territory first united under the emergent Achaemenid Persian empire, and later dismantled after the death of its invader, Alexander III of Macedon. The module examines how we approach the multilingual and material evidence for the Persian empire (Semester 1) and also how narratives of its conqueror, Alexander, developed in this cultural context (Semester 2).
Assessment details
1 x 3-hour examination (consisting of a mixture of timed essays and source analysis/commentary, for which formative exercise opportunities will be provided).
Educational aims & objectives
This module focuses on specific eras, peoples and regions of ancient Western Asia (also traditionally called the ancient Near East or Middle East); topics may include political, cultural and social developments in imperial polities of the first millennium BCE. Students will read and analyse ancient textual sources in translation, and discuss modern historiographical debates. Evidential focal points to be explored may include sites, languages, forms of government and/or systems of travel and communication.
Learning outcomes
On successful completion of this module, students will be able to demonstrate evidence-handling skills and historiographical discussion appropriate to a Level 6 module. In particular, they will show:
- knowledge and understanding of relevant primary and archaeological evidence pertaining to specific case studies of polities, peoples and/or ecosystems of ancient Western Asia and Eurasia.
- the ability to interpret critically textual and archaeological data pertaining to the selected case studies.
- knowledge and understanding of the historiography of specific eras and regions of ancient Western Asia, and its relationship with changing evidential approaches.
- the ability to engage critically with modern scholarship, identify different methodologies and apply them independently to relevant evidence.
- the ability to discuss their ideas and interpretations coherently with others.