Introduction to Ancient History
Code: 100334 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2500501 History | FB | 1 |
Contact
- Name:
- Jordi Cortadella Morral
- Email:
- jordi.cortadella@uab.cat
Teachers
- Jordi Cortadella Morral
- Isaias Arrayas Morales
- Joan Oller Guzman
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
Prerequisites
When dealing with a first-year subject, there is no particular requirement.
Objectives and Contextualisation
This subject will analyze the main political and social processes, and the cultural events of the civilizations of the Middle East and Europe during antiquity. It will be explained how political powers were generated and became effective from its origin, in the Middle East, to the crystallization of the city-state model (8th century BC) and the emergence of the ancient Empires, in Roman special, that achieved the political union of the Mediterranean.
Competences
- Contextualizing the historical processes and analysing them from a critical perspective.
- Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
- Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
- Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
- Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
Learning Outcomes
- Communicating in your mother tongue or other language both in oral and written form by using specific terminology and techniques of Historiography.
- Critically analysing the past, the nature of the historical speech and the social function of historical science.
- Developing the ability of historical analysis and synthesis.
- Engaging in debates about historical facts respecting the other participants' opinions.
- Identifying the context of the historical processes.
- Identifying the main and secondary ideas and expressing them with linguistic correctness.
- Identifying the specific methods of history and their relationship with the analysis of particular facts.
- Interpreting the plurality and heterogeneity of the cultural development of Humanity.
- Organising and planning the search of historical information.
- Solving problems autonomously.
- Using the characteristic computing resources of the field of History.
- Working in teams respecting the other's points of view.
Content
1: Presentation of the subject. Ancient History.
2: Middle East (IV-III millennium BC).
- The Fertile Crescent. The urban revolution in Mesopotamia.
- The Genesis of the State in Mesopotamia and Egypt. From the temple to the palace.
3: Middle East (II-I millennium BC).
- The empires of the Mesopotamian periphery and Egyptian expansionism.
- The universal empires: Assyrians, Neo-Babylonian and Persians.
4: Protohistoric Greece.
- The Minoan and Mycenaean world.
- The Greek Dark Ages and the Homeric society. The formation of the "polis" and archaic colonization.
5: Archaic Greece.
- Sparta and Athens.
6: Classical Greece.
- The Greco-Persian Wars.
- Athenian imperialism. The Peloponnesian War.
7: Helenism.
- Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic kingdoms.
8: Roman monarchy.
- Origins of the city.
- The reforms of Servius Tullius.
9: The Roman Republic.
- Patricians versus Plebeians
- The Roman conquest: Rome in Italy and in the Mediterranean.
10: The crisis of the Republic.
- From Grac to civil wars.
11: The Early Roman Empire. The Principate.
- From August to the Severs.
12: The Late Roman Empire. The dominate.
- Crisis of the third century AD. Reforms and fall.
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Type: Directed | 50 | 2 | 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Type: Supervised | 15 | 0.6 | 3, 9, 10, 12 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Type: Autonomous | 75 | 3 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 |
- Assistance to lectures led by the teacher.
- Comprehensive reading of texts and interpretation of archaeological maps, graphs, tables and documents.
- Perform analyzes, reviews and reviews.
- Personal study
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Assessment
Continous Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exams | 40 % | 3 | 0.12 | 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 |
| Test questions | 15% | 2 | 0.08 | 1, 4 |
| Written works. Comments on texts and maps | 45% | 5 | 0.2 | 9, 11, 12 |
The evaluation will be done from three notes:
- CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT (45%): Practical activities will be proposed on primary sources, of which a brief written comment must be submitted.
- TEST (15%): Three multiple choice (30 questions each about the Middle East-Egypt, Greece and Rome), distributed throughout the course (5% each test)
- EXAM (40%): It will be carried out during class time and will consist of developing three topic-questions, to choose from six options.
Students will obtain a Not assessed/Not submitted course grade unless they have submitted more than 1/3 of the assessment items.
On carrying out each evaluation activity, lecturers will inform students (on Moodle) of the procedures to be followed for reviewing all grades awarded, and the date on which such a review will take place.
In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.
In the event that the evaluation activities cannot be done in person, their format will be adapted (maintaining their weighting) to the possibilities offered by the UAB’s virtual tools. Homework, activities and class participation will be done through forums, wikis and / or exercise discussions through Teams, ensuring that all students can access them.
The possibility of taking a "Single Assesment" is offered. This option assumes a single evaluation date, but not a single evaluation activity. Therefore, the "Single Assesment" will be done from two notes, like the Continuous Evaluation:
- PRACTICES (50%): Two practical activities (comments from primary sources) will be proposed for which a brief written commentary must be submitted. The student must deliver these activities, equivalent to those of the Continuous Evaluation, on the established evaluation date.
- EXAM (50%): It will be done on the established date and will consist of: a) Test 30 short questions; b) Exam of three themes to develop, to choose between six options.
Single Evaluation exercises may coincide with dates reserved for Continuous Evaluation.
The same assessment method as continuous assessment will be used.
On carrying out each evaluation activity, lecturers will inform students (on Moodle) of the procedures to be followed for reviewing all grades awarded, and the date on which such a review will take place.
Bibliography
BRAVO, G. (2008), Història del mundo antiguo. Una introducción crítica, Alianza, Madrid.
BRODRICK, M., MORTON, A.A. (2001), Diccionario básico de la Arqueología Egipcia, Ediciones Obelisco, Barcelona.
CHRISTOL, M., NONY, D. (1992), De los orígenes de Roma a las invasiones bárbaras, Akal, Madrid.
CORNELL, T.J. (1999), Los orígenes de Roma. C, 1000-264 a.C., Crítica, Barcelona.
CRAWFORD, M. (1981), La República romana, Taurus, Madrid.
DE LA VILLA, J. (ed.) (2004), Mujeres de la Antigüedad, Alianza, Madrid.
DOMINGUEZ MONEDERO, A., PLÁCIDO, D., GÓMEZ ESPELOSÍN, F.J., GASCÓ, F. (1999), Historia del mundo clásico a través de sus textos. 1- Grecia, Alianza, Madrid.
FORNIS, C. (2016), Esparta. La historia, el cosmos y la leyenda de los antiguos espartanos, Editorial Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla.
GARCIA MORENO, L., GASCÓ, F., ALVAR, J., LOMAS, F.J. (1999), Historia del mundo clásico a través de sus textos. 2- Roma, Alianza, Madrid.
GARNSEY, P., SALLER, R. (1991), El Imperio romano. Economía, sociedad y cultura, Crítica, Barcelona.
GIARDINA, A. (ed.) (1991), El hombre romano, Alianza Editorial, Madrid.
KINDER, H.; HILGEMANN, W. (2007), Atlas Histórico Mundial: de los orígenes hasta nuestros días, Akal, Madrid.
LIVERANI, M. (2012), El Antiguo Oriente. Historia, sociedad y economía, Crítica, Barcelona.
LÓPEZ BARJA, P., F.J. LOMAS, (2004), Historia de Roma, Akal, Madrid.
MOSSÉ, C. (1987), Historia de una democracia: Atenas, Akal, Madrid.
PÉREZLARGACHA, A. (2006), Historia antigua de Egipto y del Próximo Oriente, Akal, Madrid.
PLÁCIDO, D. (1997), La sociedad ateniense. La evolución social en Atenas durante la guerra del Peloponeso, Crítica, Barcelona.
PINA POLO, F. (1999), La crisis de la República (133-44 aC), Síntesis, Madrid.
SANMARTÍN, J., SERRANO, J.M. (2003), Historia antigua del Próximo Oriente: Mesopotamia y Egipto, Akal, Madrid.
SHIPLEY, G. (2001), El Mundo griego después de Alejandro : 323-30 a.C., Crítica, Barcelona.
VEYNE, P. (2009), El imperio grecorromano, Akal, Madrid.
(*) To cite bibliography, see: "Com citar i elaborar la bibliografia: https://www.uab.cat/web/estudia-iinvestiga/com-citar-i-elaborar-la-bibliografia-1345708785665.html".
Software
Virtual campus (Moodle).
Language list
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (PAUL) Classroom practices | 1 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (PAUL) Classroom practices | 2 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (PAUL) Classroom practices | 3 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (TE) Theory | 1 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (TE) Theory | 2 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (TE) Theory | 3 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |