This version of the course guide is provisional until the period for editing the new course guides ends.

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History of the Mediterranean in the Ancient World

Code: 100389 ECTS Credits: 6
2025/2026
Degree Type Year
History OT 4

Contact

Name:
Jordi Cortadella Morral
Email:
jordi.cortadella@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

Basic knowledge (introductory) in Ancient History of the Near East, Greece and Rome


Objectives and Contextualisation

The aim of the subject is to analyze the main social and political structures of Mediterranean civilizations during Antiquity. First, we will focus on the context of the Eastern Mediterranean of the 3rd-2nd millenniums BC, and on the impact of this area on the peripheral Mediterranean areas, affected by the phenomena of exchange, colonizers, migrations and conquests. Secondly, we will focus on those phenomena and events that led to Mediterranean unity, both culturally and politically. It will also be important to delve deeper into the institutional aspect and everyday life issues. In order to achieve our objectives, it will be important to become familiar with the available primary sources (textual and archaeological), which will need to be related to historical interpretations.


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 applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  • 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 be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • 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

  1. Applying both knowledge and capacity for analysis to the resolution of problems related to the field of study.
  2. Autonomously searching, selecting and processing information both from structured sources (databases, bibliographies, specialized magazines) and from across the network. Expertly making use of the possibilities of Internet.
  3. Carrying out oral presentations using an appropriate academic vocabulary and style.
  4. Effectively communicating and applying the argumentative and textual processes to formal and scientific texts.
  5. Identifying the context of the historical processes.
  6. Identifying the main and secondary ideas and expressing them with linguistic correctness.
  7. Identifying the specific methods of history and their relationship with the analysis of particular facts.
  8. Interpreting material and documentary sources.
  9. Mastering and identifying one's own national history.
  10. Mastering the general diachronic structure of the past.
  11. Mastering the relevant languages to the necessary degree in the professional practice.
  12. Mastering the Universal Ancient History.
  13. Recognising the importance of controlling the quality of the work results and their presentation.
  14. Using specialized knowledge acquired in an interdisciplinary context when debating.
  15. Using suitable terminology when drawing up an academic text.
  16. Using the specific technical and interpretational vocabulary of the discipline.

Content

Part One. The Early Mediterranean (22000 - 1000 BC)
1. Isolated in Isolation (22000 - 3000 BC)
2. Copper and Bronze (3000 - 1500 BC)
3. Merchants and Heroes (1500 - 1250 BC)
4. Sea Peoples and Land Peoples (1250 - 1100 BC)


Part Two. The Second Mediterranean (1000 BC -600 AD)
1. Purple Merchants (1000 - 700 BC)
2. The Heirs of Ulysses (800 - 550 BC)
3. The Triumph of the Tyrrhenians (800 - 400 BC)
4. Towards the Garden of the Hesperides (1000 - 400 BC)
5. Thalassocracies (550 - 400 BC)
6. The Lighthouse of the Mediterranean (350 BC -100 AD)
7. «it seems good to me that Carthage does not exist» Plu. Cat. Ma. 27, 2 (400 BC - 146 AD)
8. «our sea» (146 BC - 150 AD)
9. Old and new faiths (1 – 450)
10. Disintegration (400 – 600)


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
clases teóricas 35 1.4
Practices and seminars 10 0.4 1, 4, 3, 7, 6, 8
Type: Supervised      
Preparation of practical activities 15 0.6 1, 2, 12, 10, 4, 3, 15, 5, 7, 6, 8, 13, 16
Tutorials 10 0.4 2, 13
Type: Autonomous      
Preparation of activities and written tests 45 1.8 1, 2, 4, 15, 5, 7, 6, 8, 13, 16
Reading bibliography 30 1.2 2, 5, 7, 6, 8, 16

- Attendance at theoretical classes led by the teacher.
- Comprehensive reading of texts and interpretation of maps, graphs, tables and archaeological documents.
- Realization of reviews, works and analytical comments.
- Personal study.
Note: 15 minutes of a class will be set aside, within the calendar established by the center/degree, for students to fill in the teacher performance and subject evaluation surveys /module.

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
Test 40 1.5 0.06 14, 11, 9, 12, 10, 4, 5, 7, 16
Work placement 60 3.5 0.14 1, 2, 12, 10, 4, 3, 15, 5, 7, 6, 8, 13, 16

The evaluation of the subject will be based on 3 grades:

1.- CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT-A (20% of the final mark): An individual practical activity related to the analysis of primary sources. Practices are mandatory, necessary to take the exam.

2.- CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT-B (40% of the final grade): An grupal practical activity related to the analysis of specialized bibliography. Practices are mandatory, necessary to take the exam.

3.- EXAM (40% of the final grade): It will be done during class time and will consist of 2 activities: a) the development of a theme, to choose from several options; b) the comment of a literary document or archaeological

To have the right to re-evaluate a suspended activity, you must have taken all the tests (examination and practical activities) and passed at least one.

This subject offers the possibility of taking a "Single Assessment". 

To participate in the recovery, the students must have previously been evaluated in a set of activities whose weight is equivalent to a minimum of 2/3 parts of the total qualification (CONTINUOUS EVALUATION) or deliver all the tests provided (SINGLE EVALUATION).

The maximum grade that a student can obtain in recovery is 5.

In the event that the student commits any type of irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade of an evaluation act, this will be graded with 0, regardless of the disciplinary process that may result from it. In the event that several irregularities are verified in the evaluation acts of the same subject, the final grade for this subject will be 0.

In this subject, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies is allowed as an integral part of the development of the work, as long as the final result reflects a significant contribution of the student in the analysis and personal reflection. The student will have to: (i) identify which parts have been generated with AI; (ii) specify the tools used; and (iii) include a critical reflection on how these have influenced the process and the final result of the activity. The non-transparency of the use of AI in this evaluable activity will be considered a lack of academic honesty and result in the activity being evaluated with a 0 and not being able to recover, or greater sanctions in serious cases.


Bibliography

- ALBULAFIA, D., El gran mar. Una historia humana del Mediterráneo, Crítica, Madrid, 2019.

- AUBET, M.E., Tiro y las colonias fenicias de Occidente, Ed. Bellaterra, Barcelona 2009.

- BRAUDEL, F., Memorias del Mediterráneo: Prehistoria y Antigüedad, Ed Cátedra, Madrid, 1998.

- DICKINSON, O., El Egeo, de la Edad del Bronce a la Edad del Hierro, Ed. Bellaterra, Barcelona 2010.

- GRACIA, F., MUNILLA, G., Protohistoria: pueblos y culturas en el Mediterráneo entre los siglos XIV y II a.C., Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 2004.

- GRIMAL, P., La formación del Imperio romano, Siglo XXI, Madrid 1990.

- GÓMEZ ESPELOSÍN, F.J., Historia de Grecia Antigua, Akal Textos, Madrid 1995.

- GRAS, M., El Mediterráneo arcaico, Alderabán, Madrid, 1999.

- KARAGEORGHIS, V., Chipre, encrucijada del Mediterráneo Oriental 1600-500 a.C., Bellaterra, Barcelona 2004.

- LOPEZ BARJA, P., Historia de Roma, Akal Textos, Madrid 2004.

- REDFORD,D.B., Egypt, Canaan and Israel in Ancient Times, Princeton University Press, Princeton 1992.

- PLÁCIDO, D., ALVAR, J., GONZÁLEZ WAGNER, C., La formación de los estados en el Mediterráneo occidental, Síntesis, Madrid 1991.

- POTER, D.S. (ed.). A companion to the Roman Empire, Blackwell, Oxford, 2006.

- OSBORNE, R. La formación de Grecia, 1200 - 479 a.C., Crítica, Barcelona, 1998.


Software

Virtual Campus, projected in the classroom with a projector cannon.


Groups and Languages

Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(PAUL) Classroom practices 1 Catalan second semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 1 Catalan second semester morning-mixed