You also undertake a basic course in computers and quantification. In all three years there are field trips to sites and monuments in Britain. Teaching in the first year is a combination of lectures, smaller classes and practical work. In the second and third years more emphasis is placed on small group seminar and class work. In the first year the courses are wide-ranging and introductory, becoming progressively more specialised and detailed in the second and third years, with greater student input.
Assessment is by examination, essays and practical work.
Assessed essays on the core and options in the second year, together with a major third-year project of your own choice and final examinations all contribute to your degree. The world of antiquity included the Athens depicted by Aristophanes and the Rome described by Cicero but it encompassed much more than classical Greece and Rome. The strength of the Birmingham programme in Ancient History is that it enables you to learn about a range of ancient civilisations over a broad period of time, from the Ancient Near East to the world of the Egyptians, from Bronze Age and classical Greece to Republican Rome and the later Roman empire. The programme focuses on social, political and economic developments throughout the ancient Mediterranean and Near East, and examines continuity and change between periods and societies. The degree is organised around a series of compulsory and optional modules designed to introduce you to the main areas of study and methods of interpretation, while allowing plenty of scope for you to specialise.