Classical Archaeology

Course detail Description

The Classical Archaeology BA course comprises of modules totalling 360 credits and will be studied over three years. You also have the opportunity to participate in a fully-funded trip associated with the classical archaeology modules, courtesy of the Rumble fund.

Your first year of study will consist of one required module that provides a rounded introduction to classical archaeology, and will develop your analytical skills and introduce you to advanced historical theory and methodology.

You will also cover a range of art historical and archaeological approaches, including chronological, site-based, thematic, museum-based and regional.

While focusing on art and archaeological modules, you can also select modules in literary studies and philosophy, and you can learn Latin or Greek at a level appropriate to your prior knowledge.

The second year of is made up of optional modules, allowing you the freedom to develop your study pathway to reflect your interests. You will study art and archaeology modules totalling 60 credits, plus further modules totalling 60 credits, of which 30 may come from another Department in the Faculty of Arts & Humanities or the Department of War Studies. You also have the opportunity to study abroad in the second semester of the second year or for the whole of your second year.

In your final year, you have the option to complete a 10,000-word dissertation on an approved subject of your choice with emphasis on self-directed research. The optional modules you will also study reflect the current research and expertise of staff in the department, providing you with the opportunity to study specialist subjects in-depth.

Teaching style

We use lectures, seminars and group tutorials to deliver most of the modules on the course. You will also be expected to undertake a significant amount of independent study. You will be assigned a personal tutor who will provide support and guidance for your studies.

Typically, one credit equates to 10 hours of work.

Assessment

Your performance will be assessed through a combination of coursework and written/practical examinations. Forms of assessment may typically include coursework essays, written examinations and individual or group presentations. In your first year, you will be assessed by an approximately even combination of coursework essays and written examinations. In your second and third years, depending on your choice of modules you may experience more modules assessed by coursework or more modules assessed by written exams or an even mixture of both.

Location

The majority of learning for this degree takes place at the King’s College London Strand Campus. Please note that locations are determined by where each module is taught and may vary depending on the optional modules you select.

Special notes

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Greek Play

The King’s Greek Play has been an annual tradition since 1953 and it is the only production in the country to be performed every year in the original Greek. Students (with all levels of Greek) participate in the direction, production and performance of the play, bringing to the stage playwrights from Aeschylus to Aristophanes.

Rumble Fund

In 2013 the Department of Classics created the Rumble Fund following a generous donation by a former student. This fund is used each year to pay for a group of students to visit classical lands as part of their degree programme.

Classics Society

Students run the Classics Society, which publishes the Satyrica newsletter and organizes regular lectures, theatre outings, themed parties, private tours around museums, nights out and trips abroad – in recent years, group expeditions have been made to Italy and Turkey.

Iris Project

The department also promotes teaching Latin in disadvantaged primary schools through the Iris Project; this offers students a highly unusual experience that is both enriching and will impress future employers.

Study abroad
You also have the opportunity to study abroad in the second semester of the second year or for the whole of the second year. Partner universities currently include:

• University of Auckland
• University of Melbourne
• University of Toronto (Full year only)
• University of California
• University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (Up to five places exclusively available for Classics students)
• University of Sydney

Find out more about studying abroad

Our students also have opportunities to attend the annual summer schools at the British Schools in Athens and Rome, and participate in archaeological excavations in Greece and Italy, as well as further afield.

Read more

Structure

• Year 1
• Year 2
• Year 3

Year 1

Courses are divided into modules. Each year you will normally take modules totalling 120 credits.

Required Modules

You are required to take the following module:

• Art & Archaeology of Greece & Rome (30 credits)

Optional Modules

You will choose 90 credits, which may include 30-credits of Greek or Latin language acquisition, from a wide range of optional modules, which may typically include modules such as:

• Introduction to Ancient History (c 1200 BC–AD 600) (30 credits)
• Introduction to Ancient Philosophy (30 credits)
• Greek & Latin Literature: An Introduction (30 credits)
• Greek Language 1 (30 credits)
• Latin Language 1 (30 credits)
• Introduction to Byzantium & Modern Greece: The Greek-Speaking World from 330 AD to Today (15 credits)
• Receptions of the Past: The Hellenic World from Antiquity to Today (15 credits)

With the approval of the course convenor, you may also choose to substitute one 15-credit modules for an appropriate 15-credit Level 4 (Year 1) module offered by the Faculty of Arts & Humanities and Global Institutes.

Year 2 Required Modules

There are no required modules in your second year.

Optional Modules

You are required to take 60 credits of Art & Archaeology modules, plus a further 60 credits, of which 30 may come from another department in the Faculty of Arts & Humanities or the Department of War Studies.

You are required to take sufficient credits to bring your total for the year to 120, from a range of optional modules which may typically include:

• Greek Language 1 (30 credits)
• Latin Language 1 (30 credits)
• Greek Language 3A (30 credits)
• Latin Language 3A (30 credits)
• Roman Britain (30 credits)
• Sex & the Symposium: The Evidence of Athenian Painted Pottery (15 credits)
• Roman Art 1: Art, Power & Authority (15 credits)
• Roman Art 2: Art in the Private Sphere (15 credits)
• Romans & Barbarians: Cities in the Roman Mediterranean (15 credits)
• Art & Power in the Age of Alexander (Hellenistic Art I) (15 credits)
• The Art of Acquisition: Conquest, Collection & the Rise of Rome (Hellenistic Art II) (15 credits)
• Grand Tour: Antiquities in London from the Enlightenment to the Present Day (15 credits)
• Bread & Circuses: Roman Entertainment & Spectacle (15 credits)
• Building Greece (15 credits)
• Early Greece from Troy to Marathon (15 credits)
• The World from Babylon: 911–ca550 BC (15 credits)
• Democracy, Empire & War: Greece 446–338 BC (15 credits)
• Ancient Sexuality I (15 credits)
• Mapping Society & the Past: Historians & Sophists (15 credits)

You also have the opportunity to study abroad in the second semester of the second year or for the whole of the second year. Partner universities currently include:

• University of Auckland
• University of Melbourne
• University of Toronto (full year only)
• University of California
• University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (up to five places exclusively available for Classics students)
• University of Sydney

Year 3 Required Modules

There are no required modules for this course in Year 3.

Optional Modules

You are required to take 60 credits of Art & Archaeology modules, plus a further 60 credits, of which 30 may come from another department in the Faculty of Arts & Humanities or the Department of War Studies.

You are required to take sufficient credits to bring your total for the year to 120, from a range of optional modules which may typically include:

• Dissertation (30 credits)
• Minoans & Mycenaeans (30 credits)
• Archaeology of the Western Roman Provinces (30 credits)
• Frontiers of the Roman Empire (30 credits)
• The Classical Art of the Body: Greek Sculpture & its Legacy (30 credits)
• Augustus: Power & Propaganda (30 credits)
• Pagans, Christians & Jews in the Roman Empire (30 credits)
• The Rise of Rome, c650–70 BC (30 credits)
• Streetwise: Narrating the City in Classical Literature (30 credits)
• Neronian Literature & Culture (30 credits)
• An Introduction to Classical Reception Studies in Sixteen Encounters (30 credits)
• Persian Kings & their Territory in the Achaemenid Empire (15 credits)
• Venice: History & Art (15 credits)
• Medieval Cyprus: Art & Architecture (15 credits)
• Origins of Nations & Nationalism: Identity in the Hellenic World (15 credits)
• Descent to the Underworld: Transformations of a Myth (15 credits)
• Romanticism & Revolution: Byron, the Shelley’s & Greece (15 credits)

King’s College London reviews the modules offered on a regular basis in order to provide up-to-date, innovative and relevant programmes of study.