Ancient History
Ancient History is the study of the civilisations and peoples of the ancient world, principally but not exclusively those of Greece and Rome, using the full range of surviving evidence, including written texts, inscriptions, coins, material culture, and architectural remains. It is a discipline that trains you to work with fragmentary and partial sources, to reconstruct past societies and events from incomplete records, and to think carefully about how we know what we claim to know about the distant past. The ancient world provides some of the earliest evidence for democracy, law, philosophy, warfare, economic organisation, and literary culture, and its legacies continue to shape Western societies in ways that historical understanding helps to clarify.
At King's College London, this three-year, full-time programme gives you the freedom to follow your interests across a broad syllabus spanning diverse periods, places, and cultures. You will engage with history across a vast geographical range, from Roman Britain and the Mediterranean heartlands to the Black Sea, Persia, and North Africa, examining periods of transformation, expansion, and collapse. Alongside history, you will have the opportunity to study ancient literature, art, archaeology, and philosophy, and to acquire ancient languages, giving you access to primary sources in their original form.
King's central London location and its strong classics and ancient history faculty provide an excellent environment for this kind of wide-ranging scholarly inquiry.
Graduates of Ancient History move into careers in heritage, museums, libraries, and archives, where skills in research, source analysis, and historical interpretation are directly valued. Many pursue careers in law, journalism, public policy, education, and publishing, where the analytical rigour and writing skills the degree develops are equally applicable. Teaching at secondary or higher education level is a common path, as is postgraduate study in ancient history, classics, archaeology, or related fields.
The discipline's training in evidence and argument transfers broadly across professional contexts.