Ancient Mediterranean Civilisations

The ancient Mediterranean world was the crucible in which many of the institutions, ideas, and cultural forms of Western civilisation were first developed. Greece and Rome produced literature, philosophy, law, architecture, and political thought that have shaped two millennia of subsequent history. Egypt, the Near East, and the Phoenician and Carthaginian civilisations that spread across the Mediterranean basin were equally central to the interconnected world of antiquity.

Studying ancient Mediterranean civilisations means engaging with this world across its full diversity, using both textual and material evidence to reconstruct how people lived, thought, traded, fought, and organised themselves.

At Edinburgh you will study this four-year full-time programme, with a year abroad embedded in the degree. Archaeology provides one of the most important lenses for the programme, using material remains, objects, buildings, monuments, and landscapes to access aspects of ancient life that texts do not record or illuminate only partially. You will also work with ancient literature, epigraphy, numismatics, and the full range of evidence types that scholars of the ancient world use.

Edinburgh's strong classical and archaeological research environment provides an excellent context for this kind of interdisciplinary study, and the year abroad gives you the opportunity to encounter the physical remains of the ancient Mediterranean world directly.

Graduates of ancient Mediterranean civilisations enter careers in museums and cultural heritage, archaeology, academic research, publishing, education, journalism, and the civil service. The analytical, research, and writing skills developed across the degree are highly transferable, and the ability to work with complex, multilingual sources across different media is a distinctive qualification. Many graduates continue to postgraduate study in classical studies, ancient history, archaeology, or related humanities disciplines, and the programme provides an excellent foundation for doctoral research in any of these fields.