Ancient History and History

Ancient history and modern history together span the full range of the human past, from the earliest literate civilisations of Greece, Rome, and the Near East through to the recent past. Studying both gives you an unusually wide historical formation, developing the ability to work with evidence that ranges from papyri and inscriptions to twentieth-century diplomatic cables and oral testimony, and to engage with methodological debates that differ significantly across the ancient and modern periods.

This three-year full-time programme at Cardiff University combines ancient history with modern history, allowing you to engage with the classical world alongside the events and forces that have shaped the contemporary one. You will develop the core skills of historical analysis, reading sources critically, constructing arguments from evidence, and writing clearly about complex causation, across two very different historiographical traditions. With a typical tariff of 136 points, the programme attracts students who are broadly curious about the past and who want to engage with history at more than one scale and in more than one period.

Cardiff's history department has strengths across both ancient and modern periods, and its location in the Welsh capital provides a distinctive context for thinking about the relationship between past and present. The comparative perspective you develop, moving between periods and historical methods that differ significantly, is itself a form of intellectual training that deepens your understanding of how historical knowledge is constructed.

Graduates from history programmes at Cardiff move into careers in education, the civil service, journalism, archives and heritage, publishing, law, and a range of roles where analytical ability and the capacity to write clearly about complex material are valued. Many continue to postgraduate study in history, classical studies, or related disciplines, and others move into professional training routes where the skills of a history degree provide strong foundations.