Ancient History and History

Ancient history and history together offer one of the broadest temporal spans available within the humanities, taking you from the earliest civilisations of Greece and Rome through the medieval world and into the modern era. Ancient history focuses on the societies of the classical Mediterranean, drawing on literary sources, inscriptions, coins, and archaeology to reconstruct political, social, cultural, and economic life across more than a thousand years of antiquity. The history strand extends the inquiry through the medieval and modern periods, introducing the methods, debates, and sources of a discipline that spans the globe and the full sweep of recorded human experience.

At Swansea University, this three-year, full-time programme allows you to explore a wide range of topics: Greek city-states and Roman imperial culture, medieval monarchies and their institutions, modern revolutions and political upheavals, and the ideas, diseases, and human rights movements that have shaped societies across centuries. You will develop the core skills of the historian, including the ability to identify and evaluate primary sources, engage with historiographical debates, construct sustained written arguments, and move between close reading of texts and broader contextual understanding. The combination of ancient and modern periods trains you in a range of different types of source material and interpretive approaches, giving you a breadth of historical method that is genuinely valuable.

A typical entry tariff of 104 points reflects an accessible admissions profile. Graduates from history programmes go on to careers in education, journalism, the civil service, heritage and museums, law, publishing, arts administration, and a wide range of other fields that value the research, analytical, and communication skills the discipline develops. Many continue to postgraduate study in ancient history, history, heritage management, or related fields.