Taught courses

We offer a modular range of courses, which has been designed to reflect the research interests of our lecturers and help you develop a particular topic of interest for your dissertation.

Core courses

You will take a compulsory course, which will provide a general introduction to graduate study in classics and give you the opportunity to develop your research skills.

Course name Credits

Skills and Methods in Classics

20

Optional courses

You will choose a further 100 credits from a wide selection of optional courses, subject to availability. 

Please note: at least three of your option courses must be on archaeological topics. 

Option Courses 2024-2025

* * Please note that the list of courses below is provisional and subject to change.  

Course name Credits
A Topic in Late Antique and Byzantine History 1 20
A Topic in Late Antique and Byzantine History 2 20
Ancient Superpowers: The Armies and Military Monuments of Rome and Persia 20
Apocalypse: The Book of Revelation in History and Culture (PG) 20
Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs: The Basics and Beyond # 20
Archaeological Illustration # 20
Archaeology of 'Celtic' Europe: Communities and Interactions # 20
Bronze Age Civilisations of the Near East and Greece # 20
Conceptualising the Neolithic # 20
Conflict archaeology: materialities of violence # 20
Constantinople: The History of a Medieval Megalopolis from Constantine the Great to Suleyman the Magnificent # 20
Elementary Greek (PG) 1 # 20
Elementary Greek (PG) 2 20
Elementary Latin (PG) 1 # 20
Elementary Latin (PG) 2 20
Greek Palaeography & Manuscript Culture 20
Greek Philosophy (Plato's Republic) 20
Greek Text Seminar 3 20
Hellenistic Art and Archaeology # 20
Intermediate Greek (PG) 1 # 20
Intermediate Greek (PG) 2 20
Intermediate Latin (PG) 1 # 20
Intermediate Latin (PG) 2 20
Issues in Egyptian Archaeology: the Second Intermediate Period until the end of the Late Period (1650-332 BC) # 20
Latin Text Seminar 1 # 20
Marine Archaeology # 20
Religion and War in Archaic and Classical Greece # 20
Scottish Latin Literature 20
The Archaeology of Children and Childhood # 20
The Art and Archaeology of Sparta and Laconia # 20
The Hellenistic City 20
The Hittites: The Archaeology of an Ancient Near Eastern Civilisation # 20
The Jewish Diaspora under the Roman Empire 20
Themes in Egyptian archaeology: the foundations of the state to the end of the Middle Kingdom # 20
Women, Writing, Greece: From Sappho to Virginia Woolf and Beyond 20
Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy ^ 20
Greek Pastoral Poetry ^ 20
Latin Epic ^ 20
Latin Satire ^ 20
Plato's Republic ^ 20
Herod the Great and the End of Hellenism (online) * 20
Popular Culture in the Roman World (Online) * 20
The Athenian Akropolis (online) * 20

# You must choose three Classical Art and Archaeology courses

^ A maximum of one Level 10 course can be chosen. Priority for Level 10 courses goes to undergraduate students.

* A maximum of one online course can be chosen.

 

Teaching and assessment

Teaching takes place in small groups with most courses taught via weekly seminars. The majority of the 20-credit courses are assessed by single pieces of coursework, usually essays of up to 5000 words.

Further information

You can see more details about the 2024/25 programme structure on the Degree Programme Table for the MSc in Classical Art and Archaeology. We expect the 2025/26 programme structure to be available from May 2025.