EUB253 The Ancient World
To view more information for this unit, select Unit Outline from the list below. Please note the teaching period for which the Unit Outline is relevant.
| Unit code: | EUB253 |
|---|---|
| Equivalent(s): | CRB107 |
| Credit points: | 12 |
| Timetable | Details in HiQ, if available |
| Availabilities |
|
| CSP student contribution | $2,040 |
| Pre-2021 CSP student contribution | $957 The pre-2021 commonwealth supported place (CSP) contribution amount only applies to students enrolled in a course prior to 2021. To learn more, visit our Understanding your fees page. |
| Domestic tuition unit fee | $3,024 |
| International unit fee | $3,828 |
Unit Outline: Semester 2 2024, Kelvin Grove, Internal
| Unit code: | EUB253 |
|---|---|
| Credit points: | 12 |
| Equivalent: | CRB107 |
| Coordinator: | Danielle Gordon | danielle.m.gordon@qut.edu.au |
Overview
This unit facilitates understandings of ancient societies focusing on selected periods, features and individuals in the ancient Near East, Greece and Rome. Such understandings encourage questioning of established interpretations and knowledge, and provides a foundational understanding of these historical periods.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:
- Analyse, synthesise and evaluate information and historical debates, from numerous primary and secondary sources.
- Compose historical, evidence-based arguments that effectively communicate knowledge and ideas.
- Show how historians shape contemporary understandings of history.
- Develop a hypothesis from self-initiated research.
Content
The ancient history of humanity is usually associated with the societies of ancient Greece and Rome in the Mediterranean region. The origins of this classical world may be traced back to the first millennium BCE and the emergence of a flourishing Greek culture and written tradition, while its end is apparent in the early centuries CE with the demise of Roman imperial authority in the West. But, of course, these ancient Greek and Roman societies did not exist or develop in isolation - they interacted with and were duly influenced by other societies in the ancient world, such as in Mesopotamia, Egypt and Persia.
Content includes:
The Near East: 4000 - 330 BCE
- Mesopotamia: Sumer, Akkad, Assyria
- Dynastic Egypt: Life and culture, leaders, conflict
- Persia: Achaemenid Empire and the Greco-Persian War
Ancient Greece 2000 - 338 BCE
- Minoans and Mycenaean Civilisations
- Athenian Democracy and Spartan Militarism (Peloponnesian Wars)
- King Philip and Alexander the Great
Part 3 - Ancient Rome 750 BCE - 79 CE
- Rome: From Foundation to City-State
- The Roman Generals and Expanding the Roman Empire (Punic Wars)
- Roman Society and Life in the Roman Republic
- The Augustan Age
Learning Approaches
In this unit you will learn through exposure to various interpretations of history. Lecturer-provided information will emphasise the contested nature of historical knowledge with often pivotal historical understandings exposed to scrutiny. The Ancient World consists of lectures and tutorials - tutorials are student-centred that involve group work, discussions and expressions of different opinions. Lectures and tutorials are designed to promote understanding, the exercise of higher order thinking and the formulation of original hypotheses and stances. The unit thus provides diverse perspectives and multi-disciplinary approaches to methods of learning.
Activities will involve you demonstrating an understanding of content, gaining an appreciation of the variety of approaches to interpretations of the past, showing how history and historians shape the present and the future, identifying and interpreting secondary and primary sources, undertaking research according to methodological and ethical conventions of the discipline including being aware of the consequences of plagiarism, analysing historical evidence and representations of the past, constructing evidence-based arguments, and identifying and reflecting critically on knowledge and skills.
Feedback on Learning and Assessment
You will gain feedback in this unit by participating in online discussion forums and weekly tutorials with academics, and peers. You will also receive feedback on your initial development of your research question for Assessment 1.
Feedback in this unit is provided to you in the following ways:
- a range of formative exercises will be discussed in class
- comments on summative assessment work in addition to criteria sheets
- generic comments back to the cohort via QUT Canvas
- criteria sheet grading
- feedback from peers.
Assessment
Overview
The General Assessment for this unit is both formative and summative. The summative assessment consists of two principal items:
1. Project: Individual Analytical Essay, Forum Posts, and Pre-recorded Group Presentation 60%
2. Response to Historical Sources Exam 40%.
Unit Grading Scheme
7- point scale
Assessment Tasks
Assessment: Pre-recorded Group Presentation and Individual Analytical Essay and Forum Posts
Individual Analytical Essay and Forum Posts, Pre-recorded Group Presentation (Written and oral)
This task will require you to produce an individual analytical essay examining a society from the time period studied. You will present your research work with others and compose a comparative evaluation of your different findings. This final task will be pre-recorded as a group activity.
As part of this project you will analyse historical evidence and representations of the past, to construct a logical, well organised evidence-based analysis of society or an event in the past. You will identify differences and commonalities between historians on your topic. Your findings will be presented as an argument.
You will display a high standard of writing skill. In arguing your responses thoughtful, logical, concise and accurate writing and a suitable presentation of work is essential.
This is an assignment for the purposes of an extension.
Assessment: Historical sources exam
This exam requires you to interrogate historical sources (primary and secondary) aligned to the topics that you have investigated in Module 2 and 3 of the unit. Utilising knowledge acquired during the semester, you will submit 2 responses from a range of questions that require source interpretation. Your answers are to be interpretive/analytical/evaluative not descriptive.
This exam is a response to seen and unseen sources, and unseen questions. In the week before the exam, you will have an opportunity to view and interpret the seen sources as an online resource. You will be provided with additional unseen sources as part of the exam.
You will analyse historical evidence and representations of the past, constructing evidence-based arguments and identifying and reflecting critically on knowledge and skills.
The task requires evaluating historical interpretations and assessing contested views about the past.
You will display a high standard of writing skill. In arguing your responses, thoughtful, logical, concise and accurate writing is essential.
Awareness of how history and historians shape the present and the future will be incorporated into some of the questions.
Academic Integrity
Students are expected to engage in learning and assessment at QUT with honesty, transparency and fairness. Maintaining academic integrity means upholding these principles and demonstrating valuable professional capabilities based on ethical foundations.
Failure to maintain academic integrity can take many forms. It includes cheating in examinations, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, and submitting an assessment item completed by another person (e.g. contract cheating). It can also include providing your assessment to another entity, such as to a person or website.
You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.
Further details of QUT’s approach to academic integrity are outlined in the Academic integrity policy and the Student Code of Conduct. Breaching QUT’s Academic integrity policy is regarded as student misconduct and can lead to the imposition of penalties ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.
Resources
The following resource materials will be used throughout this unit.
Resource Materials
Recommended text(s)
Adler, P. J., & Pouwels, R. L. (2018). World civilizations (Eighth edition.). Cengage Learning.
Risk Assessment Statement
There are no out-of-the-ordinary risks associated with general participation in this unit. Workplace Health and Safety protocols associated with computer use will apply.
Unit Outline: Semester 2 2024, Online
| Unit code: | EUB253 |
|---|---|
| Credit points: | 12 |
| Equivalent: | CRB107 |
Overview
This unit facilitates understandings of ancient societies focusing on selected periods, features and individuals in the ancient Near East, Greece and Rome. Such understandings encourage questioning of established interpretations and knowledge, and provides a foundational understanding of these historical periods.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:
- Analyse, synthesise and evaluate information and historical debates, from numerous primary and secondary sources.
- Compose historical, evidence-based arguments that effectively communicate knowledge and ideas.
- Show how historians shape contemporary understandings of history.
- Develop a hypothesis from self-initiated research.
Content
The ancient history of humanity is usually associated with the societies of ancient Greece and Rome in the Mediterranean region. The origins of this classical world may be traced back to the first millennium BCE and the emergence of a flourishing Greek culture and written tradition, while its end is apparent in the early centuries CE with the demise of Roman imperial authority in the West. But, of course, these ancient Greek and Roman societies did not exist or develop in isolation - they interacted with and were duly influenced by other societies in the ancient world, such as in Mesopotamia, Egypt and Persia.
Content includes:
The Near East: 4000 - 330 BCE
- Mesopotamia: Sumer, Akkad, Assyria
- Dynastic Egypt: Life and culture, leaders, conflict
- Persia: Achaemenid Empire and the Greco-Persian War
Ancient Greece 2000 - 338 BCE
- Minoans and Mycenaean Civilisations
- Athenian Democracy and Spartan Militarism (Peloponnesian Wars)
- King Philip and Alexander the Great
Part 3 - Ancient Rome 750 BCE - 79 CE
- Rome: From Foundation to City-State
- The Roman Generals and Expanding the Roman Empire (Punic Wars)
- Roman Society and Life in the Roman Republic
- The Augustan Age
Learning Approaches
In this unit you will learn through exposure to various interpretations of history. Lecturer-provided information will emphasise the contested nature of historical knowledge with often pivotal historical understandings exposed to scrutiny. The Ancient World consists of lectures and tutorials - tutorials are student-centred that involve group work, discussions and expressions of different opinions. Lectures and tutorials are designed to promote understanding, the exercise of higher order thinking and the formulation of original hypotheses and stances. The unit thus provides diverse perspectives and multi-disciplinary approaches to methods of learning.
Activities will involve you demonstrating an understanding of content, gaining an appreciation of the variety of approaches to interpretations of the past, showing how history and historians shape the present and the future, identifying and interpreting secondary and primary sources, undertaking research according to methodological and ethical conventions of the discipline including being aware of the consequences of plagiarism, analysing historical evidence and representations of the past, constructing evidence-based arguments, and identifying and reflecting critically on knowledge and skills.
Feedback on Learning and Assessment
You will gain feedback in this unit by participating in online discussion forums and weekly tutorials with academics, and peers. You will also receive feedback on your initial development of your research question for Assessment 1.
Feedback in this unit is provided to you in the following ways:
- a range of formative exercises will be discussed in class
- comments on summative assessment work in addition to criteria sheets
- generic comments back to the cohort via QUT Canvas
- criteria sheet grading
- feedback from peers.
Assessment
Overview
The General Assessment for this unit is both formative and summative. The summative assessment consists of two principal items:
1. Project: Individual Analytical Essay, Forum Posts, and Pre-recorded Group Presentation 60%
2. Response to Historical Sources Exam 40%.
Unit Grading Scheme
7- point scale
Assessment Tasks
Assessment: Pre-recorded Group Presentation and Individual Analytical Essay and Forum Posts
Individual Analytical Essay and Forum Posts, Pre-recorded Group Presentation (Written and oral)
This task will require you to produce an individual analytical essay examining a society from the time period studied. You will present your research work with others and compose a comparative evaluation of your different findings. This final task will be pre-recorded as a group activity.
As part of this project you will analyse historical evidence and representations of the past, to construct a logical, well organised evidence-based analysis of society or an event in the past. You will identify differences and commonalities between historians on your topic. Your findings will be presented as an argument.
You will display a high standard of writing skill. In arguing your responses thoughtful, logical, concise and accurate writing and a suitable presentation of work is essential.
This is an assignment for the purposes of an extension.
Assessment: Historical sources exam
This exam requires you to interrogate historical sources (primary and secondary) aligned to the topics that you have investigated in Module 2 and 3 of the unit. Utilising knowledge acquired during the semester, you will submit 2 responses from a range of questions that require source interpretation. Your answers are to be interpretive/analytical/evaluative not descriptive.
This exam is a response to seen and unseen sources, and unseen questions. In the week before the exam, you will have an opportunity to view and interpret the seen sources as an online resource. You will be provided with additional unseen sources as part of the exam.
You will analyse historical evidence and representations of the past, constructing evidence-based arguments and identifying and reflecting critically on knowledge and skills.
The task requires evaluating historical interpretations and assessing contested views about the past.
You will display a high standard of writing skill. In arguing your responses, thoughtful, logical, concise and accurate writing is essential.
Awareness of how history and historians shape the present and the future will be incorporated into some of the questions.
Academic Integrity
Students are expected to engage in learning and assessment at QUT with honesty, transparency and fairness. Maintaining academic integrity means upholding these principles and demonstrating valuable professional capabilities based on ethical foundations.
Failure to maintain academic integrity can take many forms. It includes cheating in examinations, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, and submitting an assessment item completed by another person (e.g. contract cheating). It can also include providing your assessment to another entity, such as to a person or website.
You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.
Further details of QUT’s approach to academic integrity are outlined in the Academic integrity policy and the Student Code of Conduct. Breaching QUT’s Academic integrity policy is regarded as student misconduct and can lead to the imposition of penalties ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.
Resources
The following resource materials will be used throughout this unit.
Resource Materials
Recommended text(s)
Adler, P. J., & Pouwels, R. L. (2018). World civilizations (Eighth edition.). Cengage Learning.
Risk Assessment Statement
There are no out-of-the-ordinary risks associated with general participation in this unit. Workplace Health and Safety protocols associated with computer use will apply.