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Undergraduate Ancient History students: (1 Viewer)

Fake-Name

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Does Sydney offer any courses NOT on Greece and Rome? More specifically, on ancient history of Egypt and the Near East. I was always planning to study with an Egyptian focus at Macquarie, however I am interested in Sydney's department of Archaeology, and would consider going to the Uni if it offered a range of near eastern Ancient History topics. Anyone know if these exist?
 

-may-cat-

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As you seem to have noticed, yes, USYD really does place most of its focus on classics. If you're interested in Egypt and the Near East go to Macquarie, you won't get as a good an experience at USYD.
 

Fake-Name

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As you seem to have noticed, yes, USYD really does place most of its focus on classics. If you're interested in Egypt and the Near East go to Macquarie, you won't get as a good an experience at USYD.
Yea, I've always considered going to Mq. Although I was looking on topuniversities and saw that while Syd was ranked 30ish in the world, Macquarie was around 220 then I saw how it had its own department of archaeology and I began considering it as an option. However if it doesnt offer the subject I want to study, I guess there's no real choice.

Thanks.
 

izzy88

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Yeah its basically just classics. I just finished honours in ancient history, and they only offer greek/rome subjects in ancient history.

However i do believe the archaeology department offers some near east/egyptian archaeology subjects- in the end i didn't do any archaeology after first year, so i can't give much of an opinion on archaeology.

I guess it depends on what you want to do. Macquarie definitely offers a broader range of ancient history subject areas/archaeology/languages. I chose sydney in the end because it was closer, i liked the atmosphere, i combined with law, and i like Roman history :)

I'd recommend going to the open days for both unis and talking to the ancient history departments as well, just to get ideas/info from both universities.
 

beachee99

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UNSW has a great Archaeology and History department.
the two work together along with geo sciences for archaeological technique and there is focus on a lot of regions and era's rather than the typical.

there is also a lot of chances to intern abroad with Dr Shawn Ross in his archaeological digs in Bulgaria.
i currently do an arts double major and b/ ed at unsw and i must say the Arts department does not get enough credit ... i would say its greater focus on TEACHING compared to USYD having a larger focus on its academia (PHD's and Thesis)
 

-may-cat-

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USYD is generally seen as better for archaeology than MQ, a couple of people i know have transferred over to USYD for that reason, not sure about UNSW, definitely worth checking out. There's opportunity for a fieldwork overseas at all three uni's, though i'm sure the programs differ in assessment etc.

I think a good thing to keep in mind about ancient history is that it truly doesn't matter where you do your undergrad, (as long as they're offering your particular interest of course), it's post grad that really matters. MQ and USYD (and apparently UNSW) are all excellent universities to study history and archaeology, your undergrad is for learning skills more than content and the programs won't differ too much in that respect.

Check out all the unis and base your decision on what feels right for you, don't stress too much about it, if it turns out that you find your not as interested in something as you thought you were or whatever transferring is pretty straight forward providing your marks are good.

EDIT: btw you DO know that those rankings are based on post-graduate results and are a pretty poor indicator of undergraduate course quality...
 
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Fake-Name

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Thanks for that..
I had no idea that the rankings were based only on postgrad. I just presumed better rank better Uni.
 

jayadore

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Also, I think you can take archaeology classes and these will still count towards your Ancient History studies?
You should probably call the uni to clarify that though.
 

Fake-Name

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I will have to check that. That would be pretty awesome though. Thanks.
 
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xeuyrawp

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Basically, if you want to do reasonable amounts of Egypt and the Ancient Near East, you need to go to Macquarie.

In a horrible twist of irony, Macquarie doesn't really teach archaeology as a subject in itself. Archaeological subjects are taught by area-specialists (eg Egyptian Archaeology), and, to be honest, not very well. The best archaeologist at Macquarie who taught Egyptian archaeology is now in Austria and her replacement, whilst undoubtedly the best in the university, is very young. There is one general archaeology subject and it is rubbish.

From what I've seen, the non-Egyptologists at Macquarie are very poorly trained in archaeology and have to rely on on-site training when they go overseas. I'm not really sure what it's like elsewhere, but it seems that most Australian universities either stick to archaeology as a method of historical enquiry in area-studies (eg Macquarie) or teach it far too theoretically (eg USyd). I've seen that ANU has a combined archaeology/physical anthropology program, which would be a very good idea if you wanted to be a field archaeologist.

If you're interested in a specific period/place of history, I'd recommend studying that, and then seeing how you can get archaeological experience to tack onto it. That's what I did; I did a degree in ancient history but primarily in Egyptology, which was very well taught. Then I've had fieldwork experience and are now doing archaeological training here.

As for the rankings: Ignore them. What was said above about them being based solely on post-grad is incorrect (THES and Shanghai use undergrad almost exclusively), but rankings are really not helpful in choosing a university.

I mean most rankings rank Harvard above Oxford but Harvard only has one Egyptologist there, has a smaller library, fewer students in Egyptology, etc, so it would be worse for me.

Choose the uni that's right for you. :)
 
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Fake-Name

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Thankyou for all of that... I am leaning towards Mq now, but i'll have a quick look at ANU too.
 

LonelyWolf

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Basically, if you want to do reasonable amounts of Egypt and the Ancient Near East, you need to go to Macquarie.

In a horrible twist of irony, Macquarie doesn't really teach archaeology as a subject in itself. Archaeological subjects are taught by area-specialists (eg Egyptian Archaeology), and, to be honest, not very well. The best archaeologist at Macquarie who taught Egyptian archaeology is now in Austria and her replacement, whilst undoubtedly the best in the university, is very young. There is one general archaeology subject and it is rubbish.

From what I've seen, the non-Egyptologists at Macquarie are very poorly trained in archaeology and have to rely on on-site training when they go overseas. I'm not really sure what it's like elsewhere, but it seems that most Australian universities either stick to archaeology as a method of historical enquiry in area-studies (eg Macquarie) or teach it far too theoretically (eg USyd). I've seen that ANU has a combined archaeology/physical anthropology program, which would be a very good idea if you wanted to be a field archaeologist.

If you're interested in a specific period/place of history, I'd recommend studying that, and then seeing how you can get archaeological experience to tack onto it. That's what I did; I did a degree in ancient history but primarily in Egyptology, which was very well taught. Then I've had fieldwork experience and are now doing archaeological training here.

As for the rankings: Ignore them. What was said above about them being based solely on post-grad is incorrect (THES and Shanghai use undergrad almost exclusively), but rankings are really not helpful in choosing a university.

I mean most rankings rank Harvard above Oxford but Harvard only has one Egyptologist there, has a smaller library, fewer students in Egyptology, etc, so it would be worse for me.

Choose the uni that's right for you. :)
Did you do German studies at Macq? Was it worth it? Is it useful after you graduate?
 

izzy88

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Did you do German studies at Macq? Was it worth it? Is it useful after you graduate?
I know this wasn't directed at me- but to my knowledge German is a very useful language to have for archaeology/ancient history as there is a large amount material written by german scholars in the field. I started learning it for a while, but didn't get very far- but free german readings classes were offered and there were a lot of archaeology students in the class for reading of site reports etc.
 

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