Hocbigg - Ancient History
Contents
Summary
The Ancient History curriculum is a complete education in Ancient History using online materials.
Organization
This repository is organized into three main components:
- Core Curriculum (this page): the foundational knowledge of the field;
- Advanced Topics: focused study in specific areas;
- Projects: support learning through practical application throughout the curriculum.
Process: Learners may work through the curriculum independently or collaboratively, and either sequentially or selectively.
- For simplicity, courses in the Core Curriculum are ordered according to their prerequisites.
- The Core Curriculum provides a shared foundation and is intended to be completed in full.
- Advanced Topics are optional; learners are encouraged to select one area of focus and complete all courses within that topic.
Practical work is integrated through the Projects section and may be undertaken alongside coursework.
Note: When there are courses or books that don't fit into the curriculum but are otherwise of high quality, they belong in extras/courses, extras/readings.
Communities
- Forums:
- Subreddits:
- Discord servers:
- You can also interact through GitHub issues. If there is a problem with a course, or a change needs to be made to the curriculum, this is the place to start the conversation. Read more here.
-
Join our Discord server (for discussions around this and other curricula):
Curriculum
- How to use this curriculum
- Historical Method & Evidence
- Prehistory and the First Societies before 3000 BCE
- The First Civilizations 3000–1500 BCE
- The Age of Empires 1500–300 BCE
- Rome and the Mediterranean 300 BCE – 300 CE
- Economy, Society, and Power
- Warfare, Technology, and Administration
- Late Antiquity 300–700 CE
- Comparative Empires & Global Systems
- Working with Ancient Sources
- XI. Research & Writing
How to use this curriculum
This roadmap is designed for complete beginners who want to build a solid, college-level understanding of Ancient History through independent self-study. It is organized into eleven sections (I through XI).
Core Sections
These sections form the essential foundation of the discipline. They give you the basic chronological spine of ancient history plus the most important skills and concepts needed to understand the field coherently.
-
I. Historical Method & Evidence
Start here. This section teaches you how historians think, how we know what we know, and how to work with ancient evidence. It is the most important starting point. -
II. Prehistory and the First Societies (before 3000 BCE)
Move to this next. It covers the very beginning of human societies before the first cities and writing systems. -
III. The First Civilizations (3000–1500 BCE)
Read this entire section. It introduces the earliest complex societies that set the patterns for everything that follows. -
IV. The Age of Empires (1500–300 BCE)
Continue here. This covers the major empires and cultural developments during the later Bronze Age and early Iron Age. -
V. Rome and the Mediterranean (300 BCE – 300 CE)
Finish the core chronological narrative with the rise and peak of the Roman world.
These five sections (I–V) give you a complete, chronological overview of ancient history from human origins to the height of the classical world. Work through them in order before moving to Advanced Topics (VI–XI).
Historical Method & Evidence
| Topic | Resource |
|---|---|
| Historical thinking | Stanford History Education Group – Reading Like a Historian |
| Primary vs secondary sources | Perseus Digital Library |
| Chronology & dating | British Museum: How do we date the past |
| Archaeological method | University of Reading: Archaeology course (FutureLearn) |
| Ancient writing systems | British Museum cuneiform & hieroglyphs (explore galleries and articles on cuneiform and Egyptian scripts) |
Prehistory and the First Societies (before 3000 BCE)
| Topic | Resource |
|---|---|
| Human origins | Smithsonian Human Origins |
| Neolithic Revolution | Khan Academy: Prehistory |
| Early farming villages | British Museum Neolithic |
The First Civilizations (3000–1500 BCE)
Mesopotamia & the Near East
- Marc Van de Mieroop, A History of the Ancient Near East
- Yale Open Course: Early Mesopotamia
- British Museum Mesopotamia
Egypt & Nubia
- Shaw (optional)
- UCLA Egyptology
- British Museum Nubia & Kush
Indus Valley
- British Museum Indus Civilization
- Ancient.eu Indus Valley (now World History Encyclopedia)
Early China
- Li Feng (already listed)
The Age of Empires (1500–300 BCE)
Near East & Iran
- Briant (reference)
- Livius.org Persian Empire
- Yale Open Course: Persia (integrated into broader ancient courses)
Greece
- Yale Open Course: Ancient Greek History
- Pomeroy (reference)
India
China
Rome and the Mediterranean (300 BCE – 300 CE)
- Mary Beard (reference)
- MIT OCW Rome (related MIT OCW on ancient world including Rome)
- Open Yale Roman Empire (integrated into Late Antiquity/Rome courses)
- Perseus Roman sources