Ancient history is the study of the written past from the beginning of recorded human history in the Old World until the Early Middle Ages in Europe and the Qin Dynasty in China.

Ancient History, Wikipedia

This page provides links to information and resources for units and topics covered in this subject at a range of Australian universities. It does not attempt to include all these. Be aware some units/topics have different titles in different universities, even though content may be the same or similar. Australian information is supplied wherever possible.

They are at undergraduate level and listed in alphabetical groupings for ease of access. Some information may be useful at a higher level.

In addition, there are journals, search engines, databases, primary documents, reference material and other general information where these are seen to be relevant.

All standard Glossaries are now found on this page, listed alphabetically.

Additional unit material will be included as time permits.

This page requires further development. This will be done as soon as time permits through the addition of further topics and a strengthening of those that already exist.

If you are aware of any worthwhile information which is not included, suggestions or additions are welcome and will be given every consideration.

A - F

Carthage

Carthage, its Empire, specific individuals and the Punic Wars.

• Ancient Carthage
• Ancient History Sourcebook - Aristotle
  [On the Constitution of Carthage, c. 340 BCE]
• Appian’s History of Rome : The Punic Wars
  ‘What Appian offers is a description of all Roman military operations in Africa from the final phase of the war against Hannibal until the final pacification by the emperor Augustus. There is an appendix on the Numidian Wars’.
• Hannibal [247-182 BCE]
  Links from Yahoo.
• Hannibal Barca and Carthage
• Polybius : Rome at the End of the Punic Wars
• The Punic Wars
  Overview, articles, videos, more.
• The Punic Wars : History World
  Extensive article covering multiple periods.

Documents & Texts

Primary and secondary documentation, texts, … .

• Ancient History Digital Library
  Digital publications of primary documentation.
• Babylonia and Ancient Near Eastern Texts
  ‘On Line Ancient Near Eastern Texts keyed to Britannica Online for Serious links to research on Babylonia’.
• Classical Review [Bryn Mawr]
  Journal with reviews of current works in classical studies. Archive from 1990. Free subscription.
• LIVIUS - Articles on Ancient History
  Select by area from the menu at the top, related websites from the menu on the left, specific earlier additions from the menu on the right.
• The Perseus Digital Library [Hopper]
  ‘Primary and secondary sources for the study of ancient Greece and Rome’. Contents, Announcements, Exhibits, Help Library, Tools, Publications or use the Search form. Developed for a consortia of leading universities.
• Yale University Library : Classics
  Gateways for Classics, Associations, Reference Resources, Electronic Texts, Journals and Discussion Groups. Links are to other university collections. Quality collection.

Egypt [Ancient]

Topics, general and specific, countries linked to Ancient Egypt.

• Alexandria, Egypt
  Covers the submarine archaeology used at Alexandria, finding of the Pharos, other exceptional finds, more.
• Ancient Egypt On The Web
• Ancient Egypt Site
  Ancient Egypt, Saqqara, City of the Dead, language of Ancient Egypt, A-Z listing, bibliography, World Wide Ancient Egypt.
• Ancient Nubia
  Thinkquest site.
• BBC History - Egyptians
• Daily Life in Ancient Civilizations
• Eternal Egypt
  ‘Five thousand years of Egyptian civilization. Eternal Egypt is a living record of a land rich in art and history, people and places, myths and religions. The stories of Eternal Egypt are told using the latest interactive technologies, high-resolution imagery, animations, virtual environments, remote cameras, three-dimensional models and more’.
• Exploring Ancient World Cultures
• Fruit of the Nile
• Guardian’s Sphinx
• Hatshepsut, The Queen who would be King
• Jim Loy’s Egyptology Page
  Also Egyptian Hieroglyphics.
• NGA - The Quest for Immortality
  Treasures of Ancient Egypt.
• Pyramids - The Inside Story
• Resources for the History of Ancient Egypt
• The Ancient Egypt Site
• The House of Ptolemy
• The Kingdoms of Kush & Meröe
  Links via Yahoo.

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Etruscans, The

Precursors in Italy of the Roman Empire. The people, history, influence.

• Empires : Etruscan Empire
  Two page text article. A second site from Thinkquest, entitled Albans & Etruscans can be found here.
• Etruscan Civilisation
  Annotated links to Etruscan information from Origins to Artwork, words to a Virtual Museum.
• Etruscan Civilisation [Wikipedia]
  This is one of several shorter Wikipedia sites about the Etruscans. Others include Etruscan History and Etruscan Origins.
• Etruscan Language
  History of Etruscan literacy, geographic distribution, classification, writing system, media, sounds, word formation, vocabulary, bibliography, other links. From Wikipedia. Another brief site about the Etruscan Alphabet can be found here.
• Etruscans
  ‘A History of the Etruscan people including their cities, art, society, rulers and contributions to civilisation. By : Robert Guisepi, 2002’.
• Etruscan Studies
  ‘Welcome to Etruscan Studies : Journal of the Etruscan Foundation. The site is an archive of back issues of the journal dating from 1994 [Volume 1] to 2008 [Volume 11]. Additional volumes will be posted as they become available’. All articles available in PDF. For complete Tables of Contents go to Etruscan Studies, Volume 1-13.
• Liber Linteus
  ‘The Liber Linteus Zagrabiensis also rarely known as Liber Agramensis [Latin: Linen Book of Zagreb or Book of Agram] is the longest Etruscan text and the only extant linen book’. Discovery, production, text, disuse and disposal, references, links. From Wikipedia.
• The Etruscans
  Follow the character Larth as he takes you through three Etruscan cities and particularly as he covers one city and Etruscan life in greater detail.
• The Mysterious Etruscans
  Multiple sections ranging from Art, history and cities through to lifestyle, language, even museums. The Weblink page even contains several pages you should avoid.

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G - L

General Sites

• ABZU
  ‘Guide to resources for the study of the Ancient Near East available on the Internet’. Access via author’s name, a Project, Institutional affiliation or one of the secondary indexes.
• Classics and Ancient History Web Sites [University of Auckland Library]
  Links to the classical era under selected headingss.
• Ancient Daily Life in Civilisations
  ‘Archaeological studies of how people lived in the past, what they ate, houses they lived in, tools they used. Here you’ll also find such methods of fishing and agriculture, writing and sailing, cities and farmsteads’.
• Ancient History
  Study, Chronology, Prominent civilisations, Developments [religion, philosophy, science, warfare, arts, etc.], references, links, more. From Wikipedia.
• BBC - Ancient History
  Topics from Prehistory through to the Vikings.
  Excellent source of information.
• Cambridge Classics Gateway to the Humanities
  Links for the classics through six groups, information about classics at Cambridge, links to other faculties and Search.
  Now archived
• Classics Resources
  Victoria University, New Zealand. Links to classics’ studies.
• Collapse : Why do Civilisations Fall ?
  ‘Explore the collapse of four ancient civilizations. You’ll learn what happens when a society collapses and how archaeologists find and interpret evidence’.
• Exploring Ancient World Cultures
  Culture in the near and middle east, the Mediterranean, Asia.
• History Links
  For Teachers of Ancient History. ‘Covers a wide range of topics that stretch from the life and times of the Iceman, through to the life of the Greeks, Trojans and Celts’.
• Links to Ancient Near Eastern Web Sites
  Scroll down to these. Annotated links.
• The Megalithic Portal
  Topic areas, links, news items.
• What is Ancient/Classical History ?
  From About.com. ‘This article attempts to define the period of ancient/classical history by contrasting it with what came before [pre-history] and what came after [the Middle Ages], and by explaining what is meant by the seemingly obvious word history’.

Greece [Ancient]

• Alexander the Great
  Multiple sections. Introduction, parentage and youth, various campaigns, empire, death and the Hellenistic Empire, other resources.
• Ancient City of Athens
• The Ancient City of Athens
  Photographic record.
• Ancient Greece
• The Ancient Greek World
• Antiqua Medicina : From Homer to Vesalius
• Daily Life in Ancient Civilizations
• Greek Civilisation
• Winged Sandals
  ABC Australia Arts Online. ‘Step back in time to an ancient civilisation that formed 3 000 years ago. This list of history links will help you learn more about everyday life in Classical Greek times’.

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M - R

Mapping the Ancient World

• Ancient Maps
  Select areas from the alphabetical listing.
• Ancient World Mapping Centre‘Promotes cartography, historical geography and geographic information science as essential disciplines within the field of ancient studies through innovative and collaborative research, teaching, and community outreach activities’. You might also their Web Watch section which has listings of other article sources. See menu on left.
• Ancient World Maps
  ‘Here you can see a collection of antique world maps describing the known world in their time and at their state of knowledge’. Blog.
• Classical Atlas Project
• Some Maps of the Roman Empire
  HTML, but maps are quite large.

Mesopotamia

One great empire of the Ancient World. The empire, major figures.

• Ancient Mesopotamia : 7 000 to 550 BCE
  Chronology.
• Ancient Mesopotamia, Assyria, Babylonia, and Sumer
  Geography, history.
• Babylonian Texts of the First Millennium B.C.
  Text database.
• Code of Hammurabi
  Links via Yahoo.
• Contracts from Mesopotamia, c. 2 300 - 428 BCE
  Source documents.
• Epic of Gilgamesh
  Links via Yahoo.
• FAQ - The Assyro-Babylonian Mythology
• Greek Reports of Babylonia, Chaldea, and Assyria
  Original texts.
• Internet Ancient History Sourcebook
  Mesopotamia, Sumeria, Babylon, Akkadia, more.
• King Hammurabi [c.1792-1750 BCE]
  Links via Yahoo.
• Mesopotamia [British Museum]
  Geography, religion [including Demons and Monsters], writing, time lines, the era.
• Mesopotamia [Wikipedia]
  Etymology, cultural dynamics, history, language/writing, science, technology, religion, economy, agriculture, architecture, other references, bibliography and several, links.
• Nebuchadnezzar
  Links via Yahoo.
• Old Persian Texts
  Source documents.
• Web Directory : ABZU Mesopotamia
  Languages.

Middle East [Ancient]

Countries of the Ancient Middle East.

• ABZU Bibliography
• Byzantium 1 200
• Parthian Empire
  Also check the Ancient Authors section of the site for authors and texts related to Parthia.

Petra

• Lost City of Petra
  YouTube Movie.
• Petra
  Geography, history, Petra today, media, photos, notes, references, links. From Wikipedia.
• Petra [2]
  ‘Virtual tour of the ancient city of Petra in Jordan’.
• Petra [3]
  ‘A rose-red city, half as old as time’. Jordanian Tourism.

• The Sumerians
  Multiple pages and topics.
• Ugarit & Arameans
  The Ras Shamra Project.

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Persians, The

A great empire of the Ancient World. The empire, major figures.

• Ancient Greece - Persian, Peloponnesian, Spartan, Greek Wars
• Ancient Iran - Persepolis - Persia
  Timeline, people, events.
• Battle of Marathon
• Cyrus the Great
• Cyrus the Great [590-529 BCE]
  Links via Yahoo.
• Darius the Great [550-486 BCE]
  Links via Yahoo.
• EDSITEment’s Persian Wars Resource Pages
  More suited to school rather than tertiary level. links, images, diagrams.
• Genealogy of the Persian Kings
• Herodotus - The Persian Wars
• History of Persian Empire
  Links, translated texts.
• Persian Empire : 550-330 BCE
  Timeline.
• Splendor of Persia
  Kings, Parthians, cities.
• The Persian Wars
  Article. For a Persian Wars Timeline - Chronology of Events in the Persian Wars, visit this site, which also has links to further information.
• The Persian Wars [Yale History Lecture]
  Video lecture by Donald Kagan [Academic Earth, 79 min.]

Rome and the Roman Empire.

• Antiqua Medicina : From Homer to Vesalius
• Caesar, Gaius Julius
  Birth to death, historical background, timeline.
• Caesar, Gaius Julius [2]
  Brief article with simple genealogy and embedded links.
• Caesar, Julius - 100-44 BCE
• Capitolium
  ‘Archaeological site of the Imperial Forums, one of the largest areas in the world where digging, research and studies are still under way’.
• Daily Life in Ancient Civilizations
• Feminae Romanae : Women of Ancient Rome
• Pompeii Forum Project
• Roman Gods and Goddesses
  Information, including their roles in everyday life, politics.
• The Romans
  BBC. Done for school students, it provides information covering Roman life from armies to religions.
• The Roman Empire
  Rise to fall.
• The Roman Empire [2]
  Specific topics on the Empire, government, military, culture, economy, provinces, Emperors, more.
• The Roman Empire at its Greatest Extent
  ‘Clicking anywhere on this map will give you a more detailed look at that portion of the Roman Empire’.
• The Romans
  A large amount of information about The Romans grouped into more than 20 sections covering areas from The Empire, Religion & Gods to The Senate, Slavery and even a video section. Very easy to read and understand.

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S - Z

Writing Forms

Information, resources, including lessons, about ancient writing forms.

• Ancient Scripts
  A Compendium of World-Wide Writing Systems from Prehistory to Today. Writing systems, phonetics, linguistics, references, links, downloads, more.

Cuneiform

• About Cuneiform Writing
  Information, graphics, suggested activities.
• Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative
• Write Like a Babylonian
  ‘See your monogram in cuneiform, the way an ancient Babylonian might have written it’.

Hieroglyphics

• Cartouche Maker V.1.0
  Software.
• Hieroglyphics
• Jim Loy’s Egyptian Hieroglyphics Page
  Also Egyptology.
• OpenGlyph
  ‘OpenGlyph is an Egyptian hieroglyph database useful for learn[ing] and translat[ing] ancient Egyptian texts’. Free software.
• Write Like an Egyptian
  ‘Your Name in Hieroglyphs [the way an Egyptian scribe might have written it !]’.

• Palaeographical Fonts
  Downloadable file [18mb] covering ‘dozens of ancient scripts that have been [and in some instances few of them are still being used] for millennia around the Mediterranean sea, as well as Northern, Central and Eastern parts of Europe, ancient Egypt and Near and Middle East’.

Rongorongo

• Rongorongo
  The writing of Rapa Nui.
• Rongorongo [Wikipedia]
  Etymology and variant names, form and construction, origin, historical record, corpus, decipherment, references, bibliography, links, more. From Wikipedia.

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