The Department of Ancient History at Macquarie University is a dynamic centre of research with a broad vision of historical studies in terms of geography, time, and methodology. Our research programs embrace ancient cultures from Old Kingdom Egypt and ancient Israel, Ancient and Hellenistic Greece, the Roman Republic and Empire, and the early Christian period, through to Late Antiquity, Byzantium, early medieval Europe, and the Asian 'Silk Roads.' These fields of research include not only major civilizations of the ancient world, but also great periods of change and evolution. The artefacts we study in order to understand these cultures range from high art to everyday documents. They include archaeological sites, wall paintings, coins, papyri, inscriptions, graffiti, and manuscripts, in addition to literary texts written in a range of languages including Hieroglyphs, Hebrew, ancient Greek, Latin, Coptic, and ancient Chinese.

This breadth enables both in-depth study of a wide range of past societies, and also examination of dynamic interactions between cultures. The department and its associated research centres host research programs that integrate Egyptian and Mediterranean history (in the Classical, Hellenistic, and Coptic periods), explore early Christianity in its Roman and Greek cultural context, trace networks of religion from the Roman and Byzantine Mediterranean across the Near East and Central Asia to China, and discuss linguistic issues such as literacy and multilingualism arising from Mediterranean, Near Eastern, and Asian documents.

Research by Staff

Areas of Research

Selected Research Project Descriptions

Research Centres

Macquarie University Ancient Cultures Research Centre, incorporating:

- The Australian Centre for Egyptology 

- The Ancient History Documentary Research Centre

The Australian Centre for Ancient Numismatic Research

Centre for the History of Christian Thought and Experience

Research by Postgraduates

Current Postgraduate Research

Postgraduate Studies

back to top