II.2 Fields

All AHMA students declare three fields: a First field, a Second field, and a Special Field.

The First and Second fields are chosen from the following four options:

  1. North Africa (Egypt, Cyrenaica, Punic settlements)

  2. Greek world

  3. West and/or Central Asia (Near and Middle East)

  4. Roman world

All four fields embrace history, archaeology, material and visual culture. Any pairing of two of these four fields, as First and Second fields, respectively, is permitted. 

The First field is the main research field and the coverage is meant to be broad and comprehensive. For the First field students choose one of the following options:

  1. North Africa: 

    1. Egyptian Old Kingdom through New Kingdom 

    2. Egyptian Middle Kingdom through Late Period 

    3. Egyptian Third Intermediate Period until the Arab Conquest

    4. Kush and Aksum, c. 1000 BCE to c. 800 CE

  1. Greek world: 

    1. Bronze Age through Classical period 

    2. Eighth century through Hellenistic period

  1. West and Central Asia: 

    1. Anatolia c. 3000 to 300 BCE

    2. Levant c. 3000 to 300 BCE 

    3. Mesopotamia c. 3000 to 300 BCE 

    4. Iran c. 800 BCE to 630 CE

  1. Roman world: 

    1. Iron Age through Early Empire (first century CE) 

    2. Early Republic through High Empire (second century CE) 

    3. Middle Republic through Constantine

    4. Late Republic through Late Antiquity

The Second field is meant to complement the First, and the coverage is correspondingly narrower and less comprehensive (to be determined in consultation with the student’s advisory committee).

In consultation with their advisory committee, students also declare a third, Special field, tailored to their own interests. The purpose of the Special field is to develop a more detailed working knowledge of a subject than is possible in either the First or Second fields, ideally to support a possible dissertation project. As such, it will normally be a more focused subject (e.g., a period, development, methodology, or body of evidence) within the First field.