SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF THE UNIT To complete the Unit successfully you need a minimum mark of 50% overall. You must attempt every piece of assessment to pass this Unit. In accordance with Clause 129 of the University Assessment Policy, non-submission of an Assessment Task will result in a FA grade - Fail Absent.  

GRADES: F / FA: 0-49% P: 50-64% CR: 65-74% D: 75-84% HD: 85-100%  

LATE ASSESSMENT SUBMISSION PENALTY Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, a 5% penalty (of the total possible mark) will be applied each day a written assessment is not submitted, up until the 7th day (including weekends). After the 7th day, a mark of ‘0’ (zero) will be awarded even if the assessment is submitted. Submission time for all written assessments is set at 11.55pm. A 1-hour grace period is provided to students who experience a technical issue. This late penalty will apply to non-timed sensitive assessment (incl essays, reports, posters, portfolios, journals, recordings etc). Late submission of time sensitive tasks (such as tests/exams, performance assessments/presentations, scheduled practical assessments/labs etc) will only be addressed by the unit convenor in a Special consideration application. Special Consideration outcome may result in a new question or topic.  

IMPORTANT NOTE ON FINAL MARKS Please note with respect to the marks you receive for work during the session: grading decisions for each assessment task will be moderated against the set criteria and standards before task results are released. See further the note on Results in the Policies and Procedures section below. It is highly recommended that you come to all seminars. Further, you should complete the readings and any other work for any given week before that week's meeting.

ATTENTION: LARGE LANGUAGE MODEL (LLM or AI) USE FOR ASSIGNMENTS

The use of AI (eg. Chat GPT) for assessment completion in AHIS3251 / AHIX3251 is discouraged. Choosing to use AI in your writing will result in lower marks.

In scraping the internet to generate a result, AI can miss material, make up references, and provide incorrect information or content that is too general or wrong. It may even plagarise its source material. The style and cadence of the language produced by AI is also obvious to the reader. Assignments will be scrutinised for signs of AI use and this will be taken into consideration to a higher degree in the marking process accordingly.

Access to the internet, MQ library, and various online databases will be necessary for successful completion of this Unit. Ability to work with word processing programs and powerpoint (or comparable programs) will also be necessary to complete Unit assessments. 

There is no textbook for this Unit; readings will be drawn from a number of sources via the unit's Leganto page or on our iLearn page. 

External / on-line students will have access to lecture recordings and other content via iLearn. Several face-to-face zoom calls will be scheduled during the Semester for external students to meet with the Unit lecturers. See the iLearn page for more details.

The Unit will commence with introductory lectures and class discussions on the emergence of social complexity, the nature of the state, and theories of state formation in ancient world studies. This will be followed by a focus on the early pristine states of Mesopotamia and Egypt, applying theoretical concepts to archaeologial, environmental and textual data. From Weeks 8 to 13, the Unit content will move onto theories of societal collapse, followed by an assessment of later empires from the Hellenistic period to Late Antiquity.

For further information, consult the Unit's iLearn site for the Unit Schedule and weekly updates.