This is a programme geared towards preparing students for higher research into the interaction of the classical world with the Near East - partly through direct research training, and partly through modules taught by experts in their field in small-group seminars. The relationship between the classical world and neighbouring civilisations is among the most important and most rapidly expanding areas of classical scholarship, and we have particular strength in this field: we offer tuition in Akkadian, and can draw on the resources of the Oriental Museum in Durham and the expertise pooled in the recently inaugurated Centre for the Study of the Ancient Mediterranean and the Near East.