Since 1931, the Universitat de Barcelona already had a specific chair of Ancient History created under the aegis of Pere Bosch i Gimpera, professor, dean and finally rector of this university. But the Spanish Civil War forced his exile and his substitution by Martín Almagro Basch (1943), who associated this chair to that of Prehistory. This academic pairing was to extend under his successors Lluís Pericot i García (1943) and Joan Maluquer de Motes i Nicolau (1969), until the appointment of José Remesal Rodríguez (1988) as chair professor of Ancient History granted again singular entity to these studies. Afterwards, too Josep Padró i Parcerisa (2003) and Josep Vilella Masana (2010) occupied respective chairs of this same specialty contributing to its projection in the university sphere. Our Area is included in the Departament d’Història i Arqueologia of the Universitat de Barcelona.
The Area of Ancient History studies the legacy of the first civilisations which keep written records of their collective deeds and individual beliefs. From the city-states of Mesopotamia to the Western Germanic kingdoms, and especially from the classical world of the Greek poleis or that of the Roman Empire, it survived a great number of assorted documents which allow us to know the reality of their respective societies. Through teaching and researching as well, the professors of our Area disclose the extraordinary patrimony of Antiquity.