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Topic · Anthropology

Classical Antiquity Studies

Classical Antiquity Studies is a research topic within Anthropology. Science Explorer counts 49k research works in it since 1950. 11.3% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores various aspects of ancient Mediterranean civilizations, including the society, economy, literature, and religious practices of Ancient Rome and Greek societies. It covers topics such as demography, economic growth, poetry, religious beliefs, and social structures during the Classical Antiquity and Late Antiquity periods.

  • Ancient Rome
  • Greek Literature
  • Economic History
  • Roman Empire
  • Mediterranean Society
  • Classical Antiquity
  • Demography
  • Ancient Poetry
  • Roman Religion
  • Late Antiquity
Research works
49k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
5.5k
per year above
Top-10% rate
11.3%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-4%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
23% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Classical Antiquity Studies

Which countries lead Classical Antiquity Studies research?

By volume, the United States and France publish the most (1.3k and 1k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 1.3k works
  2. 2 France 1k works
  3. 3 United Kingdom 891 works
  4. 4 Italy 831 works
  5. 5 Spain 418 works
  6. 6 Germany 392 works
  7. 7 Brazil 266 works
  8. 8 Greece 220 works
  9. 9 Canada 178 works
  10. 10 Poland 175 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 23.4%France: 18.1%United Kingdom: 15.5%Italy: 14.4%6 others listed: 28.6%23%largest
United States1,348 · 23.4%France1,044 · 18.1%United Kingdom891 · 15.5%Italy831 · 14.4%6 others listed1,649 · 28.6%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Classical Antiquity Studies research?

By volume in 2022-now, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique publishes the most Classical Antiquity Studies research, followed by Ca' Foscari University of Venice and University of Oxford.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 354 works
  2. 2 Ca' Foscari University of VeniceItaly 233 works
  3. 3 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 141 works
  4. 4 University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 123 works
  5. 5 University of EdinburghUnited Kingdom 73 works
  6. 6 Universidad Complutense de MadridSpain 68 works
  7. 7 Université Lille Nord de FranceFrance 58 works
  8. 8 National and Kapodistrian University of AthensGreece 48 works
  9. 9 Sorbonne UniversitéFrance 47 works
  10. 10 Sapienza University of RomeItaly 45 works

Who are the leading researchers in Classical Antiquity Studies?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Classical Antiquity Studies include George Davey Smith, Michel Foucault and Mike J Clarke.

  1. 1 George Davey Smith United Kingdom 435k citations
  2. 2 Michel Foucault France 208k citations
  3. 3 Mike J Clarke United Kingdom 175k citations
  4. 4 Peter W.F. Wilson United States 161k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Classical Antiquity Studies?

The most cited paper in Classical Antiquity Studies is "Ancient Admixture in Human History" (Nick Patterson, Priya Moorjani, Yontao Luo et al., 2012), with 3,251 citations. Next come "Taxes and Trade in the Roman Empire (200 B.C.–A.D. 400)" (943) and "The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity" (906).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Ancient Admixture in Human History Nick Patterson, Priya Moorjani, Yontao Luo et al. · Genetics Open access 8 Sep 2012 3,251
2 Taxes and Trade in the Roman Empire (200 B.C.–A.D. 400) Keith Hopkins · The Journal of Roman Studies Nov 1980 943
3 The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity Peter Brown · The Journal of Roman Studies Nov 1971 906
4 SABISTON TEXTBOOK OF SURGERY David J. Dries · Shock 9 Apr 2008 875
5 The Power of Suggestion: Inertia in 401(K) Participation and Savings Behavior Brigitte C. Madrian, Dennis F. Shea · SSRN Electronic Journal PreprintOpen access 2000 815
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Classical Antiquity Studies research done?

The largest centres of Classical Antiquity Studies research in 2022-now are Paris (France), Venice (Italy), Oxford (United Kingdom) and Madrid (Spain). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Venice, Ivry-sur-Seine and Nanterre.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 ParisFrance 292 works
  2. 2 VeniceItaly 234 works
  3. 3 OxfordUnited Kingdom 149 works
  4. 4 MadridSpain 142 works
  5. 5 CambridgeUnited Kingdom 126 works
  6. 6 LondonUnited Kingdom 126 works
  7. 7 LyonFrance 121 works
  8. 8 RomeItaly 102 works
  9. 9 AthensGreece 102 works
  10. 10 New YorkUnited States 86 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. VeniceIT · 234.0 works97×
  2. Ivry-sur-SeineFR · 22.1 works63×
  3. NanterreFR · 62.5 works30×
  4. LyonFR · 120.7 works18×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Classical Antiquity Studies than the world average.

See Classical Antiquity Studies on the map

Where is the best place to study Classical Antiquity Studies?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge and University of Toronto score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 17.92%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of TorontoUniversity of OxfordCa' Foscari Universi…University of Cambri…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 78.618.3%15.2×141 +12.5%
2University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 68.87.2%15.7×123 +57.2%
3University of TorontoCanada 67.726.1%2.8×37 +57.8%
4Ca' Foscari University of VeniceItaly 67.411.0%148.9×233 +591.4%
5Ghent UniversityBelgium 67.316.1%6.4×32 +23.9%
6Leiden UniversityNetherlands 62.021.3%5.7×21 -8.4%
7The University of SydneyAustralia 61.122.5%2.7×21 +30.2%
8University of EdinburghUnited Kingdom 60.26.4%12.7×73 +26.8%
9Lund UniversitySweden 60.031.2%2.5×9 +100.0%
10University of VeronaItaly 59.919.1%15.2×23 +52.0%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Classical Antiquity Studies, country by country

Is Classical Antiquity Studies research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 4% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2020.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Classical Antiquity Studies as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.033% in 2024.

still counting0.050%0.10%0.15%Classical Antiquity Studies0.029% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Classical Antiquity Studies over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Classical Antiquity Studies9.5% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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