2025 - 2026 COURSES ONLINE AND IN LONDON

REVOLUTIONS IN NEOLITHIC ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE FERTILE CRECSENT AND BEYOND

Course Director: Dr Christoph Bachhuber (University of Oxford)

This is a 2-day weekend course to be held online, and will also be available on video recording afterwards.

When Gordon Childe introduced the concept of a ‘Neolithic Revolution’ almost a century ago, he was describing that period in global history when humans abandoned hunter-gatherer lifeways to take up a settled, farming-based way of life. In this 2-day online course in which we revisit the concept of a revolution in the light of spectacular discoveries in Neolithic archaeology since Childe’s time. Join Christoph in exploring the archaeological sites, excavations, and assemblages from the original (first) Neolithic landscapes of Western Asia – including Jericho (in Palestine), Tell Sabi-Abyad (in Syria), Göbekli Tepe (in southeastern Turkey), and Çatalhöyük (in central Turkey). Learn about pioneering archaeological methodologies and thought experiments that have revolutionised our understanding of this time period and the discipline of archaeology more broadly.

HIEROGLYPHS FOR BEGINNERS

Course Director: Mr Kit Devine (MPhil University of Oxford)

This is a 5-day course to be held online, and will also be available on video recording afterwards.

We are excited to bring back our popular beginners hieroglyphs course this year. Our Course Director has over 10 years' experience of the subject and as a former student of Dr Bill Manley (our previous tutor), Kit will take you through following Bill's teaching method. The course itself is a unique introduction to the world of Egyptian hieroglyphs specially written for BSS and requires no prior experience of the subject. Through a series of presentations and practical sessions, you will progress from the basics of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing to learning the language of the ancient Egyptians—and do so from day one by reading ancient monuments available online or on display in world famous museum collections.

This course is specifically intended for complete beginners but may well appeal to anyone wishing to refresh their knowledge of hieroglyphs, too. It has always proved to be an intense and rewarding experience.

READING HIEROGLYPHS: THINKING ABOUT MORTALITY

Course Director: Mr Kit Devine (MPhil University of Oxford)

This is a 5-day course to be held online, and will also be available on video recording afterwards.

As usual we have planned a new course for those of you who love to experience the culture of pharaonic Egypt up close by reading ancient texts. This time we will be exploring responses to the inevitability of death as expressed in a selection of sources. In particular, we will look at The Dialogue of a Man with his Ba, an extraordinarily dark work of Middle Egyptian literature which takes the form of a dispute between a man and this aspect of his soul, as well as excerpts from harpists’ songs, and spells from the Book of the Dead (the selection can be fine-tuned based on class interest).

Note that this is an advanced reading class for students with good experience of hieroglyphic Middle Egyptian. Normally we expect you to have taken both BSS courses HIEROGLYPHS FOR BEGINNERS (first stage) and HIEROGLYPHS: THE NEXT STEP (second stage) beforehand. As a rule of thumb, before you begin this course you should be comfortable reading all the texts in How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs (see Recommended reading). Nevertheless, do not worry about the intensity of this course; throughout the week there will be plenty of time for your own work and for questions and answers with your tutor.

CRIME, SORCERY, AND SCANDAL: A SOMEWHAT DIFFERENT VIEW OF ANCIENT EGYPT

Course Director: Dr Christina Geisen (British Museum)

This is a 5-day course to be held in person, livestreamed, and video recorded.

Discover a new side of ancient Egypt! Instead of focusing on famous achievements, this course explores the scandals, crimes, and everyday struggles that shaped Egyptian society from the Old Kingdom to the Graeco-Roman Period (c.2686 BCE – 395 CE). Explore dramatic events such as the harem conspiracy under Ramesses III and the tomb robberies of the late New Kingdom, along with misdeeds in the towns of Deir el-Medina and Elephantine. Magical practices used in a harmful way – sometimes at the heart of these events –- will be highlighted as well. Even the gods were not flawless, and myths like the murder of Osiris and the Destruction of Mankind reveal a world of divine drama. We will also examine related tales in ancient literature and discuss modern-day looting.The course includes an exclusive behind-the-scenes visit to the British Museum (in person participants only) and a creative workshop where participants design a concept for a museum display on the topic.

HIEROGLYPHS: THE NEXT STEP

Course Director: Mr Kit Devine (MPhil University of Oxford)

This is a 5-day course to be held in person only.

We are delighted once again to offer our second-stage course in Egyptian hieroglyphs. Kit Devine returns to show you The Next Step, which builds on the knowledge and skills you acquired on the course Hieroglyphs for Beginners.* In a series of practical sessions, you will be introduced to increasingly elaborate monuments, including monuments made for kings as well as officials. In this way, you will develop a more sophisticated appreciation of hieroglyphic writing and the language, including: ways of talking about the king and the gods; talking about the past, present, and future; and making negative statements. Through the week you will enrich your understanding of different kinds of monuments and expand your knowledge of Middle Egyptian.

* You need not have taken the BSS course BEGINNING HIEROGLYPHS, but will need to have already covered the equivalent material. Contact us if you have any questions.

READING HIEROGLYPHS [topic TBC]

Course Director: Dr Luigi Prada (Uppsala University)

This is a 5-day course to be held in person only.

Details to follow.

SAIS: ARCHAEOLOGY OF A LOST -- BUT FAMOUS -- ROYAL CITY

Course Director: Prof. Penny Wilson (Durham University)

This is a 5-day course to be held in person, livestreamed, and video recorded.

Sais (modern Sa el Hagar) was the capital city of Egypt in the Late Period (664 - 525 BCE), but the site has changed much over time and it is difficult to reconstruct its layout and form in the past. Sais was famed for its great temple to the goddess Neith and as a centre of ancient wisdom in classical sources -- but what is the evidence for the historical and mythical reputation of the city? The course will collect and analyse information about for the city of Sais from regional survey and geological investigations, archaeological work, archival material, and objects from museum collections. The focus will be to recreate snapshots of ancient Sais and the lives of its people from its beginnings around 4000 BCE to the modern day. The framework will enable a comparison with other ‘lost’ ancient Egyptian cities so they, too, can be rediscovered.

BABYLON: THE MOTHER OF ALL CITIES

Course Co-Directors: Dr Irving Finkel (British Museum) and Prof. Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones (Cardiff University)

This is a 5-day course to be held in person, livestreamed online, and will also be available on video recording afterwards.

Sometimes a single word conceals an entire conceptual universe. ‘Babylon’ is such a word. It has a double life, denoting the great ancient Mesopotamian city with a long and complex history and a fictive allusion with numerous connotations, from the Hebrew bible’s Tower of Babel through to ‘Babylon Berlin’, the name given to the hotbed of decadence that was 1920s Weimar Germany. Situated along the Euphrates in modern-day Iraq, the city of Babylon set the agenda for what it meant to be an urban civilisation. King Hammurabi provided its law code, while scribes copied out the legendry exploits of Gilgamesh, the story of the Great Flood, and the creation of the world. In his towering ziggurat, the god Marduk was worshipped by the mighty monarch Nebuchadnezzar and a powerful cohort of priests and nobles. Babylon is both history and myth; real and imagined. This absorbing and entertaining course, taught by two very popular and renowned experts of the Ancient Near East, explores the city’s dual legacy: its rich ancient past and its astonishing mythic legacy. What emerges is a fresh and exciting exploration of the world’s first and most illustrious metropolis – Babylon: The mother of all cities.

THE TRADE IN CULTURAL PROPERTY: PROBLEMS AND ANSWERS

Course Director: Dr Marcel Marée (British Museum)

This is a 5-day course to be held in person only.

This intensive summer course delves into the complex world of the global trade in cultural heritage. A range of speakers from the fields of archaeology, art market, and law enforcement will critically examine the ethical and legal challenges surrounding the commercial circulation of antiquities and art. They will focus especially on the central importance of provenance research — tracing an object's complete history of ownership and movement. A core objective is to equip participants with the knowledge and tools to conduct rigorous due diligence, distinguishing legitimate transactions from sharp practices like looting, trafficking and provenance laundering. We will analyse major case studies, with a particular focus on the profound issues affecting the archaeological and cultural patrimony of countries in North Africa and the Near East. We will broaden the scope to include best practices and historical issues relevant to other global heritage sites. The course will empower students and professionals to become vigilant, ethically responsible practitioners in the cultural sector.

BEGINNING BABYLONIAN

Course Director: Dr Irving Finkel (British Museum)

This is a 5-day course to be held in person only.

This course will cover the basic structure of the Babylonian language (a dialect of Akkadian) and provide participants with a good idea of its nature and how it works. We will read sample texts (cuneiform signs with their transliterations), including a commemorative brick, contract, letter, a legal text, spell, medical prescription, and an omen or two. Gilgamesh may also feature. Grammar will naturally cover nouns, verbs, particles, adjectives, and adverbs, outlined in taught sections and followed textually with texts of the kind just mentioned – analysing each word as it comes up in a friendly and discussion-provoking fashion. We will investigate how our modern understanding of the language enables us today to translate with accuracy and subtlety. We are fortunate that Martin Worthington's Teach Yourself Babylonian is available as it will be more useful to participants than any other publication. Your tutor will have no reluctance in accepting lively and humorous behaviour in class because the material is uncontrollably stimulating.

CLEOPATRA: FROM EGYPTIAN QUEEN TO GLOBAL ICON

Course Director: Prof. Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones (Cardiff University)

This is a 5-day course to be held in person, livestreamed online, and will also be available on video recording afterwards.

For two thousand years, images of Cleopatra, the last ruler of pharaonic Egypt, have been distorted by the fantasies of Western imagination and cultures. Our view of Cleopatra is structured not by the existence of the real Egyptian queen but by the historical and cultural influences governing the various renditions of her life. Taking particular images of Cleopatra from Egyptology, history, classics, theatre, literature, film, and art history, this lively and fascinating course explores the way that various formations of the queen have been created to serve particular political agendas and how concepts of ancient Egypt - and Egyptomania - have shifted throughout the centuries to reflect changes in society. A special highlight for in-person participants will be an exclusive visit to London’s Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre to go behind the scenes to view archives looking at Globe productions of Shakespeare's legendary love story and classic tragedy, Antony and Cleopatra.