Bloomsbury Summer School & Academy

Fascinated by ancient civilisations?

Monday 13 to 17 Friday July

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

To be held in person at UCL Institute of Archaeology (31 - 34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY UK) and livestreamed online.

Monday 13 July

10:30 – 11:00*
Students gather in the BSS&A Common Room / login to Zoom

11:00 – 11:30
BSS&A Director’s Welcome Address

11:30 – 13:00
1. The Image of Babylon: The Bible, Hollywood, and Saddam Hussein (LL-J)

Welcome Lunch in BSS&A Common Room (14:00 Short optional tour of UCL with the Director)**

14:30 – 15:45
2. The Tower of Babel: The ziggurat and the painters (IF)

16:15 – 17:30
3. Exhibiting Babylon in the British Museum (IF)

17:45
Non-BSS&A event: Get together with fellow students for a drink in the Woolf and Whistle Bar on the ground floor of the Tavistock Hotel**

Tuesday 14 July

10:00 – 11:15
4. Between the Rivers: Babylon’s beginnings (LL-J)

11:45 – 13:00
5. The Babble of Languages: Schooling and education (IF)

14:15 – 15:30
6. Hammurabi: Law-giver, war-maker (LL-J)

16:00 – 17:15
7. Babylon: Where the streets have (very few) names (LL-J)

17:15 – 18:30
BSS&A Social on Common Room balcony (you are welcome to invite guests)**

Wednesday 15 July

10:00 – 11:15
8. ‘To Boldly Go’: The Epic of Gilgamesh, Part I (LL-J)

11:45 – 13:00
9. ‘The Mayfly Floating on the Water’: The Epic of Gilgamesh, Part II (LL-J)

14:15 – 15:30
10. Visit to the British Museum: Part 1** (IF)

16:00 – 17:15
11. Visit to the British Museum: Part 2** (IF)

18:30
Non-BSS&A event: Get together with fellow students for dinner at Poppadom Indian Kitchen in the Tavistock Hotel**

Thursday 16 July

10:00 – 11:15
12. Political Mythology: Nebuchadnezzar I, Marduk, and the Creation Epic (LL-J)

11:45 – 13:00
13. Daily Life in Downtown Babylon (LL-J)

14:15 – 15:30
14. Babylonian Literature and Scholarship (IF)

16:00 – 17:15
15. Death, the Afterlife, and Ghosts (IF)

Friday 17 July

10:00 – 11:15
16. Babylon from Assyrian Domination to Imperial Expansion (LL-J)

11:45 – 13:00
17. By the Rivers of Babylon: The Jewish Exile (LL-J)

14:15 – 15:15
18. A Wonder to Behold: The Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar II (IF)

15:45 – 17:15
19. Babylon Today: The legacy of the mother of all cities (LL-J)

17:15 – 19:00
End-of-Course Drinks Party and Online Social (you are welcome to invite guests)

*All times are London UK time; **In-person participants only.

NB: Timetables, once published, are unlikely to change, but remain provisional until the first day of the course.