Bloomsbury Summer School
Fascinated by ancient civilisations?
We offer anyone with any level of knowledge, inspiring short courses on ancient Egypt and other areas of the ancient world.
2026 Course timetable
Monday 6 to Friday 10 July
SAIS: ARCHAEOLOGY OF A LOST -- BUT FAMOUS -- ROYAL CITY (in person and online)
Course Director: Emeritus Prof. Penny Wilson (Durham University)
To be held in person at UCL Institute of Archaeology (31 - 34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY UK) and livestreamed online.
Monday 6 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. Introduction to Egyptian Delta Archaeology & Sais (where we are in space, time & Egyptology)
Welcome Lunch in BSS Common Room (14:00 Short optional tour of UCL with the Director)**
14:30 – 15:45
2. Evaluating Egyptian, Classical, and Literary Sources in Context (using written material to talk about cities)
16:15 – 17:30
3. Accounts of Medieval to Modern Travellers and Map Makers (assessing what information can they provide about ancient sites)
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 7 July
10:00 – 11:15
4. Objects and Material from the Site of Sais 1 (assessing and organising the evidence)
11:45 – 13:00
5. Survey Work at the Site of Sais (creating maps, plans, and getting to know people and the place – above and below ground)
14:15 – 15:30
6. Targeted Excavations 1: Prehistoric and Predynastic Sais (from the Neolithic period to the Egyptian state – using soil colours, flints, pottery, and a bit of luck)
16:00 – 17:15
7. Targeted Excavations 2: Saite to Roman Period work (excavations 4, 10 & 7; using pottery and broken bits to explore cults, trade networks and the people of Sais)
17:15 – 18:30
BSS&A Social on Common Room balcony**
Wednesday 8 July
10:00 – 11:15
8. Stone Statues, Bronze Gods, and Faience Wonders (more objects in museums and collections)
11:45 – 13:00
9. British Museum Activity: Looking at Saite stuff in the Museum (your mission is to work out how to record objects from Sais)
14:15 – 15:30
10. British Museum Activity Continued
16:00 – 17:15
11. Discussion of Your Finds at the BM: Kawady elite cemetery (Saite Period burials and their record)
17:30
Non-BSS&A event: Get together with fellow students for dinner at Poppadom Indian Kitchen in the Tavistock Hotel
Thursday 9 July
10:00 – 11:15
12. Targeted Excavations 3: North Enclosure Units 5, 6, 9 Middle Kingdom to Third Intermediate Period (analysing data – pottery, sealings, and human remains)
11:45 – 13:00
13. Targeted Excavations 4: The Ramesside–Third Intermediate Period cities (archaeological dating using mud brick walls, pottery, and stuff)
14:15 – 15:30
14. Fifty Shades of Orange (our pottery record from sherd to stuck-together pot, to life cycles, function of rooms, chronology, and cultural reconstruction of an important historical moment)
16:00 – 17:15
15.Ptolemaic to Medieval Sais (textual and archaeological work from excavation 10, and Ministry of Antiquities work at Sa el Hagar)
Friday 10 July
10:00 – 11:15
16. The Hinterland of Sais: Survey work in the area and Naukratis (looking further afield and exploring wider links through survey and textual material)
11:45 – 13:00
17. The Others: A method for understanding the other 20 major Delta cities (models of ‘urbanisation’, demographics, connections – the unique dynamic Delta model?)
14:00 – 15:15
18. Modern Sa el Hagar, Its People and the Town (relationship of the modern people and the ancient site, towards a Site Management Plan)
15:45 – 17:15
19. The Royal City of Sais – Its future (from site to study, a digital universe)
17:15 – 19:00
End-of-Course Drinks 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.
