Free crash course in archaeology at the British Museum

I am a qualified archaeologist with 15 years’ experience as a tour guide. I have designed a new tour of the British Museum in the form of 1-day crash course in archaeology and the history of civilization, which I will be launching officially in the coming weeks.

Before I launch, I would like to try out the tour on some people before I start charging £40 per person for it. If you would like to come along for free this Sunday, please email me at [email protected] with your name, phone number and the number of people in your group, and I will email you back with details of where to meet.

I've put a lot of work into the tour and it should be a fun and educational day out. All that I ask in return is that you give me some feedback at the end.

What to expect?

You’ll follow in the footsteps of the great archaeologists, relic hunters and explorers who acquired the treasures of the British Museum, and learn about their adventures and the hazards they braved to make their astounding discoveries.

You’ll get to grips with the history of human civilisation, exploring our earliest origins in Africa, the first civilisations in Mesopotamia and the first cities, and the great empires of Egypt, Assyria, Greece and Rome, and what happened after they collapsed.

Along the way, you’ll tour the British Museum's most famous galleries, including Ancient Egypt and Assyria, Ancient Greece and Rome, the Vikings and the Aztecs, discovering world-famous artefacts such as the Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon Marbles and the Lewis Chessmen.

You’ll also have some fun learning to play one of the world's most ancient board games, The Royal Game of Ur, whose rules were deciphered by British Museum scholars.

After lunch you'll get down to finding out how we know what we know. You’ll hear about the geniuses who decoded ancient languages such as Egyptian hieroglyphs and Sumerian cuneiform, the world's earliest written language. You'll learn the basics of these writing systems and try your hand at writing your name in these Egyptian hieroglyphs.

You’ll then get to grips with the science behind archaeology, finding out how ancient objects are dated, how ancient sites come to be buried and puzzle over some of the mysteries of the ancient world that still elude us.