Here and about to begin!

Our group, minus 1, at our first dinner together soon after our arrival in London

So, our adventure is beginning.

First, a little history. Since 2004, the academic study of the Bible and its historical and cultural context has been done in BYU's Ancient Near Eastern Studies (ANES) program, which is housed in the Kennedy Center for International Studies. Because most of our ANES students have primarily biblical interests, our program consists of two majors, which emphasize Hebrew Bible and Greek New Testament respectively. Our interdisciplinary program draws on faculty from Hebrew, Greek, ancient scripture, history, and anthropology.

London, here we come!

A standard part of all Kennedy Center programs is a required or "strongly encouraged" international experience, be that a study abroad or an internship. We encourage our ANES students to spend a semester in the BYU Jerusalem Center, but many of the other areas of the ancient near east are not readily accessible because of the tumultuous political situation in the Middle East. Since my appointment as the ANES coordinator in 2012, I have been looking for ways to get more of our students abroad. In recent years, we have succeeded in securing funding to send many of our students on digs in Turkey, Jordan, and Israel, which is the equivalent of an internship for those interested in material culture.

Seven of my students who flew out from SLC with me June 4

But digs are not for everyone, and the artifacts can be interesting historically and appreciated aesthetically without "getting in the dirt." So I had the idea that if I could not take my students to Egypt, Iraq, Syria, or even Turkey in the given the current climate, what if I could take them to the artifacts? Many, many of these are now housed in the great museums of Europe, not in their original sites.

Thus was born the idea of an ANES Museum Tour of Europe. To keep it affordable, I decided on a short, 3-week program rather than the traditional 7-week term or 14-week semester study abroad. Museum and library work in the mornings and early afternoons would be paired with free time in the afternoons and evenings for more traditional site-seeing. I hoped for 6-7 of our majors and maybe 3-4 interested non-majors. We ended up with 7 majors and 17 non-majors for a class of 14 in our inaugural program.

My daughter, Rachel, is a ANES-GrkNT major minoring in modern Hebrew

Students coming in on the Underground from Heathrow

We all flew in to London from various places across the United States, and as of this evening, everyone has made it except for my assistant, Jake Inman, whose flight was delayed until tomorrow. I flew from SLC to London with my daughter and six other students. After getting settled in our hostel (more details on that after we leave), we went out for our first group dinner at a traditional English pub.

This is an academic program, with a prep class and considerable reading and study before going "into the field." For the first 4-weeks of this spring term, I assigned some 850 pages of background reading on the museums, sites, and most significant artifacts. I also prepared a database of 198 important items and works of art that we will be looking at together. In addition, students were to prepare 7 museum reports (each one will be a specialist on an artifact and teach her or his peers) and 4 site reports. Because I extended the deadline to today for the completion of these reports, it is my understanding that some of my students are downstairs in the hostel even now finishing their final assignments!

One of my students, who will remain anonymous, is reported to have said, "Less study, more abroad!" It sounds like my work is done and we have just started! :)

But this means that our fieldwork will be all the more meaningful, so stay tuned as we begin in earnest tomorrow!

#BabylontoBerlin
#BYUAbroad
#BYUANES