Sherlock had quite a few ideas on why John wanted him on this trip, but he was not about about to tell him some of them, for several reasons.

"You admire my knowledge and you understand that I will have a lot of information to bring to this dig, even if I don't know ancient Assyrian, I do speak Parsi, which can also come in hand when it comes to speaking with the current residents of this area." He rattled off quickly, sure of his being right.