Digging in Thebes in 1908, William Matthew Flinders Petrie discovered a spectacular burial of a woman in a gilded coffin bedecked in a massive amount of gold jewelry. The grave group, possibly the richest ever to leave Egypt was awarded to the National Museums of Scotland in Edinburgh. While the coffin was quite well preserved, the inscription on it naming the owner was damaged leaving her identity a mystery. It has been suggested that it may have named her as ‘King's Great Wife’. This talk will examine the burial and particularly the surprising amount of Nubian material included in the burial and how it might indicate who she may have been.
Peter Lacovara (B.A. 1976, Boston University; Ph.D. 1993 The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago) is Director of The Ancient Egyptian Archaeology and Heritage Fund. He was Senior Curator of Ancient Egyptian, Nubian, and Near Eastern Art at the Michael C. Carlos Museum from 1998 to 2014. Previously he has served as Assistant Curator in the Department of Ancient Egyptian, Nubian and Near Eastern Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Currently he is also Consulting Curator for the Egyptian Collection at the Albany Institute of History and Art and Visiting Research Scholar at the American University in Cairo.
He has also taught at Syracuse University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Georgia State University, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and been the W. K. Simpson Distinguished Visiting Professor at the American University in Cairo.
His archaeological fieldwork has included excavations at the Valley of the Kings at Thebes, the Palace city of Amenhotep III at Malqata in Western Thebes, Abydos, Hierakonpolis and at the Giza Plateau, and currently he is directing the survey and restoration of the site of Deir el-Ballas. His publications include studies on Daily Life and Urbanism in Ancient Egypt, Egyptian Mortuary Traditions, and the Material Culture of Ancient Egypt and Nubia.
Entry: £4 members, £6 non-members