Curator Talk: Dows Dunham and the Archaeology of Egypt and Sudan

Free with museum admission

This lecture is organized in conjunction with the exhibition From the Hudson to the Nile: Dows Dunham and the archaeology of Egypt and Sudan.

One of the greatest archaeologists to work in the Nile Valley, Dows Dunham was born in Irvington, New York on June 1,1890, to a prominent banking family. He began his love affair with ancient art during a ‘grand tour’ taking in the museums of Europe, and during a horseback trip from Nazareth to Damascus in 1908. He then enrolled at Harvard where he was invited by the great archaeologist, George Andrew Reisner to accompany him to Egypt. Working as Reisner’s chief assistant he excavated the ‘secret’ tomb of Queen Hetepheres, and the Step Pyramid of Djoser, as well a whole series of pyramids and temples in the Sudan. He was also a pioneer in Museum Education, including creating models of some of his most important discoveries.

Image: Dows Dunham in the tomb of Queen Hetepheres in 1927

 

About the Speaker

Peter Lacovara (B.A. 1976, Boston University; Ph.D. 1993 The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago) is the 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 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 Consulting Curator for the Egyptian Collection at the Albany Institute of History & Art and Visiting Research Scholar at the American University in Cairo.

Peter Lacovara has consulted and been engaged in museum installations and exhibitions at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Walters Art Museum, the Field Museum of Natural History, the Worcester Art Museum, The Oriental Institute Museum, and the Carnegie Museum.

In addition, he has taught at Syracuse University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Georgia State University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and has 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. 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.

From the Hudson to the Nile: Dows Dunham and the Archaeology of Egypt and Sudan

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