Smithsonian Journeys Experts

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 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.

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 at the Carnegie museum.

In addition, he has also taught at Syracuse University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Georgia State University, 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, 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.