AIA Lecturer/Host: Stephen Harvey

Egyptologist and Director of the Ahmose and Tetisheri Project at Abydos, Egypt

Archaeological Institute of America lecturer and host Stephen Harvey has been the Director of the Ahmose and Tetisheri Project since 1993. The project centers on excavation of the monumental complex of King Ahmose at Abydos, southern Egypt, under the aegis of the Pennsylvania-Yale-Institute of Fine Arts, NYU Expedition to Abydos. Currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Stony Brook University, he received his Ph.D. in Egyptian Archaeology in 1998 from the University of Pennsylvania, and his B.A. in Archaeological Studies from Yale University in 1987. Steve’s fieldwork in and around the pyramid complex of Ahmose (ca. 1550-1525 B.C.) has provided important new insight into temple architecture and decoration at the outset of Egypt’s New Kingdom. His book on the excavations is in press at Oriental Institute Press, University of Chicago, and will appear in 2009.
In addition to extensive fieldwork at Abydos, Steve has worked in Egypt at Giza and Memphis, as well as on archaeological projects in the United States, Syria, and Turkey. From 2003-2006, Steve was Assistant Professor of Egyptian Archaeology in the Oriental Institute and the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at The University of Chicago. In 2006, he led the reinstallation of the Picken Family Nubian Gallery of the Oriental Institute Museum, together with co-Curator Bruce Williams. From 1998 to 2002, Steve was Assistant Director of the Institute of Egyptian Art & Archaeology and Assistant Professor in the Department of Art of the University of Memphis, Tennessee.
Steve has been interviewed for a number of television documentaries for the History Channel and National Geographic, and has been invited to lecture at a number of institutions in the U.S., as well as in Canada, England, Egypt, France, Australia, and New Zealand. In 2008-09 he lectured on the Archaeological Institute of America’s national circuit. Steve has also been a lecturer on previous study tours to Egypt sponsored by major U.S. museums and the AIA, including almost annual departures of the AIA’s Behind the Scenes in Ancient Egypt program since 2007.