John Lewis Romer (born 30 September 1941, in

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant ur ...

, England) is a British

Egyptologist Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religiou ...

, historian and archaeologist. He has created and appeared in many TV archaeology series, including ''Romer's Egypt'', ''Ancient Lives'', ''Testament'', ''The Seven Wonders of the World'', ''Byzantium: The Lost Empire'' and ''Great Excavations: The Story of Archaeology''.

Biography

Romer was educated at Ottershaw School, a state

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of " room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exte ...

near Woking, Surrey, and the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It ...

in London, coming to archaeology through his

epigraphic Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

studies of painting and drawing. He went on to work as an artist in

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and

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metr ...

, drawing and studying ancient inscriptions. Romer began his archaeological work in 1966, when he participated in the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

's Epigraphic Survey at the temples and tombs of the ancient Egyptian site of Thebes (modern-day

Luxor Luxor ( ar, الأقصر, al-ʾuqṣur, lit=the palaces) is a modern city in Upper (southern) Egypt which includes the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of ''Thebes''. Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open-a ...

). From 1977 to 1979 he originated and organised a major expedition to the

Valley of the Kings The Valley of the Kings ( ar, وادي الملوك ; Late Coptic: ), also known as the Valley of the Gates of the Kings ( ar, وادي أبوا الملوك ), is a valley in Egypt where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the 16th to 11th ...

which carried out the first excavation there since the discovery of

Tutankhamen's tomb The tomb of Tutankhamun, also known by its tomb number, KV62, is the burial place of Tutankhamun (reigned c. 1334–1325 BC), a pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt, in the Valley of the Kings. The tomb consists of four chambers ...

in 1922. In 1979 he headed the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Cro ...

's expedition to excavate the tomb of

Ramesses XI Menmaatre Ramesses XI (also written Ramses and Rameses) reigned from 1107 BC to 1078 BC or 1077 BC and was the tenth and final pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt and as such, was the last king of the New Kingdom period. He ruled Egypt for ...

. In 1979 Romer and his wife (Elizabeth Romer, also an archaeologist and designer) founded The Theban Foundation, in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...

, a body dedicated to the conservation and documentation of the Royal Tombs of Thebes. One result of this was the creation of the

Theban Mapping Project The Theban Mapping Project is an archaeological expedition devoted to Ancient Egypt. It was established in 1978 by the Egyptologist Dr. Kent R. Weeks at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1985, it was moved to the American University in Ca ...

. Romer's books (some co-written with his wife) include ''Valley of the Kings'', ''Ancient Lives'', ''Testament'' and ''The Seven Wonders of the World'', many of which were televised. His most recent works, ''A History of Ancient Egypt: From the First Farmers to the Great Pyramid'', and ''A History of Ancient Egypt Volume 2: From the Great Pyramid to the Fall of the Middle Kingdom'' were published in 2012 and 2017. Romer lives in

Tuscany it, Toscano (man) it, Toscana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Citizenship , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = Italian , demogra ...

, Italy.

Works

Books

*Romer, John (1977), ''Damage in the Royal Tombs in the Valley of the Kings'' (unpublished) *Romer, John (1981), ''Valley of the Kings''; New York, NY:

Henry Holt and Company Henry Holt and Company is an American book-publishing company based in New York City. One of the oldest publishers in the United States, it was founded in 1866 by Henry Holt and Frederick Leypoldt. Currently, the company publishes in the fields ...

1981; . *Romer, John (1984), ''Ancient Lives: Daily Life in Egypt of the Pharaohs'' (Reprinted, 1990, as ''Ancient Lives, The Story of the Pharaoh's Tombmakers''); London: Phoenix Press, . *Romer, John (1988), ''Testament: the Bible and History''; London:

Michael O'Mara Books Michael O'Mara Books is a small, family-run, privately owned publishing house in the United Kingdom. Established in London in 1985, by an American expatriate, Michael O'Mara, a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and his British wife, Lesley, ...

; New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1989; (Based on the

Channel Four Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service in ...

television series ''Testament''). *Romer, John (1993), ''The Rape of Tutankhamun''; London:

, 1993; . *Romer, John (1993), ''Romer’s Egypt''; London:

, 1993; . *Romer, John and Elizabeth Romer (2000), ''Great Excavations: John Romer’s History of Archaeology''; London:

Cassell Cassell may refer to: Companies * ''Cassell Military Paperbacks'', an imprint of Orion Publishing Group * ''Cassell's National Library'' * Cassell (publisher) (Cassell Illustrated or Cassell & Co.), a British book publisher now owned by the Orion ...

; . *Romer, John (2007), ''The Great Pyramid: Ancient Egypt Revisited'' *Romer, John (2012). ''A History of Ancient Egypt: From the First Farmers to the Great Pyramid''. Allen Lane. *Romer, John (2017). ''A History of Ancient Egypt Volume 2: From the Great Pyramid to the Fall of the Middle Kingdom''. St. Martin's Press.

Documentary films

*''Romer's Egypt'' (1982), BBC TV; 3 episodes; 120 minutes *''Ancient Lives'' (1984), Central Television (ITV); 4 episodes; 205 minutes. *''Testament'' (1988), Antelope/

; 7 episodes; 363 minutes *''The Rape of Tutankhamun'' (1993); Channel 4/PBS/Voyager Films; 1 episode; 65 minutes *''The Seven Wonders of the World'' (1994); ABTV/Discovery Channel; 4 episodes; 202 minutes. *''Byzantium: The Lost Empire'' (1997); ABTV/Ibis Films/The Learning Channel; 4 episodes; 209 minutes. *''Great Excavations: John Romer's History of Archaeology'' (also released as ''Lost Worlds: The Story of Archaeology'') (2000); ABTV/Channel Four/Southern Star; 6 episodes; 300 minutes.

References

External links