Director and Archaeologist
Ancient Egypt Research Associates (AERA)
Giza, Egypt

Collaborations:
Egypt Research

Biography
Mark Lehner is recognized internationally as a leader in research and thought on Ancient Egyptian cultures. He holds a doctorate in Egyptology from Yale University and has served on the faculty at the University of Chicago and Harvard University. He is now head of Ancient Egypt Research Associates, the premier non-profit organization conducting archaeological research and educational programs in Egypt.

Dr. Lehner’s career began in 1973 when, as a student at the American University in Cairo, he sought the prophesied Hall of Records that some claimed lay beneath the Sphinx. Exploring for months around the Pyramids and Sphinx, Dr. Lehner discovered that some of our long-held notions contradicted the “ground truth” evidence. Since then, Dr. Lehner has focused his research on the social context of the Giza Plateau.

In the 1980s, Dr. Lehner founded AERA, which now fields a talented group of archaeologists and specialists representing a dozen countries. Dr. Lehner and the AERA team have been responsible for discovering the city where the Pyramid builders lived and for providing scientific evidence for life in the Lost City of the Pyramids. AERA’s Field School was founded in 2005 and provides Egyptian officials the knowledge needed to ensure that all digs in Egypt are conducted with internationally accepted scientific methods.

Lehner has appeared on many television programs including National Geographic’s Explorer and NOVA’s Secrets of Lost Empires series. He is author of The Complete Pyramids and his work has appeared in articles in National Geographic, Smithsonian, Discover and Archaeology.

From Dr. Lehner:
The Waitt Institute has been instrumental in helping AERA evolve into one of the leading nonprofit organizations advancing archaeological research in Egypt. With support from the Waitt Institute, AERA’s interdisciplinary team has salvaged more than 7 hectares of the footprint settlement of Giza’s pyramid builders – now known as the Lost City of the Pyramids. We are also reconstructing the basic processes and structures of everyday life in this 4,500-year old city. Our approach is precisely anthropological archaeology, which brings AERA into a synergy with the Waitt Institute for Discovery that makes it possible to teach scientific archaeology in the AERA field school for Egyptian archaeologists, moving us into critical educational and cultural exchange.