Meet the Archaeologists

Dr. Otto J. Schaden
KV 63 Mission Director

Dr. Otto J. Schaden was leading the team that discovered tomb KV 63 while excavating an area believed to contain some workers' huts in the Valley of the Kings in February 2006. Schaden is currently the director of the KV 63 mission.

Schaden is an American Egyptologist with more than 30 years experience. He is the director of the Amenmesse Tomb Project. Schaden conducts his work in the Valley of the Kings under the auspices of the University of Memphis Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology and the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities.

In addition to his ongoing work on the tomb of Amenmesse (KV 10 ) in the main arm of the Valley of the Kings, he has also cleared and reinvestigated tombs WV 23, WV 24 and WV 25 in the West Valley.

Professor Earl Ertman
Associate Director; Art Historian; Professor Emeritus at Mary Schiller Myers School of Art, University of Akron, Ohio

Professor Earl Ertman is the associate director of the Amenmesse Tomb Project (since 1992), and he helped find the KV 63 burial site. His specialty is Egyptian art, and he is a long-time friend and co-worker of Otto Schaden. His role in the KV 63 mission is to describe and date the artifacts that the team uncovers.

Edwin Brock
Co-Director of Fieldwork; Egyptologist, The American University in Cairo; Theban Mapping Project (TMP)

Edwin C. Brock is an American Egyptologist, attached to the American University in Cairo. He is currently working in tomb KV 63. He has also worked in the tombs of Merenptah (KV 8) and Amenmesse (KV 10), along with Otto Schaden and the Theban Mapping Project (of which he was a member from 1997 to 2004).

Dr. Salima Ikram
Egyptologist and Faunal Specialist, The American University in Cairo

Dr. Salima Ikram is a leading expert in death, mortuary practices and burial in ancient Egypt. Dr. Ikram now lives in Cairo, and teaches Egyptology and archaeology at the American University in Cairo. In addition, she is the correspondent for KMT(a popular Egyptological journal), a frequent contributor to Egypt Today and the co-director of the North Kharga Oasis Survey.

Dr. Ken Nystrom
Ken Nystrom is a biological anthropologist based at Santa Clara University. He is a former student of Arthur Aufderheide, widely known as the "godfather of mummy research," and works closely with the eminent anthropologist Jane Buikstra.

His areas of expertise include stable isotope analyses (residential mobility, dietary reconstruction), paleoradiography and osteology. He also specializes in funerary contexts and is particularly fascinated by mummies. Ken's most recent work has taken him to Peru, examining Chachapoya mummies. He is conducting pioneering work on body decomposition to further our understanding of mummification techniques used in this part of South America.

Read Ken's blog.