Rediscovering Sculptures of King Menkaure at the Giza Pyramids

Between 1908–1910, Harvard’s George Reisner found some of the most iconic pieces of ancient Egyptian art at the Menkaure Valley Temple at Giza—including four magnificent triad statues and the larger pair statue now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Over a century later, Ancient Egypt Research Associates (AERA) reinvestigated the temple. Join AERA President Mark Lehner to learn about new findings that span 300 years—from the time of Menkaure to the end of the Old Kingdom (2447–2153 BCE). Lehner also revisits the site where Reisner found the famous pair statue of the king and an unidentified woman–possibly his queen, mother, or a goddess–with surprising new results. About the Speaker: Mark Lehner is Director and President of Ancient Egypt Research Associates, Inc. (AERA). His forty years of archaeological research in Egypt includes mapping the Great Sphinx and discovering a major part of the Lost City of the Pyramids at Giza. Lehner directs the Giza Plateau Mapping Project (GPMP), which conducts annual excavations of Old Kingdom settlements near the Sphinx and Pyramids with an interdisciplinary and international team of archaeologists, geochronologists, botanists, and faunal specialists. From 1990–1995 Lehner was Assistant Professor of Egyptian Archaeology at the University of Chicago. He is now Associate at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures of the University of Chicago.