Edward Brovarski, one of the most distinguished Egyptologists of his generation, an eminent scholar, a wonderful friend, and a leading authority on the Old Kingdom, has passed away at the age of 82. His death marks the loss of a scholar whose deep knowledge of ancient Egyptian inscriptions set the standard in the field.
After the death of fellow Egyptologist Henry Fischer, many of us remarked that Brovarski was the only scholar who could assume Fischer’s place as the colleague who, when confronted with a problematic hieroglyphic sign that others could not interpret, would at once be able to read it and provide its precise translation.
Before outlining his scholarly credentials and academic achievements, I would like to indicate briefly how I first came to know him. I was then a young archaeologist responsible for the Giza Pyramids. William Kelly Simpson, a professor of Egyptology at Yale University in the US, regularly visited the site to copy the inscriptions and scenes in the Old Kingdom mastabas that fellow American archaeologist George Reisner had excavated in the Eastern and Western Cemeteries.
Brovarski was a member of Simpson’s team, and during this period we formed a close and enduring friendship.
Simpson later invited me to Boston, Yale, and Philadelphia. I was then excavating at Kom Abu Billou in Menoufiya governorate and delivered lectures at all three institutions. During my stay in Boston, Brovarski accompanied me throughout. He took me on a thorough tour of the Museum of Fine Arts, introducing me to the distinguished US archaeologist Dows Dunham and to Mary, the secretary of the Department of Egyptian Art. He guided me through the Old Kingdom collection, elucidating the history and significance of each object. Those days, and the generosity and collegiality he showed me, remain unforgettable.
I subsequently received a Fulbright Fellowship to pursue doctoral studies at the University of Pennsylvania under the supervision of the late David O’Connor and David Silverman. One chapter of my dissertation dealt with the titles of the personnel responsible for the cults of the three kings Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure. Brovarski directed me to the relevant archival material for these titles, and our friendship continued to deepen.
At this time, he expressed his desire to publish work on the Abu Bakr Cemetery at Giza. Because the concession belonged to Cairo University, I consulted with the Egyptian professors of archaeology at Cairo University, Ali Radwan and Tohfa Handousa, and the then Permanent Committee of Antiquities subsequently authorised a US expedition under the auspices of Brown University in Rhode Island, in collaboration with the two Egyptian scholars.
Brovarski began the systematic recording and epigraphic documentation of the Western Cemetery in 1999. What particularly impressed me was his unwavering commitment to training the next generation: he insisted on involving students from both Cairo University and Brown University, as well as inspectors from the Giza Inspectorate.
The Egyptian Egyptologist Ahmed Fakhri Abu Bakr had died in 1973 without publishing on this important Cemetery of relatively low-ranking individuals. Brovarski and his team undertook the epigraphic documentation of these tombs, recording offering basins, false doors, and door panels with offering-table scenes, lintels, and column drums that attest to the identity and status of those interred in the concession.
The resulting volume was a major contribution to Old Kingdom studies. It still provides crucial data concerning individuals engaged in a wide range of occupations, among them washermen, brewers, sweet‑makers, tomb owners, priests, palace servants, owners of the “sekhet” (income) of the boat, scribes and tenant farmers of the palace, carpenters, and tomb-makers.
It became clear that these personnel, who served the king in diverse capacities, were buried in close proximity to the royal tombs in the Western Cemetery. The publication is exemplary in its precision and philological rigour. Brovarski scrutinised every word and every description of every scene, and the volume is virtually devoid of error. It appeared in print in 2020.
We remained in regular correspondence by email after his work in Egypt. My respect for him grew further as I witnessed his profound devotion to his partner, Katherine Del Nord. They shared a life marked by mutual affection and intellectual companionship, and their house was invariably open to visiting Egyptologists, whether to accommodate them in their guest room or to welcome them to a gracious and convivial dinner.
She often recalled her experiences as a student with Brovarski in Chicago, and these recollections added a further human dimension to our professional community.
In 2020, I returned to the United States on a lecture tour and delivered a lecture in Boston at the Convention Centre. I organised a dinner in Brovarski’s honour, and he attended my lecture. During the visit, I learned that his long-cherished scholarly project was a book entitled The Art of Living in the Old Kingdom. The Institut Français had agreed to publish it in two volumes, and Ed subjected this manuscript to the same meticulous scrutiny that marked all his scholarly work, revising every phrase and reevaluating every argument. This intellectual exactitude undoubtedly contributed to the length of time he devoted to the project.
On a subsequent lecture tour, which took me to 33 cities in the United States and Canada, I again stopped in Boston. Brovarski asked Peter Der Manuelian to arrange a dinner in my honour, and Peter graciously organised an evening with some of his and Brovarski’s students. At that time, The Art of Living in the Old Kingdom was still unfinished, and I learned that Peter had assigned one of his students, Nisha Kumar, to assist Brovarski with the manuscript. I do not know its current status, but I sincerely hope that Peter will succeed in bringing this important work to publication on Ed’s behalf.
That evening, I had the distinct impression that this might be the last time I would see him. It was immediately apparent how profoundly his wife’s death on 11 March 2023 had affected him. The warm and ready wit that had characterised him for decades was now largely absent, and he seemed to have lost an irreplaceable companion. It was painful to see him in this condition.
I was fortunate to be able, in some measure, to acknowledge Brovarski’s scholarly achievements by arranging a festschrift in his honour. It is a source of consolation to think that he now rests beside his beloved wife.
Brovarski was born in Brooklyn, New York, on 24 June 1943. He began his higher education in 1961 at Rockland Community College, majoring in history. He received his BA from the State University of New York at Albany in 1963-1965 and his MA from the same institution in 1966. In 1989, he was awarded a PhD in Egyptology from the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilisations at the University of Chicago. His doctoral dissertation, “The Inscribed Material of the First Intermediate Period from Naga Al‑Der”, remains a fundamental contribution to the study of that period.
Brovarski’s museum career was closely associated with the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. In 1974, he was appointed curatorial assistant in the Department of Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art. He was promoted to assistant curator in 1978, associate curator in 1984, and curator of the Department in 1986. In 2001, he was appointed a visiting scholar in Egyptology and Ancient Western Asian Studies at Brown University.
He taught Egyptology at the University of Chicago and at Harvard University until 1985. His principal courses included Egyptian hieroglyphics; Egyptian painting in the New Kingdom; introductions to Egyptian sculpture of the Old and Middle Kingdoms; the decorative arts in Old Kingdom Egypt; Egyptian art and archaeology from the Predynastic Period to the Middle Kingdom; an introduction to Egyptian civilisation; Ancient Egyptian painting; and a seminar on the First Intermediate Period.
At Brown University, as an adjunct professor, he taught courses on the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, Ancient Egyptian Art and Architecture, the First Intermediate Period (seminar), the History of Ancient Egypt, and the Giza Necropolis (seminar).
Ed supervised numerous MA and doctoral dissertations at Harvard, Yale, and Brown, thereby shaping subsequent generations of Egyptologists. His fieldwork began in 1969 as site supervisor and archaeologist with the UCLA expedition at Qasr Al-Sagha, Meidum, and other sites. Around 1972, he served as epigrapher with the Pennsylvania-Yale Expedition at Giza, and from 1987 to 2000 he was co-director of the Giza Project.
His scholarly output was extensive. He authored four monographs, prepared a number of exhibition catalogues, and wrote numerous articles on a wide range of Egyptological topics, in addition to many book reviews. Among his most important contributions, in my view, is The Senedjemib Complex at Giza, which stands as a model of archaeological, epigraphic, and art-historical analysis.
With the death of Edward Brovarski, the field of Egyptology has lost a scholar of rare philological acumen, methodological rigour, and intellectual generosity. His publications, his teaching, and his friendship to colleagues and students alike will ensure that his memory and his work within our discipline will always be remembered.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 9 April, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
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