John Romer (Egyptologist)

John Lewis Romer (born 30 September 1941, Surrey, UK) is a British Egyptologist, 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.

Romer is probably — along with Michael Wood — the best known television presenter of ancient history. His trademark style combines gentle humour, expressive hand gestures, expertise and respect for ancient peoples.

Romer was educated at Ottershaw School, a boarding school near Woking, Surrey, and came to archaeology through his epigraphic studies of painting and drawing at the Royal College of Art in London. He later worked as an artist in Persepolis and Cairo, drawing and studying ancient inscriptions.

He began his archaeological work in 1966 when he participated in the University of Chicago’s Epigraphic Survey at the temples and tombs of the ancient Egyptian site of Thebes (modern-day Luxor). From 1977 to 1979 he originated and organised a major expedition to the Valley of the Kings which carried out the first excavation there since the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb in 1922. In 1979 he headed the Brooklyn Museum’s expedition to excavate the tomb of Ramesses XI.

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

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