Exploring power, gender, death, belief, and society through the material evidence of ancient Egypt—and connecting that evidence to the questions that still shape the modern world.
Dr. Kathlyn (Kara) Cooney is a professor of Egyptian Art and Architecture at UCLA. Her scholarship focuses on craft production, coffin studies, funerary material, and the economies and social structures of the ancient world.
She earned her PhD in Egyptology from Johns Hopkins University and served as co-curator of Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2005.
Across university research, museum collections, books, television, podcasting, teaching, and public lectures, Kara translates complex evidence into accessible stories about authority, gender, religion, death, and the choices human societies make.
Kara’s work moves between academic research and public history, connecting archaeological objects with larger questions about political power, social order, and human behaviour.
Explore the projects that connect object-based scholarship, museum research, documentary storytelling, and public engagement.
International research into coffin reuse, funerary material, and social disruption during Egypt’s Third Intermediate Period.
A comparative archaeology television series that follows shared human practices across Egypt and other early civilizations.
Interviews, talks, podcasts, television appearances, and public conversations that bring ancient evidence to wider audiences.
karacooney@gmail.com
Recent essays, interviews, podcast conversations, and reflections on ancient history, archaeology, political power, gender, and society.
It is an extraordinarily dangerous thing to project a positivist power onto ancient women just because that’s what we want
Dearest readers and listeners, Thank you for your patience as I pour heart and soul into the Nefertiti book while
I just did a podcast with Dr. Jordan Jones on the Bible and Archaeology Podcast, which was great fun. We