There is quite a lot of information available about the Amarna Period, but with a few exceptions, there is little mention of the officials who ran Egypt and its capital city during Akhenaten’s reign. Tomb scenes at Amarna frequently show the city’s buildings and the members of the court, but they are now in poor condition, and much research is required to identify what was depicted in the scenes, and how it relates to archaeological discoveries made over the past 200 years.

David Pepper will present a webinar lecture by invitation only, at 7 PM on June 15, which begins with a ‘walking tour’ of the city (to get to know the site better), and then covers what tomb scenes and modern excavations tell us about who lived, worked, and died there.


Amarna is a unique site in Egypt. It was built during the height of Egypt’s New Kingdom, and only occupied for about a dozen years. Abandoned, and never built over, it presents a snap-shot of life during the controversial years of Akhenaten’s rule.



David Pepper is a retired aerospace engineer with a lifelong interest in Ancient Egypt. He was one of the founders of the Egyptian Study Society, and was formerly an editor of the ESS publications, The Ostracon, and Scribe’s Palette.

Over the past 40 years, David has presented many lectures about Ancient Egypt around the Denver-Boulder area. He also was a volunteer docent at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science between 1985 and 2005.

He’s currently vice-president on the Board of Trustees of The Amarna Research Foundation, a fund-raising organization that supports excavations and conservation projects in Egypt, and is editor of their publication, The Akhetaten Sun.
David and his wife Jill have visited Egypt many times, and have been study leaders on several trips to Egypt.