Emily Catherine Egan

Emily Catherine Egan is an Aegean prehistorian and field archaeologist. She holds a dual B.A. in Classics and Old World Archaeology and Art from Brown University, an M.Phil. in Archaeology from the University of Cambridge, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Classics from the University of Cincinnati. Her research focuses on artistic practice in the Bronze Age Aegean, and particularly on the production, consumption, and iconography of Mycenaean painted surface decoration. She has undertaken archaeological fieldwork in Italy, Turkey, Jordan, Armenia, Cyprus, and most recently in Greece, where she is currently studying wall painting assemblages from the Palace of Nestor at Pylos, and Petsas House, Mycenae.

Dr. Egan has held fellowships at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (2009-2011), and in 2015-2016 was post-doctoral fellow of pre-modern Mediterranean Studies in the History of Art and Visual Culture Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In 2019-2020, she was Fellow in Aegean Art at Harvard University's Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington D.C.

In the field, Dr. Egan's research questions address issues pertaining to wall (and floor) painting iconography, mural reconstruction, cross-craft interaction, and visual literacy among different populations in the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries BC, and she is currently preparing a monograph on decorated Mycenaean floors. At Maryland, she offers undergraduate courses on Greek art and archaeology, Aegean prehistory, ancient portraiture, and the archaeology of color.

Dr. Egan is a faculty affiliate of the Department of Classics.