David Bourke O'Connor (5 February 1938 – 1 October 2022) was an Australian-American Egyptologist who primarily worked in the fields of Ancient Egypt and Nubia.
O'Connor was the Lila Acheson Wallace Professor Emeritus at New York University's Institute of Fine Art, the Curator Emeritus of the University of Pennsylvania's Egyptian Museum, and the director emeritus of the Abydos Archaeology expedition in Egypt.
O'Connor was best known for his work in the excavation of the ancient city of Abydos in Egypt beginning in 1967.
Early life
Born in Sydney in 1938, O'Connor's interests in archaeology and ancient history originated when he was a child. His initial interest centered around the ancient civilization of Babylon. As a teen, O'Connor built a replica of the city of Babylon out of bricks in a field adjacent to his home, and recreated the Fall of Babylon by setting the field alight during the height of a series bush fires in New South Wales.
Education
O'Connor received a Bachelor of Arts in Archaeology from the University of Sydney in 1959. While completing his bachelor's degree he focused on the ancient history of Cyprus, with a broader interest in the ancient history of the Near East. The University of Sydney did not have a specialised department of Near East studies, so O'Connor moved to the United Kingdom to continue his education. He received a Diploma in Egyptology from University College London in 1962.
At University College London O'Connor engaged in his first fieldwork. He spent three seasons in Sudan, working as part of the Nubian Salvage Campaign. In Sudan he worked under Walter B. Emery. Emery had notably discovered the Buhen Horse in the same area in 1959, the earliest example of a horse to be discovered at an Ancient Egyptian site. As a result of their excavations in Sudan, Emery and O'Connor published works on an Old Kingdom era town and Middle Kingdom era fortress at Buhen. While working in Sudan O'Connor developed his academic focus on the differences and interactions between Ancient Near Eastern civilizations. This area of study was the focus of O'Connor's most notable publication, Ancient Nubia: Egypt's Rival in Africa.
O'Connor received his PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1969.
Career
University of Pennsylvania
Between 1964 and 1995 O'Connor was a Professor of Ancient Egyptian History and Archaeology in the Department of Oriental Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as Curator-in-Charge of the Egyptian collection at the Penn Museum. O'Connor had a dual role at the institution, working as a lecturer and mentor to PhD students at the university, as well as exhibiting and maintaining the Ancient Egyptian collection at the Museum.
O'Connor claims to have always preferred education through the use of artefacts, having previously been particularly interested in the student-accessible collections at the University of Sydney and University College London. He utilised the large collection of Ancient Egyptian artefacts to aid in tutoring post-graduate students.
O'Connor expanded his use of the Museum's collection through a series of touring exhibitions. He began with an exhibition of artefacts from Abydos, using a mixture of the Museum's collection as well as new material distributed by the Egyptian Government. The most well-travelled exhibition was of Nubian artefacts, displaying a selection of the Museum's collection at eight cities in the United States, including New York. In an oral history where he recounted his career, O'Connor stated that while he enjoyed his time curating exhibitions, it was not well respected by peers within his discipline, and it did little to progress his career. This attitude of contributing to popular history sometimes at the expense of participating in more scholarly activity, such as lecturing, writing, and fieldwork, is further shown in O'Connor's appearance in documentaries about Ancient Egypt, like PBS's Egypt's Golden Empire in 2001.
The main sites O'Connor worked at during this period were Abydos and Malkata. Abydos was an important place of worship for Ancient Egyptians to the god Osiris during the Middle Kingdom era to the Late Period. O'Connor's work at Abydos began in 1967 as part of a joint Penn-Yale Expedition, and he continued to be involved in study of the site.