Kathryn A. Bard is Associate Professor of Archaeology, Boston University, and is the editor of The Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt (1999). She has directed excavations in Egypt and northern Ethiopia since 1989 and was the recipient of the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration Chairman's Award in 1998. Bard is Co-Director (with Rodolfo Fattovich) of excavations at the pharaonic seaport at Wadi/Mersa Gawasis, where in December 2004 they discovered the first pieces ever recovered from ancient Egyptian seagoing vessels, including riggings and cedar steering oars.