Lawrence travelled and excavated extensively in Israel, Jordan and Egypt before attending the University of Durham where he studied archaeology. He specialised in ancient human remains during his Masters' at Liverpool University Medical School, followed by a year of travel and excavation in the UK and Africa. He won a scholarship to attend University College London, where he wrote his Doctorate on ancient populations of the Western Mediterranean basin and the Canary Islands. He currently lectures at Birkbeck College, University of London. He carries out research at London's Natural History Museum and spends several months each year working on a major archaeological project in Peru. He is also connected with excavations in Egypt, Bolivia, California, Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Spain, where he works with a forensic unit recovering the fallen from the 1936-1939 Spanish Civil War. In addition to his research, he has interests in the classical world, ancient Assyria, geology, palaeontology, twentieth century art history and the history of London.

Helena Meskanen is an archaeologist, with a PhD from King's College London, where her research focused on ancient Spartan religion and archaeology. As a field archaeologist, she has worked in Greece, Italy, Israel, Scotland and her native Finland, and loves talking about the challenges, possibilities and realities of fieldwork. She has lived in London for 9 years, and finds the city's endless layers of history fascinating. From the British Museum to Roman London, from the Great fire of London to the shiny modern skyscrapers, there is always an interesting corner or an alley to explore.

Allison grew up hearing her grandmother's stories about her native Cairo, and her childhood fascination has turned into a lifelong love of history and archaeology. She has an AB and an MA in Middle Eastern archaeology and is hoping to begin her PhD soon. Her particular interests include feminist and queer studies, contact between empires, and the human-dog relationship through history; in a previous life she was a Latin teacher and still loves working with young people. For the last two years she has worked at the British Museum - the first place she ever visited in London - and has recently developed her own specialised tour on women in the Museum.