Lawrence is a bioarchaeologist, which is an archaeologist specialising in human remains and mummies. He travelled and excavated in the Near East, Africa and the Americas, attending Durham (BA) and Liverpool Medical School (MSc), completing his Ph.D. at University College London in 2004. He lectured at the University of London and the University of Winchester for 20 years, and is currently a research fellow at the University of Brussels. He has worked at the Peruvian site of Pachacamac since 2004, and has worked in Egypt since 2012. He currently directs a major excavation in northern Egypt, at a site dating to c.3000 BC, and also works with historical forensics at sites connected to the Spanish Civil War. He has been guiding for fifteen years.