Kathrin Gabler (born 1984 in

Ingolstadt Ingolstadt (; Austro-Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian: ) is an Independent city#Germany, independent city on the Danube, in Upper Bavaria, with 142,308 inhabitants (as of 31 December 2023). Around half a million people live in the metropolitan ...

) is a German Egyptologist. She is the current professor of

Egyptology Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Ancient Greek, Greek , ''wiktionary:-logia, -logia''; ) is the scientific study of ancient Egypt. The topics studied include ancient Egyptian History of Egypt, history, Egyptian language, language, Ancient Egypt ...

at the

University of Mainz The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz () is a public research university in Mainz, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany. It has been named after the printer Johannes Gutenberg since 1946. it had approximately 32,000 students enrolled in around 100 a ...

, a German U15 research university, and a specialist on

Deir el-Medina Deir el-Medina (), or Dayr al-Madīnah, is an ancient Egyptian workmen's village which was home to the artisans who worked on the tombs in the Valley of the Kings during the 18th to 20th Dynasties of the New Kingdom of Egypt (ca. 1550–1080 BC). ...

prosopography Prosopography is an investigation of the common characteristics of a group of people, whose individual biographies may be largely untraceable. Research subjects are analysed by means of a collective study of their lives, in multiple career-line a ...

Hieratic Hieratic (; ) is the name given to a cursive writing system used for Ancient Egyptian and the principal script used to write that language from its development in the third millennium BCE until the rise of Demotic in the mid-first millennium BCE ...

script, and

Egyptian archaeology Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , ''-logia''; ) is the scientific study of ancient Egypt. The topics studied include ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end ...

Education and academic career

Kathrin Gabler received her

Magister Artium A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

degree at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

in 2010. She obtained her doctoral degree at the same university in 2016 after a stay at

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince of Orange as a Protestantism, Protestant institution, it holds the d ...

. After that she taught Egyptology at the University of Munich, the

University of Basel The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis''; German: ''Universität Basel'') is a public research university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest univ ...

, the

Humboldt University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

, and the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen (, KU) is a public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia, after Uppsala University. ...

. In 2023–2024 she worked at the Cairo Division of the

German Archaeological Institute The German Archaeological Institute (, ''DAI'') is a research institute in the field of archaeology (and other related fields). The DAI is a "federal agency" under the Federal Foreign Office, Federal Foreign Office of Germany. Status, tasks and ...

. In July 2024 Kathrin Gabler assumed the full professorship at the University of Mainz, succeeding as the chair of Egyptology. Kathrin Gabler is a founding member and was an original member of the governing board of the German Association of Egyptology ( Verband der Ägyptologie).

Research

Kathrin Gabler has participated in diverse field projects in Egypt, including the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

epigraphic and conservation survey at

Elkab Elkab, also spelled El-Kab or El Kab, is an Upper Egyptian site on the east bank of the Nile at the mouth of the Wadi Hillal about south of Luxor (ancient Thebes, Egypt, Thebes). Elkab was called Nekheb in the Egyptian language ( , ), a name t ...

and Hagr

Edfu Edfu (, , , ; also spelt Idfu, or in modern French as Edfou) is an Egyptian city, located on the west bank of the Nile River between Esna and Aswan, with a population of approximately 60,000 people. Edfu is the site of the Ptolemaic Temple of H ...

, the German excavations at the Deir el-Bakhit Coptic monastery. Since 2024, she works at the

Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III The Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III, also known as Kom el-Hettân, was built by the main architect Amenhotep, son of Hapu, for Pharaoh Amenhotep III during the 18th dynasty of the New Kingdom. The mortuary temple is located on the Western bank ...

in Kom el-Hettân. As of 2024, Gabler manages the within the framework of a joint project between the German Archaeological Institute and the University of Mainz. Since 2020, Kathrin Gabler is the director of exploration and restoration works at the Theban tomb TT217 as part of an

Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes c ...

mission. In 2019–2023, Gabler participated in the ''Crossing Boundaries'' project (a cooperation between the Universities of

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

and

Liège Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...

as well as

Museo Egizio The Museo Egizio () or Egyptian Museum is an archaeological museum in Turin, Italy, specializing in Art of Ancient Egypt, Egyptian archaeology and anthropology. It houses List of museums of Egyptian antiquities, one of the largest collections of ...

), which processed

papyri Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, ''Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'' or ''papyruses'') can ...

in the

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

. In her monograph, based on PhD dissertation, Gabler examined the service personnel at

, tracing the data on individual occupations and establishing the patterns of social mobility within this group. The lists of documents for the service personnel compiled in the course of the work are available in open access as part of the Deir el-Medina database. According to Anne Austin, Gabler's book significantly advances the understanding of service professionals at Deir el-Medina. Hanane Gaber maintains that Gabler's book fills a gap in the knowledge of Deir el-Medina personnel. Gabler further published over 20 research papers, editing new textual material and studying different aspects of life at Deir el-Medina and beyond.

Selected publications

* * * * * * Besides, Gabler co-edited five volumes of proceedings of the Münchner and Berliner Arbeitskreis "Junge Ägyptologie" (Young Egyptology), a

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

for Susanne Bickel, as well as an Open-Access book series ''New Kingdom Hieratic Collections From Around the World''.Kathrin Gabler, Andrea Fanciulli, Kathrin Gabler, Jessica Izak, Martina Landrino u. a.: ''New Kingdom Hieratic Collections From Around the World. Crossing boundaries'' Band 1, Presses Universitaires de Liège, Liège 2024, ISBN 978-2-87562-415-4,

Education and academic career

Research

Selected publications

References

Further reading