Kathrin Gabler

Kathrin Gabler is a German Egyptologist. She is the current professor of Egyptology at the University of Mainz, a German U15 research university, and a specialist on Deir el-Medina prosopography, Hieratic script, and Egyptian archaeology.

Education and academic career

Kathrin Gabler received her Magister Artium degree at the University of Munich in 2010. She obtained her doctoral degree at the same university in 2016 after a stay at Leiden University. After that she taught Egyptology at the University of Munich, the Humboldt University of Berlin, the University of Basel,, and the University of Copenhagen. In Basel Gabler participated in the Crossing Boundaries project on the written material from Deir el-Medina. In 2023–2024 she worked at the Cairo Division of the German Archaeological Institute. In July 2024 Kathrin Gabler assumed the full professorship at the University of Mainz, succeeding Ursula Verhoeven-van Elsbergen as the chair of Egyptology.

Kathrin Gabler was a founding member and an original member of the governing board of the German Association of Egyptology (Verband der Ägyptologie).

Field work

Kathrin Gabler has participated in diverse field projects in Egypt, including the British Museum epigraphic and conservation survey at Elkab and Hagr Edfu, the German excavations at the Deir el-Bakhit monastery. Since 2024, she works at the Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III in Kom el-Hettân. As of 2024 Gabler is the manager of the German House in Luxor. Since 2020, Kathrin Gabler is the director of excavations and restoration works at the Theban tomb TT217.

Research

In her monograph, based on PhD dissertation, Gabler examined the service personnel at Deir el-Medina, 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 understading of service professionals at Deir el-Medina. Gabler further published over 20 research papers, publishing new textual material and studying different aspects of life at Deir el-Medina and beyond.

Selected publications

• Gabler, Kathrin (2018). Who’s who around Deir el-Medina. Untersuchungen zur Organisation, Prosopographie und Entwicklung des Versorgungspersonals für die Arbeitersiedlung und das Tal der Könige. Egyptologische Uitgaven. Vol. 31. Peeters. ISBN 978-90-6258-231-0.
• Gabler, Kathrin (2018). "Can I stay or must I go? Relations between the Deir el-Medina community and their service personnel". In Dorn, Andreas; Polis, Stéphane (eds.). Outside the Box. Selected papers from the conference "Deir el-Medina and the Theban Necropolis in Contact". Presses Universitaires de Liège. pp. 157–189. ISBN 978-2-87562-166-5.
• Gabler, Kathrin (2018). "Methods of Identification Among the Deir el-Medina Workmen and their Service Personnel: The Use of Names, Titles, Patronyms and Identity Marks in Administrative Texts from Deir el-Medina". In Haring, B. J. J.; van der Moezel, K. V. J.; Soliman, D. M. (eds.). Decoding Signs of Identity. Egyptian Workmen's Marks in Archaeological, Historical, Comparative and Theoretical Perspective. Peeters. pp. 191–218. ISBN 9789042937055.
• Gabler, Kathrin; Salmas, Anne-Claire (2022). ""Make yourself at home": some "house biographies" from Deir el-Medina, with a special focus on the domestic (and funerary) spaces of Sennedjem's family". In Töpfer, Susanne; Del Vesco, Paolo; Poole, Federico (eds.). Deir el-Medina: through the kaleidoscope. Proceedings of the international workshop, Turin 8th-10th October 2018. Museo Egizio. pp. 75–141. ISBN 9788857018300.
• Gabler, Kathrin (2017). "Stele Turin CGT 50057 (= Cat. 1514) im ikonografischen und prosopografischen Kontext Deir el-Medines: nb.t-pr Mw.t(-m-wjꜣ) (vi) im Spannungsfeld der Mächte der Taweret und des Seth?". Rivista del Museo Egizio. 1. doi:10.29353/rime.2017.892.

Further reading

• "Univ.-Prof. Dr. Kathrin Gabler". The University of Mainz. 2024-09-03. Archived from the original on 2024-09-03.
• Crossing Boundaries – Dr. Kathrin Gabler, Stephan M. Unter on YouTube