{"id":29711,"date":"2025-04-09T18:19:38","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T16:19:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iaw.uni-mainz.de\/egyptology\/"},"modified":"2026-11-12T12:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T11:14:11","slug":"egyptology","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/iaw.uni-mainz.de\/en\/egyptology\/","title":{"rendered":"Egyptology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/jgu-base-pageheader>\n\n\n \n<\/jgu-base-anchornavigation>\n\n\n
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History of Egyptology in Mainz<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On the 1st of October 2013, the departments of Egyptology, Ancient Near Eastern Philology, Classical Archaeology, Classical Philology, Near Eastern Archaeology, and Pre- and Early Historical Archaeology merged to form the “Institute for Ancient Studies<\/a>“. At the same time the Research Training Group 1876 on Early Concepts of man and Nature (DFG)<\/a> was started (spokesperson until 2020: T. Pommerening).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In December 2013, D. Budde received her post-doctoral professorial qualification in Egyptology. Budde was awarded the venia legendi for Egyptology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2014, T. Pommerening’s was appointed a full professorship. Her research areas are Egyptian natural history and medicine, metrology, the history of knowledge, and the cult of the dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In April 2015, the 23-year long Mainz Academy project “Alt\u00e4gyptische Kursivschriften” (Ancient Egyptian Cursive Writings), lead by U. Verhoeven, was started in collaboration with Computer Philology at the TU in Darmstadt (A. Rapp<\/a>). The head of the team is S.A. G\u00fclden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2015, A. Ilin-Tomich<\/a> came to Mainz as a postdoctoral Humboldt research fellow. In 2017-2021, his project “Transformation and Variability in the Corpus of Ancient Egyptian Personal Names 2055-1550 BC” was funded by the Thyssen Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From 2016 to 2022, D. Budde headed her DFG project “The Mammisi of Edfu<\/a>“.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From 2020 until 2023, A. Motte from the University of Li\u00e8ge, Belgium, was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Egyptology department in Mainz on a Humboldt Fellowship, working on her project “The <\/strong>Kemyt: Towards a contextualized view of an Ancient Egyptian literary letter”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October 2020, T. Pommerening turned down a W3 professorship in Egyptology at the University of Mainz and became a W3 Professor in the History of Pharmacy and Medicine at the Philipps University of Marburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In April 2021, M. Z\u00f6ller-Engelhardt was appointed researcher and lecturer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July 2021, D. Budde was awarded the title “adjunct professor”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since August 2021, A. Ilin-Tomich has been leading his project “Ancient Egyptian titles in official and family contexts, 2055-1352 BC<\/a>“, which is funded by the Thyssen Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June 2022, A. Ilin-Tomich received his postdoctoral lecturing qualification and was awarded the venia legendi for the subject of Egyptology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From July 2022 to June 2024, Dr. (A. Yu. Krymsky Institute of Oriental Studies, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine) O. Romanova was working on her research project “The Adoration Gesture” in Mainz as part of the Volkswagen Foundation guest research program for Ukrainian refugees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July 2022, the interdisciplinary project “Ancient Sciences Innovation Lab (ASIL)” was launched under the direction of M. Z\u00f6ller-Engelhardt and S. Gerhards, which resulted in a new teaching-learning room and modern multimedia equipment in the lecture rooms and the foyer of the Hegelstra\u00dfe 59. The project was funded by the “room laboratories” funding initiative of the donors association and the Dieter Schwarz Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U. Verhoeven retired on March 31, 2023. She was awarded a senior research professorship by JGU Mainz from April 2023 to March 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In May 2024, M. Z\u00f6ller-Engelhardt was promoted to senior researcher and lecturer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the summer semester of 2024, the study program of Egyptology is part of the new joint degree program “B.A. Archaeology and Philology in Ancient Studies (ALPHA)”, which can be continued by a corresponding Master’s degree program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 01.07.2024 K. Gabler was appointed professor in Egyptology at the Institute for Ancient Studies, succeeding U. Verhoeven. Her research interests reach from social and economic history, and prosopography, to material studies and “object biographies”. Her research involves the New Kingdom\/Late Bronze Age, hieratic texts, and the workers settlement of Deir el-Medina. After studying Egyptology, Classical Archaeology, and Religious Studies in Munich and Leiden, she has worked as a research assistant at the department of Egyptology at the University of Basel, starting from 2022. During her time in Basel she became a post-doctoral researcher in the “Crossing Boundaries Project” and initiated the project of TT 217 in collaboration with the Institut fran\u00e7ais d\u2019arch\u00e9ologie orientale<\/a> (Ifao Cairo). Afterwards, she held a position as a temporary professor at the University of Copenhagen. K. Gabler is currently a researcher at the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo<\/a> (DAIK), where she was in charge of the photographic archive and the German House in Thebes.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/jgu-base-accordionitem>\n\n\n \n\n

In 2002, the three specialisms of Egyptology, Ancient Near Eastern Philology, and Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology merged into one department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The interdisciplinary study program B.A.-Studiengang “\u00c4gyptologie\/Altorientalistik<\/a>” (major and minor), was offered since the winter semester of 2008\/09. In the winter semester of 2010\/11 a corresponding Master<\/a> was added to the program. Egyptology can be chosen as a major in both programs. In addition, a doctorate<\/a> in the subject of Egyptology is also possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From 2005 until 2019 U. Verhoeven and J. Kahl (from 2008, FU Berlin) conducted research on the necropolis of Assiut, including regular fieldwork, in cooperation with M. El-Khadragy and other colleagues from the Sohag University. This research was funded by long-term funding of the DFG. From 2006 until 2008 J. Kahl<\/a> was an associate professor in Mainz, before he was appointed at the FU in Berlin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U. Verhoeven received a fellowship from the Gutenberg Research College for the period 2010-2015. T. Pommerening was appointed a W2 professorship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2010, the “Jungnickel Egyptological Study Collection” was founded, which contains replicas for display and teaching purposes. This collection is expanded regularly through donations and purchases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the summer semester of 2011, the department, including its library and offices, moved into the new building in the Hegelstra\u00dfe 59, on first and 2nd floor. Two lecture rooms are located at the ground level.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/jgu-base-accordionitem>\n\n\n \n\n

After the transfer of E. Winters, the chair of Egyptology in Mainz remained unoccupied for three years until K.-Th. Zauzich was appointed C3 Professor on October 1st, 1980 and an independent “Department of Egyptology” was established. On July 1, 1981, however, he succeeded E. L\u00fcddecken as a C4 professor at the University of W\u00fcrzburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1982 a C4 professorship was established at JGU with the appointment of R. Gundlach. He shifted the former research topics of Graeco-Roman Egypt to the “classical” periods of the Old Kingdom until the New Kingdom and established two major research fields in Mainz: Egyptian temples and Egyptian royal ideology. Through international cooperations he founded two conference series on these topics, the proceedings of which are published in separate series. R. Gundlach has supervised a total of 15 doctoral theses. Through a postdoctoral lecturing qualification Th. von der Way became part of the teaching staff in 1993. The specialism of Egyptology was given the status of institute, and moved from three rooms in the Philosophicum building to three apartments on the Pfeifferweg 5. In the middle of the 1990’s R. Gundlach founded the interdisciplinary working group “Northern African and Western Asiatic studies”, whose aim was to apply for and found the collaborate research centre 295. Entitled \u2018Cultural and Linguistic Contacts \u2013 Processes of Change in Historical Areas of Tension in North-East Africa\/West Asia\u2019, this collaborate research centre was funded by the German Research Foundation for a maximum period of twelve years, from 1997 to 2008 (spokespersons: R. Gundlach from 1997 to 1998, M. Kropp in 1999, and W. Bisang from 1999 to 2008).
R. Gundlach’s teaching and research activities did not cease after his retirement in 1997. In 2004, he founded the Mainz series \u2018K\u00f6nigtum, Staat und Gesellschaft fr\u00fcher Hochkulturen\u2019 (King, State, and Society in Early Advanced Civilisations), initiated a working group on military history, edited various conference proceedings and published two monographs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U. Verhoeven was appointed as the successor of R. Gundlachs in 1998. She specializes in the fields of Egyptian philology and religion, the Book of the Dead, and the hieratic script. As part of the SFB 295, she headed a project on the worship of Egyptian child gods. Thanks to the efforts of D. Budde, Ptolemaic Studies are represented at the institute since 2000.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/jgu-base-accordionitem>\n\n\n \n\n

Between the years 1971-1977, Egyptology was part of the Department of Classical Philology and was represented by Professor E. Winter, a specialist in the inscriptions of the Ptolemaic temples in Egypt. In 1966, K.-Th. Zauzich was awarded his doctorate. On June 24, 1975, he was appointed C3 professor and head of the new division of Egyptology. On August 1, 1977, E. Winter took over the C4 professorship at the University of Trier.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/jgu-base-accordionitem>\n\n\n \n\n

After the war, Egyptology in Mainz was represented by the Danish Egyptologist W. Erichsen (1890\u20131966) from 1948 until 1953. Erichsen was an associate professor and taught Old Egyptian, Demotic, and Coptic within the department of Oriental Studies, and he was a member of the “Mainzer Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur<\/a>” (Academy of Science and Literature in Mainz). As early as 1950, he laid the foundation for a long-term project at the Mainz Academy, titled “Demotische Namenbuch” (the Demotic Name Book), which was published between 1980 and 2000 and was edited by his students E. L\u00fcddeckens and H.J. Thissen. The work of W. Erichsens, “Demotisches Glossar”, was published in 1954, shortly after he was appointed professor in Copenhagen in 1953.
From 1953 until 1963 E. L\u00fcddeckens (1913\u20132004) taught the subject of Egyptology in Mainz. He joined the Academy of Mainz as a researcher in the project of the Demotic Name Book and obtained his postdoctoral lecturing qualification in Mainz in 1953 with a professorial dissertation on Egyptian marriage contracts. In 1964 he was appointed at the University of W\u00fcrzburg, where held the first chair in demotic studies. In 1956, G. Rudnitzky was the first to receive his PhD in Egyptology at the JGU Mainz. Because the subsequent researchers of the Mainz Academy project of the “Demotisches Namenbuch” (H.J. Thissen, and later G. Vittmann) lived in W\u00fcrzburg, the connection with Mainz was ended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Travel Information<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n