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José M. Galán

  • Position: Professor
  • Department: Department of Sociology, Egyptology and Anthropology
  • Email: [email protected]
Brief Biography

José M. Galán is currently a research professor at the Spanish National Research Council. He studied Ancient History at the Complutense University of Madrid and obtained his PhD at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA. He defended his thesis in 1993, entitled Victory and Border, terminology related to Egyptian Imperialism in the XVIIIth Dynasty, which was published a year later in Germany as part of the series Hildesheimer Ägyptologische Beiträge. Galán obtained a Humboldt postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Tübingen, and in 1994 he returned to Spain, joining the Philology Institute of the Spanish National Research Council, in Madrid. His second monograph was published by the Seminar for Egyptology and Coptology at the University of Götingen: Four Journeys in ancient Egyptian Literature (Lingua Aegyptiaca Studia Monographica 5), in 2005.

In 2018 he published, together with G. Menéndez, Deir el-Medina Stelae and other Inscribed Objects, Catalogue General of the Egyptian Museum Cairo. Published by the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt. José M. Galán is the director of the so-called “Djehuty Project”, the Spanish archaeological mission working at Dra Abu el-Naga, on the west bank of Luxor, since its creation in 2001. He is also the editor of the project’s website proyectodjehuty.com.

One of the project’s most recent discoveries was a 4000 years old funerary garden, with the seeds well preserved and the trunk of a tree still standing up. Together with Betsy Bryan and Peter Doman, he edited the volume Tradition and Innovation in the Reign of Hatshepsut. Published in 2014 by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Together with Javier Trueba, he has directed three one-hour-tv-documentaries for the Spanish National Television, based on the work and findings of the Djehuty Project, which are accessible in the project’s website www.proyectodjehuty.com , also in English.

After 22 archaeological campaigns, part of the site and the chapel-tombs of Djehuty and Hery were finally opened to the public in February 2023.

Education
  • 1986 Bachelor degree in Ancient History by the Complutense University of Madrid.

  • 1993 PhD in Egyptology by The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA.

  • 1994 Posdoc Humblodt Stiftung scholar at the Egyptology Institute of the university of Tübingen, Germany.

  • 1995 Research contract at the Philology Institute of the Spanish National Research Council, Madrid.

  • 2000 Senior Researcher in the Department of Languages and Cultures of the Mediterranean and the Near East.

  • 2010 Research Professor in the Department of Languages and Cultures of the Mediterranean and the Near East.

Books

  • José M. Galán, Betsy M. Bryan and Peter F. Dorman (eds.), 2014, Creativity and Innovation in the Reign of Hatshepsut, SAOC 69, Chicago, Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.

  • José M. Galán and Gema Menéndez, 2018, Deir el-Medina Stelae and other Inscribed Objects. Catalogue General of the Egyptian Antiquities in the Cairo Museum Nos. 35001–35066, The Supreme Council of Antiquities Press, Cairo.

Articles

  • Ahmed Fahmy, José M. Galán and Rim Hamdy, 2010, “A Deposit of Floral and Vegetative Bouquets at Dra Abu el-Naga (TT 11), BIFAO 110 (Cairo, 2010), 73–88.

  • José M. Galán and Gema Menéndez, 2011, “The funerary banquet of Hery (TT 12), robbed and restored,” JEA 97, 143–166.

  • José M. Galán, 2013, “The Book of the Dead in the burial chamber of Djehuty (TT 11)”, EA 42, 21–24.

  • José M. Galán, 2013, “Nut on the ceiling of the burial chamber of Djehuty (TT 11),” in E. Frood and A. McDonald (eds.), Decorum and experience: essays in ancient culture for John Baines, Oxford, 119–126.

  • José M. Galán, 2014, “The Inscribed Burial chamber of Djehuty (TT 11),” in J. M. Galán, B. M. Bryan and P. F. Dorman (eds.), Creativity and Innovation in the Reign of Hatshepsut, SAOC 69, Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 247–273.

  • José M. Galán, 2015, “The hymns to Amun-Ra and Amun in the tomb-chapel of Djehuty (TT 11),” in R. Jasnow and K. Cooney (eds.), Joyful in Thebes: Egyptological Studies in Honor of Betsy M. Bryan, Material and Visual Culture of Ancient Egypt 1, Atlanta, Lockwood Press, 183–196.

  • José M. Galán and Ángeles Jiménez-Higueras, 2015, “Three burials of the Seventeenth Dynasty in Dra Abu el-Naga,” in G. Miniaci and W. Grajetzki (eds.), The World of Middle Kingdom Egypt (2000-1550 BC), Middle Kingdom Studies 1, London, Golden House Publications Egyptology, 101–119.

  • José M. Galán, 2015, “Linen weaved in year 2 of Amenhotep II,” in A. Jiménez-Serrano and C. von Pilgrim (eds.), From the Delta to the Cataract. Studies dedicated to Mohamed el-Bialy, Culture and History of the Ancient Near East 78, Leiden, Brill, 36–50.

  • José M. Galán, 2015, “11th Dynasty burials below Djehuty’s Courtyard (TT 11) in Dra Abu el-Naga,” in A. Oppenheim and O. Goelet (eds.), The Art and Culture of Ancient Egypt: Studies in Honor of Dorothea Arnold, BES 19, New York, The Egyptological Seminar of New York, 331–346.

  • David García and José M. Galán, 2016, “An archery set from Dra Abu el-Naga,” EA 49, 24-28.

  • José M. Galán, 2017, “Ahmose-Sapair in Dra Abu el-Naga: old and new evidence,” in G. Rosati and M. C. Guidotti (eds.), Proceedings of the XI International Congress of Egyptologists (Archaeopress Egyptology 19), Oxford, 215–221.

  • José M. Galán, 2018, “Ahmose(-Sapair) in Dra Abu el-Naga North,” JEA 103, 179–201.

  • José M. Galán and David García, 2019, “Twelfth Dynasty Funerary Gardens in Thebes,” EA 54, 24-28.

  • José M. Galán and Lucía Díaz-Iglesias, 2020, “The Overseer of the Treasury Djehuty in TT 11, Speos Artemidos and Deir el-Bahari,” in K. Gabler, et al. (eds.), Text–Bild–Objekte im archäologischen Kontext: Festschrift für Susanne Bickel, Lingua Aegyptia–Studia Monographica 22, Hamburg, 151–169.

  • Lucía Díaz-Iglesias and José M. Galán, 2019, “Seventeenth Dynasty inscribed materials from a robbers’ passage connecting two funerary shafts in Dra Abu el-Naga,” MDAIK 75, 99–117.

  • José M. Galán, 2020, “Discovering a Twelfth Dynasty Funerary Garden in Thebes,” Scribe 6, 40–47.

  • José M. Galán, 2021, “The Spanish archaeological mission to Dra Abu el-Naga: a chronological overview of the site,” in Ch. di Cerbo and R. Jasnow, On the Path to the Place of Rest. Demotic Graffiti relating to the Ibis and Falcon Cult from the Spanish Mission at Dra Abu el-Naga’ (TT 11, TT 12, Tomb -399- and Environs), Atlanta, 1–15.

  • José M. Galán, 2022, “Black spread over mummy cases and tomb walls in Dra Abu el-Naga,” in B. M. Bryan, et al. (eds.),One Who Loves Knowledge, Studies in Honor of Richard Jasnow, Atlanta, 171–185.

  • José M. Galán, 2023, “The tomb-chapel of Hery (TT 12) in context,” in B. M. Bryan and P. F. Dorman (eds.), Mural Decoration in the Theban New Kingdom Necropolis, Studies in Ancient Cultures 2, Chicago, 61–85.