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Department of Archaeology

 

Dr Yannis Galanakis

Biography

I conduct research on the Bronze Age Aegean. This research has focussed on examining the role of burials and mortuary rituals in Minoan and Mycenaean societies (2nd millennium BCE) through fieldwork and the study of past excavations in Greece and adjacent regions. I am currently engaged in a field project focussing on the excavation of Mycenaean tombs at Prosilio near Orchomenos in central Greece, a collaborative project between the British School at Athens and the Ephorate of Antiquities of Boeotia/Hellenic Ministry of Culture & Sports.

Research

  • Archaeology of the Bronze Age Aegean
  • Analysis of mortuary practices and of social complexity

I was the Principal Investigator of Lerna: the analysis, interpretation and publication of the Middle Bronze Age phase, a project researched by Dr Lindsay Spencer (2015–2018).

I have recently co-curated the Codebreakers and Groundbreakers exhibition in the Fitzwilliam Museum which attracted 45,000 visitors (https://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/calendar/whatson/codebreakers-and-groundbreakers).

Publication

Journal articles

2020

  • Aravantinos, VL., Fappas, I. and Galanakis, Y., 2020. ATOP THE KADMEIA: MYCENAEAN ROOF TILES FROM THEBES IN CONTEXT The Annual of the British School at Athens, v. 115
    Doi: 10.1017/s006824542000009x
    •

    2018

  • Galanakis, Y., 2018. A survey of Late Bronze Age funerary archaeology over the last 25 years in the central and southern Aegean Archaeological Reports 64 (2017–2018),
    Doi: http://doi.org/10.1017/S0570608413000XXX
    •

    2017 (Accepted for publication)

  • Galanakis, I. and Egan, EC., 2017 (Accepted for publication). A Lost Mycenaean Fresco Fragment Re-examined Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici,
    •

    2017

  • Galanakis, I., 2017. Review of M. Marthari, C. Renfrew, and M. Boyd: Early Cycladic Sculpture in Context The Art Newspaper, v. 290
    •
  • Galanakis, I., Tsitsa, E. and Günkel-Maschek, U., 2017. THE POWER OF IMAGES: RE-EXAMINING THE WALL PAINTINGS FROM THE THRONE ROOM AT KNOSSOS Annual of the British School at Athens, v. 112
    Doi: http://doi.org/10.1017/S0068245417000065
    •

    2015

  • Galanakis, I., 2015. Death and Burial in the Mycenean World Omnibus, v. 69
    •

    2014 (Published online)

  • Galanakis, Y., 2014 (Published online). Book Review of Principi, Pelasgi e pescatori: L'Attica nella Tarda Età del bronzo, by Santo Privitera American Journal of Archaeology, v. 118
    Doi: 10.3764/ajaonline1184.galanakis
    •

    2013

  • Galanakis, I., 2013. Early Prehistoric Research on Amorgos and the Beginnings of Cycladic Archaeology American Journal of Archaeology, v. 117
    •
  • Galanakis, I. and Skaltsa, S., 2013. Tomb robbers, art dealers and a dikast’s pinakion from an Athenian grave Hesperia, v. 81
    •
  • Galanakis, I. and Nowak-Kemp, M., 2013. Ancient Greek skulls in the Oxford University Museum, Part II: the Rhousopoulos-Rolleston correspondence Journal of the History of Collections, v. 25
    •

    2012

  • Galanakis, I., 2012. “University Professor – Antiquities Looter”: A 19th-century Athens art dealer and the trafficking of antiquities in Greece under the first archaeological law. Part I The Anglo-Hellenic Review, v. 45
    •
  • Galanakis, I., 2012. Digitizing the Ashmolean's Linear B tablets from Knossos The Ashmolean, v. 64
    •
  • Galanakis, I., 2012. Review of N.H. Demand: The Mediterranean context of early Greek history The Anglo-Hellenic Review, v. 46
    •
  • Galanakis, I., 2012. Review of J. Bintliff: The Complete Archaeology of Greece. From Hunter-Gatherers to the 20th Century A.D. The Anglo-Hellenic Review, v. 46
    •
  • Nowak-Kemp, M. and Galanakis, Y., 2012. Ancient Greek skulls in the Oxford University Museum, Part I: George Rolleston, Oxford and the formation of the human skulls collection Journal of the History of Collections, v. 24
    Doi: 10.1093/jhc/fhq039
    •

    2011

  • Galanakis, I., 2011. Heracles to Alexander the Great The Ashmolean, v. 61
    •
  • Galanakis, I., 2011. Treasures of Macedon Apollo,
    •
  • Galanakis, I., 2011. An unpublished stirrup jar from Athens and the 1871-72 private excavations in the outer Kerameikos Annual of the British School at Athens, v. 106
    •

    2010

  • Galanakis, I., 2010. The Knossos Throne Room: shedding new light on an old problem The Ashmolean, v. 59
    •
  • Galanakis, I., 2010. The new Aegean World Gallery in the redeveloped Ashmolean Museum Excavations and Research for the Aegaeus - Society for Aegean Prehistory,
    •

    2009

  • Galanakis, I., 2009. Review of C. Gere: Knossos and the prophets of modernism The Art Newspaper, v. XVIII
    •
  • Galanakis, I., 2009. Review of J. Soles: Mochlos IIA. Period IV. The Mycenaean settlement and cemetery. The sites Bryn Mawr Classical Review, v. 2009.11.12
    •
  • GALANAKIS, Y., 2009. A MONUMENTAL DEATH: FUNERARY ARCHITECTURE AND SOCIAL DYNAMICS IN THE LATE BRONZE AGE AEGEAN Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, v. 52
    Doi: 10.1111/j.2041-5370.2009.tb00762.x
    •

    2008

  • Galanakis, I. and Kim, H., 2008. Showcasing the new Ashmolean The Ashmolean, v. 54
    •

    2007

  • Galanakis, Y., 2007. Art and Archaeology - (C.) Gallou The Mycenaean Cult of the Dead. (BAR International Series 1372). Oxford, 2005. Pp. vi + 240, illus. £36. 9781841718149. The Journal of Hellenic Studies, v. 127
    Doi: 10.1017/s0075426900002287
    •
  • Galanakis, Y., 2007. The Construction of the Aegisthus Tholos Tomb at Mycenae and the ‘Helladic Heresy’ The Annual of the British School at Athens, v. 102
    Doi: 10.1017/s0068245400021481
    •
    Book chapters

    2019

  • Galanakis, Y., 2019. Death and Burial
    Doi: 10.1002/9781118769966.ch14
    •

    2017

  • Galanakis, I., 2017. ‘Spy-hunter' as antiquary: Major A.G. Wade, cultural politics and the British Salonika Force collection at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford
  • Galanakis, I., 2017. Discovering Writing in Bronze Age Greece

    • 2016

  • Galanakis, I., 2016. A Roof for the Dead: tomb design and the ‘domestication of death’ in Mycenaean funerary architecture
    Doi: http://doi.org/10.1515/9783110480573-008
    •
  • Galanakis, I., 2016. Fire, fragmentation and the body in the Late Bronze Age Aegean

    • 2015

  • Galanakis, I., 2015. Exhibiting the Minoan Past: Oxford to Knossos
  • Galanakis, I., 2015. “Islanders v. Mainlanders”, “the Mycenae Wars”, & other short stories

    • 2014

  • Galanakis, I., 2014. Arthur Evans and the quest for the “origins of Mycenaean culture”
  • Galanakis, I., 2014. L'histoire de l'archéologie cycladique

    • 2013

  • Galanakis, I., 2013. A preliminary report on the archival material from the excavations of the tholos tomb at Ano Dranista (Ano Ktimeni) in Thessaly by A.S. Arvanitopoulos (1911)
  • Galanakis, I., 2013. The Aegean World at the Ashmolean
  • Galanakis, I. and Hicks, D., 2013. The Aegean and Cyprus
  • Galanakis, I., Kamash, Z., Shipley, L. and Skaltsa, S., 2013. Iron Age and Roman Italy

    • 2012 (Published online)

  • Galanakis, Y., 2012 (Published online). Zygouries
    Doi: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah02195
    •
  • Galanakis, Y., 2012 (Published online). Berbati
    Doi: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah02033
    •
  • Galanakis, Y., 2012 (Published online). Dendra in the Argolid
    Doi: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah02052
    •
  • Galanakis, Y., 2012 (Published online). Dhimini in Thessaly
    Doi: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah02053
    •
  • Galanakis, Y., 2012 (Published online). Gla in Boiotia
    Doi: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah02071
    •
  • Galanakis, Y., 2012 (Published online). Iolkos in Thessaly
    Doi: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah02080
    •
  • Galanakis, Y., 2012 (Published online). Korakou in Korinthia
    Doi: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah02100
    •
  • Galanakis, Y., 2012 (Published online). Lerna in the Argolid
    Doi: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah02108
    •
  • Galanakis, Y., 2012 (Published online). Menelaion in Lakonia
    Doi: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah02118
    •
  • Galanakis, Y., 2012 (Published online). Midea
    Doi: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah02120
    •
  • Galanakis, Y., 2012 (Published online). Mycenae
    Doi: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah02131
    •
  • Galanakis, Y., 2012 (Published online). Mycenaean archaeology
    Doi: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah02132
    •
  • Galanakis, Y., 2012 (Published online). Mycenaean society and culture
    Doi: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah02133
    •
  • Galanakis, Y., 2012 (Published online). Nichoria
    Doi: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah02136
    •
  • Galanakis, Y., 2012 (Published online). Perati in Attica
    Doi: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah02144
    •
  • Galanakis, Y., 2012 (Published online). Phylakopi on Melos
    Doi: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah02150
    •
  • Galanakis, Y., 2012 (Published online). Prosymna
    Doi: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah02158
    •
  • Galanakis, Y., 2012 (Published online). Sesklo
    Doi: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah02164
    •
  • Fappas, I. and Galanakis, Y., 2012 (Published online). Thebes in <scp>B</scp> oiotia
    Doi: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah02173
    •
  • Galanakis, Y., 2012 (Published online). Tsoungiza
    Doi: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah02196
    •
  • Galanakis, Y., 2012 (Published online). Vapheio in Lakonia
    Doi: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah02187
    •

    2011

  • Galanakis, I., 2011. Entry no. 37
  • Galanakis, I., 2011. Entries nos. 66a-k
  • Galanakis, I., 2011. Late Bronze Age tholos tombs in West Crete
  • Galanakis, I., 2011. Entry no. 106
  • Galanakis, I., 2011. Entries nos. 118-120
  • Galanakis, I., 2011. Mnemonic landscapes and monuments of the past: tumuli, tholos tombs and landscape associations
  • Galanakis, I., 2011. 160 years of archaeological research at Aegae

    • 2009

  • Galanakis, I., 2009. What’s in a word? The manifold character of the term koiné and its uses in Aegean prehistory

    • 2008

  • Galanakis, I., 2008. Doing Business: two unpublished letters from Athanasios Rhousopoulos to Arthur Evans in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

    • 2005

  • Galanakis, I. and Bennet, J., 2005. Parallels and Contrasts: early Mycenaean mortuary traditions in Messenia and Lakonia
    • Books

    2017

  • Galanakis, I., Christophilopoulou, A. and Grime, J., 2017. Codebreakers and Groundbreakers

    • 2014

  • Galanakis, I., 2014. ΑΘΥΡΜΑΤΑ: Critical Essays on the Archaeology of the Eastern Mediterranean in Honour of E. Susan Sherratt

    • 2013

  • Galanakis, Y., 2013. The Aegean World A Guide to the Cycladic, Minoan and Mycenaean Antiquities in the Ashmolean Museum

    • 2011

  • Kottaridi, A., 2011. Heracles to Alexander the Great Treasures from the Royal Capital of Macedon, a Hellenic Kingdom in the Age of Democracy

    • 2009

  • Deligiannakis, G. and Galanakis, I., 2009. The Aegean and Its Cultures Proceedings of the First Oxford-Athens Graduate Student Workshop Organized by the Greek Society and the University of Oxford Taylor Institution, 22-23 April 2005

    • 2007

  • Galanaki, I., Tomas, H., Galanakis, Y. and Laffineur, R., 2007. Between the Aegean and the Baltic Seas Prehistory Across Borders
    • Internet publications

    2012

  • Galanakis, I., 2012. To Serve and to Source: a consul at the service of the British Museum
  • Galanakis, I., 2012. Of grave hunters and earth contractors: a look at the private archaeology of Greece
  • Galanakis, I., 2012. The Sir Arthur Evans Archive
  • Galanakis, I., 2012. University Professor – Antiquities Looter?
  • Galanakis, I., 2012. Guns, Drugs, and the Trafficking of Antiquities. Archaeology in 19th-century Greece.
  • Galanakis, I., 2012. "Insignificant", "superfluous" and "useless": legal antiquities for export?
  • Galanakis, I., 2012. On Her Majesty’s Service: C.L.W. Merlin and the Sourcing of Greek Antiquities for the British Museum

    • 2011

  • Galanakis, I., 2011. Re-thinking Marathon: two 'memorabilia' from the battle of Marathon at the Pitt-Rivers

    • Teaching and Supervisions

    Teaching: 

    I am involved in the teaching of the following courses:

    • Classics Paper 1A: Introduction to Greek & Roman Art & Archaeology
    • Classics Paper 1B: Mycenae – City of Legend?
    • Classics Paper D1: Aegean Prehistory (different code in archaeology)
    Research supervision: 

    I currently supervise students in a range of topics related to the archaeology of the Bronze Age Aegean. I am interested in supervising students who wish to study for an MPhil or a PhD in Classics or in Archaeology in the following topics:

    • Bronze Age Aegean art & archaeology
    • Mortuary archaeology & social complexity
    • Trade of antiquities in 19th century Europe
    • History & politics of Mediterranean archaeology

    Current students

    • Jan Sienkiewicz (PhD, co-supervisor) – Ialysos on Rhodes: a study of chamber tombs and their assemblages (Biliotti excavations, 1868-71)
    • Rachel Phillips (PhD) – Mycenaean Art and Society in the Late Bronze Age Aegean

    Past students

    • Ester Salgarella (PhD, 2018, second supersvisor) – Aegean Linear Script(s): rethinking the relationship between Linear A and Linear B; elected to a Junior Research Fellowship (St John’s College, Cambridge)
    • Sam Sharma (MPhil, 2017); Tombs and Society in Mycenaean Greece –moved to a full-time job in education.
    • Michael Loy (MPhil, 2016); Frogs Around the Pond: religious networks in the Saronic Gulf; continued to a fully-funded PhD.
    • Roeland Decorte (MPhil, 2013); Rethinking the Minoan Order: wealth, exchange and social complexity in Palatial Crete; continued to a fully-funded PhD.
    • Charles Sturge (MPhil, 2013); Inter-site Relations in the Palatial Argolid: revisiting the power dynamics of the Late Bronze Age; continued to a fully-funded PhD.

    Other Professional Activities

    • Chair of the Mycenaean Studies Advisory Committee, ICS, London
    • Peer Review College, Arts and Humanities Research Council
    • Director of Archives and the Museum of Classical Archaeology
    • Member of the Cambridge Heritage Research Centre
    • Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Athens Archaeological Society
    • Life member of the Archaeological Institute of America
    • Editorial board member of Athens University Review of Archaeology (AURA) and Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici n.s. (SMEA)
    • Editor of Archaeological Reports (CUP) along with Dr Andrew Shapland: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/archaeological-reports

    Job Titles

    Associate Professor in Classics (Classical Art & Archaeology)
    Director of Archives in the Faculty of Classics.
    Fellow of Sidney Sussex College
    Director of Studies in Classics and Archaeology at Sidney Sussex

    General Info

    Takes PhD students
    Available for consultancy
    Research Expertise / Fields of study: 
    Museum Studies
    Material Culture
    Socio-Politics of the Past
    Art and Iconography

    Contact Details

    ig298 [at] cam.ac.uk
    01223 (3)38879
    Faculty of Classics

    Affiliations

    Person keywords: 
    Aegean Art and Archaeology
    Mortuary Archaeology
    Social Complexity
    Minoan Crete & Mycenaean Greece
    Archaeological Legislation and the Trade of Antiquities
    History & Politics of Mediterranean Archaeology
    Subjects: 
    Archaeology
    Themes: 
    Material Culture
    Rethinking Complexity
    Geographical areas: 
    Aegean
    Mediterranean
    Periods of interest: 
    Classical - Roman
    Copper/Bronze Age
    Iron Age
    Other Prehistory

    Contact Us

    Postal Address:
    Department of Archaeology
    Downing Street
    CB2 3DZ Cambridge

     

    Information provided by: 

    outreach@arch.cam.ac.uk

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