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Department of Archaeology

 

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

2025 (Accepted for publication)

Galanakis, Y., 2025 (Accepted for publication). ‘The difference in our professions’: (In)forming collecting and archaeological practice by thwarting antiquities trafficking in Greece, 1860s–1880s Journal of the History of Collections,
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1093/jhc/fhaf033

2024

Hood, S., Galanakis, Y., Hughes-Brock, H., Nafplioti, A. and Preston, L., 2024. A GROUP OF MIDDLE AND LATE MINOAN TOMBS SOUTH OF THE PALACE AT KNOSSOS The Annual of the British School at Athens, v. 119
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1017/s0068245424000066

Galanakis, Y., 2024. (N.) MOMIGLIANO In Search of the Labyrinth: The Cultural Legacy of Minoan Crete (New Directions in Classics). London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2020. Pp. xvi + 362, illus. £21.99. 9781350156708. The Journal of Hellenic Studies, v. 144
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1017/s0075426924000156

2020 (Accepted for publication)

Galanakis, Y., Fappas, I. and Aravantinos, V., 2020 (Accepted for publication). ATOP THE KADMEIA: MYCENAEAN ROOF TILES FROM THEBES IN CONTEXT Annual of the British School at Athens,
Doi: http://doi.org/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., 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: http://doi.org/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. 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 Journal of the History of Collections, v. 24
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1093/jhc/fhq039

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

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 new Aegean World Gallery in the redeveloped Ashmolean Museum Excavations and Research for the Aegaeus - Society for Aegean Prehistory,

Galanakis, I., 2010. The Knossos Throne Room: shedding new light on an old problem The Ashmolean, v. 59

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

2008

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

2007

Galanakis, Y., 2007. The Construction of the Aegisthus Tholos Tomb at Mycenae and the ‘Helladic Heresy’ 1 The Annual of the British School at Athens, v. 102
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1017/s0068245400021481

Theses / dissertations

2024 (No publication date)

Martin, DD., 2024 (No publication date). The Material Construction of Identity in Sparta and Lakonia (750–480 BCE)

Phillips, R., 2024 (No publication date). Curating the Dead: Bodies and Matter in Early Mycenaean Burials

Sienkiewicz, J., 2024 (No publication date). Objects for the Dead, Practices of the Living: Chamber tombs, burial assemblages, and social dynamics at Ialysos on Rhodes and in the islands of the south-east Aegean

Book chapters

2020

2017

Galanakis, I., 2017. Discovering Writing in Bronze Age Greece

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

2016

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. L'histoire de l'archéologie cycladique

Galanakis, I., 2014. Arthur Evans and the quest for the “origins of Mycenaean culture”

2013

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

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) v. 1

2012

2011

Galanakis, I., 2011. Entry no. 37

Galanakis, I., 2011. Mnemonic landscapes and monuments of the past: tumuli, tholos tombs and landscape associations

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. 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 v. 4

2005

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

Books

2017

Galanakis, I. and Christophilopoulou, A., 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. 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

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

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

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