Günter Dreyer

Günter Dreyer ( born 1943 ) is a German Egyptologist and was from 1998 to 2008 the first director of the Cairo Department of the German Archaeological Institute ( DAI).

Dreyer studied from 1969 to 1971 in Hamburg Assyriology, Egyptology and Biblical archeology and from 1971 to 1978 at the Free University Berlin Egyptology, Assyriology and Near Eastern Archaeology. During his studies he participated in excavations in Kamid el- Loz in Lebanon, at the mortuary temple of Seti I in Qurna and on Elephantine part. In 1978 he received his doctorate on the subject of Tempelweihgaben the early period and the Old Kingdom.

Between 1978 and 1987, Dreyer was in the Department of the DAI Cairo and participated in excavations at Elephantine, in the Wadi Garawi and at Abydos. In 1987 he received a postdoctoral fellowship from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and accepted a teaching position at the University of Berlin. In October 1989, he was second director of the DAI, Department of Cairo. He was thus responsible for the editors of the publication of the department and also took over the management of the excavations at Abydos. In 1997 his habilitation thesis appeared The predynastic king grave Uj at Abydos and his early written records and he became head of the excavations on Elephantine.

In November 1998, Dreyer was first director of the Department of the DAI Cairo. In addition to further work at Abydos he also conducted excavations at the quarry cemetery in Giza (2002/ 03) and in the royal tombs of the 2nd dynasty at Saqqara ( since 2002). In 2008 he retired and was succeeded by Stephen John Seidlmayer. But he will continue to work in the coming years on his excavations and research.

Writings

• The Temple of Satet 1 The finds of the early period and the Old Kingdom, 1986
• Umm el- Qaab 1 The predynastic king grave Uj and his early written records, 1999
• Editor Daniel Polz: encounter with the past. 100 years in Egypt. German Archaeological Institute in Cairo. 1907-2007, 2007