Christine E. Morris is an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

classical scholar Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

, who is the Andrew A. David Professor in Greek Archaeology and History at

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

. An expert on religion in the Aegean Bronze Age, her work uses archaeological evidence to examine the practice and experience of belief. She is a member of the Standing Committee for Archaeology for the

Royal Irish Academy The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ga, Acadamh Ríoga na hÉireann), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier learned society and one its leading cultural ...

Career

Educated at

Churchill College Churchill College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It has a primary focus on science, engineering and technology, but still retains a strong interest in the arts and humanities. In 1958, a trust was establis ...

at the University of Cambridge, and at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

, Morris worked for the

British School at Athens , image = Image-Bsa athens library.jpg , image_size = 300px , image_upright= , alt= , caption = The library of the BSA , latin_name= , motto= , founder = The Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, called the foundation meeti ...

prior to her first appointment at

in 1994. She is the Andrew A. David Professor in Greek Archaeology and History and an expert on the

Aegean Bronze Age Aegean civilization is a general term for the Bronze Age civilizations of Greece around the Aegean Sea. There are three distinct but communicating and interacting geographic regions covered by this term: Crete, the Cyclades and the Greek mainland ...

, with a particular focus on material cultures, including ceramics and figural sculpture, as well as inter-cultural relationships and religious practice. In collaboration with Alan Peatfield, Morris has argued that

Minoan religion Minoan religion was the religion of the Bronze Age Minoan civilization of Crete. In the absence of readable texts from most of the period, modern scholars have reconstructed it almost totally on the basis of archaeological evidence of such as M ...

should be viewed as experiential and shamanistic, and that perhaps the Minoan figurines represent altered states of consciousness. Morris has also argued for greater emphasis to be played on the role of the individual in figural craft practice. The most widely cited of Morris' works is ''Ancient Goddesses: the Myths and Evidence'', co-edited with

Lucy Goodison Lucy Goodison (born 1945) is a writer who has combined work as an archaeologist of the prehistoric Aegean with involvement in the practice and teaching of body psychotherapy and engagement with issues of social justice. She has focused on active ...

. In it they establish a theoretical framework for the consideration of the ancient goddess, as well as questioning how goddess figurines were used. It was described by Christine Gudorf as a "critical survey of existing archaeological evidence of prehistoric goddesses in Europe and the ancient Near East". She is a member of the Standing Committee for Archaeology for the

Selected publications

* Laerke Recht, Christine Morris, Chariot kraters and horse-human relations in Late Bronze Age Greece and Cyprus, ''Annual of the British School at Athens'', 116, 2021, p.95 – 132 * Bodies in ecstasy: shamanic elements in Minoan religion in, editor(s) Diana Stein, Sarah Kielt Costello, Karen Polinger Foster, ''The Routledge Companion to Ecstatic Experience in the Ancient World'', London, Routledge, 2021, pp.264 – 283 * Images from a usable past: the Classical themes of Irish Coinage, 1928-2002 in, editor(s) Donncha O'Rourke & Isabelle Torrance, ''Classics and Irish Politics 1916-2016'', Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2020, pp.393-406 * Morris, Christine. "Hands up for the individual! The role of attribution studies in Aegean prehistory." ''Cambridge Archaeological Journal'' 3.1 (1993): 41-66.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Christine E. Women classical scholars Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Irish women archaeologists Alumni of Churchill College, Cambridge Alumni of University College London Trinity College Dublin