Peter Roger Stuart Moorey, (30 May 1937 – 23 December 2004) was a British archaeologist, historian, and academic, specialising in

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the ...

and the

Ancient Near East The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia (modern Iraq, southeast Turkey, southwest Iran and northeastern Syria), ancient Egypt, ancient Iran ( Elam, ...

. He was Keeper of Antiquities at the

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University o ...

of the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, and also served as

Vicegerent Vicegerent is the official administrative deputy of a ruler or head of state: ''vice'' (Latin for "in place of") and ''gerere'' (Latin for "to carry on, conduct"). In Oxford colleges, a vicegerent is often someone appointed by the Master of a ...

Wolfson College, Oxford Wolfson College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Located in north Oxford along the River Cherwell, Wolfson is an all-graduate college with around sixty governing body fellows, in addition to both research a ...

Early life

Moorey was educated at

Mill Hill School Mill Hill School is a 13–18 mixed independent, day and boarding school in Mill Hill, London, England that was established in 1807. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. History A committee of Nonconformis ...

, then an all-boys

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of " room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exte ...

. He studied modern history at

Corpus Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517, it is the 12t ...

. Between school and university he did his

National Service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The ...

in the Intelligence Corps, learning

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

and serving in

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ...

Career

His time in Cyprus (with its fine archaeological heritage) probably reinforced a childhood interest in ancient history and may well have prompted his interest in the post of Assistant Keeper of Antiquities at the

which became available at the time of his graduation in 1961. He was eventually appointed as Keeper of Antiquities, which post he remained in until his retirement in 2003, shortly before his death. Moorey's excavation interests and experiences were broad, excavating at

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

under

Kathleen Kenyon Dame Kathleen Mary Kenyon, (5 January 1906 – 24 August 1978) was a British archaeologist of Neolithic culture in the Fertile Crescent. She led excavations of Tell es-Sultan, the site of ancient Jericho, from 1952 to 1958, and has been called ...

in 1963 and in

Abu Salabikh The low tells at Abu Salabikh, around northwest of the site of ancient Nippur in Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate, Iraq mark the site of a small Sumerian city state of the mid third millennium BCE, with cultural connections to the cities of Kish, ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

under

Nicholas Postgate (academic) John Nicholas Postgate, FBA (born 5 November 1945) is a British academic and Assyriologist. From 1975 to 1981, he was Director of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq. From 1994 to 2013, he was Professor of Assyriology at the University of ...

in the 1970s. In 1982 Moorey edited ''Ur of the Chaldees'', a republication of

Leonard Woolley Sir Charles Leonard Woolley (17 April 1880 – 20 February 1960) was a British archaeologist best known for his excavations at Ur in Mesopotamia. He is recognized as one of the first "modern" archaeologists who excavated in a methodical way, ...

's 1954 ''Excavations at Ur'', adding new photographs and information, and deleting some references to the

Book of Genesis The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning" ...

.Book review
in the ''Wilson Quarterly'', 1982.

Publications

* P.R.S. Moorey, ''Excavation in Palestine'', Lutterworth Press, 1982. . * P.R.S. Moorey, ''A Century of Biblical Archaeology'', Lutterworth Press, 1991. . * P.R.S. Moorey, ''Ancient Mesopotamian Materials and Industries: The Archaeological Evidence'', Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994. . * P.R.S. Moorey, ''Idols of the People: Miniature Images of Clay in the Ancient Near East'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. .

— ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review'' *

& P.R.S. Moorey. ''Ur 'of the Chaldees': A Revised and Updated Edition of Sir Leonard Woolley's'' Excavations at Ur. Cornell University Press, 1982.
Ancient Near Eastern Terracottas in the Ashmolean Museum
— online catalogue.

Festschrift

Potts, Timothy, Roaf, Michael & Stein, Diana (eds), ''Culture through Objects: Ancient Near Eastern studies in honour of P.R.S. Moorey'', Oxford:

Griffith Institute The Griffith Institute is an Egyptological institution based in the Griffith Wing of the Sackler Library and is part of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, England. It was founded for the advancement of Egyptology and Ancient N ...

, 2003. .

References

Obituaries

Roger Moorey, Obituary
''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'' (22 January 2005)
Roger Moorey, Obituary
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'', obit by Ashley Jones (3 February 2005)
Roger Moorey, 1937–2004
''

American Journal of Archaeology The ''American Journal of Archaeology'' (AJA), the peer-reviewed journal of the Archaeological Institute of America, has been published since 1897 (continuing the ''American Journal of Archaeology and of the History of the Fine Arts'' founded by ...

'', obit by O. Muscarella (July 2005) {{DEFAULTSORT:Moorey, Roger 1937 births 2004 deaths People educated at Mill Hill School Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford British archaeologists British curators Fellows of Wolfson College, Oxford Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London People associated with the Ashmolean Museum 20th-century English historians 20th-century archaeologists