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Professor Christine Morris

Andrew A. David Professor in Greek Archaeology and History

I studied Classics at Churchill College Cambridge, followed by a Ph.D. at University College London. I worked for the British School at Athens (at Knossos) and as research assistant to Colin Renfrew before coming to Trinity in 1994. I am the Trinity representative on the Managing Committee of the Irish Institute of the Hellenic Studies at Athens, and co-edited the Institute's first publication, The Lure of Greece (2007).

My main area of expertise is the archaeology of the Aegean Bronze Age. Specific areas of interest include ceramic studies (pictorial pottery; figurines); ancient art; Mycenaean intercultural relations in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean; ancient religion (goddesses; experiential/embodied aspects). My work on the historiography of the goddess in early archaeology situates the study of goddesses and gender within the intellectual trends and ideologies of the mid-19th to early 20th centuries. I am also involved in a number of long-term archaeological projects in Greece, most notably the Atsipadhes peak sanctuary project in western Crete (in collaboration with Dr Alan Peatfield). This project has received IRCHSS funding to apply GIS technology to the spatial study of the figurines and pottery within the excavated site.

Selected Publications

Papantoniou, G., A. Sarris, C.E. Morris, and A.K. Vionis, eds. 2019. Unlocking Sacred Landscapes: Digital Humanities and Ritual Space. Open Archaeology Open Access journal (thematic issue). Berlin: De Gruyter.
ed. with G. Papantoniou and Athanasios Vionis, Unlocking Sacred Landscapes: Spatial Analysis of Ritual and Cult. Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology. Uppsala: Åströms Förlag (2019)
(with Alan Peatfleld and Brendan O’Neill) ‘Figures in 3D’: digital perspectives on Cretan Bronze Age figurines, Open Archaeology 4:1, 2018
Minoan and Mycenaean Figurines. In T, Insoll ed., Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Figurines, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2017: 659–80.
Lord of the Dance: Ted Shawn's Gnossienne and its Minoan context. In N. Momigliano and A. Farnoux eds, Cretomania. Modern Desires for the Minoan Past, Athens, 2013, London, Routledge, 2016: 111–123.
(ed. with K. Rountree & A.A.D. Peatfield), The Archaeology of Spiritualities, eds Springer, New York, 2012

Teaching & Supervision

I am happy to offer supervision in all my areas of research. Recent and current students are working on anthropological approaches to the funerary archaeology of prepalatial Crete; women’s ritual pharmacological lore in Minoan Crete; repatriation and the ‘healing museum’; the life cycle of Cypriot Base Ring figurines.

I teach broadly across the art and archaeology of the Greek world, from first year Greek and Roman Art and Architecture to more advanced modules on Greek Archaeology and the Aegean Bronze Age. I also teach Mythology and Religion and Sources and Evidence. For our final year undergraduates I offer modules on the archaeology of Cyprus and Ancient Goddesses. At MPhil level my courses have included theoretical approaches to Aegean art, the reception and re-imagining of the Bronze Age, and I have recently developed a cultural heritage course on Saving the Past.