Roger Moorey

Peter Roger Stuart Moorey, FBA, FSA (30 May 1937 – 23 December 2004) was a British archaeologist and historian of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East, and former Keeper of Antiquities at the Ashmolean Museum of the University of Oxford. Moorey also served as Vicegerent of the University's Wolfson College.

Roger Moorey was educated at Mill Hill School, and read Modern History at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, Oxford. Between school and university he did his National Service, learning Russian in Intelligence, and serving in Cyprus. 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 which became available at the time of his graduation in 1961.

Moorey's excavation interests and experiences were broad, excavating at Jerusalem under Kathleen Kenyon in 1963 and in Abu Salabikh in Iraq under Nicholas Postgate in the 1970s.

He was eventually appointed as Keeper of Antiquities, which post he remained in until his retirement in 2003, shortly before his death.

Publications

• P.R.S. Moorey, Excavation in Palestine, Lutterworth Press, 1982. ISBN 0-7188-2432-6.
• P.R.S. Moorey, A Century of Biblical Archaeology, Lutterworth Press, 1991. ISBN 0-7188-2825-9.
• P.R.S. Moorey, Ancient Mesopotamian Materials and Industries: The Archaeological Evidence, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994. ISBN 0-19-814921-2.
• P.R.S. Moorey, Idols of the People: Miniature Images of Clay in the Ancient Near East, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-19-726280-5.
  • Review — Bryn Mawr Classical Review
• 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, 2003. ISBN 0-900416-80-7.

References

Obituaries

• Roger Moorey, Obituary, The Times (22 January 2005)
• Roger Moorey, Obituary, The Guardian, obit by Ashley Jones (3 February 2005)
• Roger Moorey, 1937–2004, American Journal of Archaeology, obit by O. Muscarella (July 2005)