MOOREY, P(eter) R(oger) S(tuart) 1937-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born May 30, 1937, in Bush Hill Park, Middlesex, England; died December 23, 2004, in Oxford, England. Archaeologist and author. An authority on Near-and Middle-Eastern archaeology, Moorey was the former keeper of antiquities at Oxford University's Ashmolean Museum. He was a graduate of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he earned an M.A. in history in 1965 and a D.Phil. in 1967. Joining the department of antiquities at Oxford in 1961, he was made senior assistant keeper at the Ashmolean. Promoted to keeper in 1983, he remained in this post until his 2002 retirement; he also served as acting director for two brief periods. A fellow at Wolfson College, he was named vice regent there in 2002, and he was president of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem from 1990 until 1998. Though he was not as active in the field as he was in the museum, Moorey was considered a remarkable researcher and writer, as well as a valued tutor and lecturer in Near-Eastern archaeology at Oxford. He was particularly distinguished for his research into the technology and materials of the ancient Middle and Near East. Named a fellow of the London Society of Antiquaries in 1967, and of the British Academy in 1977, he was a prolific author of texts for both scholars and general readers, including Ancient Egypt (1970; second edition, 1988), Ancient Iraq: Assyria and Babylon (1976), Excavations in Palestine (1982), Ancient Mesopotamian Materials and Industries: The Archaeological Evidence (1994), and From Gulf to Delta and Beyond (1995).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Guardian (London, England), February 3, 2005, p. 27.

Independent (London, England), January 18, 2005, p. 35.

Times (London, England), January 22, 2005, p. 84.