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Iain Morley

Templeton Research Fellow, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research
Research Fellow, Darwin College
Affiliated Scholar, Department of Archaeology
Member, Faculty of Music

Office: 2.2, West Building.
Phone: +44 (1223) 339338
Email: irm28@cam.ac.uk
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Dr Morley currently works as co-investigator with Prof. Colin Renfrew on the Templeton-funded project `The Roots of Spirituality' in the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. The project has thus far been focused around two international conferences, `Image and Imagination: Material Beginnings—The Global Prehistory of Figurative Representation' (13th–17th September 2005) and `Measuring the World and Beyond—The Archaeology of Early Quantification and Cosmology' (13th–17th September 2006). Both of these will result in the publication of edited volumes of the contributed papers. Dr Morley's work involves, in addition to contributing his own original research to the conferences and volumes, the editing of those volumes with Prof. Renfrew.

His research interests focus principally on the archaeology of human evolution, the Palaeolithic, and the development of modern human cognitive capacities and behaviours. In addition to his recent focus on issues relevant to the emergence of ritual and religion, his doctoral research focused on the evolutionary origins and archaeology of music, a new area of investigation which remains a principal research interest.

In addition to his research activities, Dr Morley also teaches actively within the Department of Archaeology and the wider Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology, both lecturing and supervising (tutorial teaching).

He is a Fellow and member of the Governing Body of Darwin College.

Current Research Interests

• Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Archaeology
• Human cognitive evolution
• Evolutionary origins and Palaeolithic archaeology of music
• Prehistoric foundations of religious thought and behaviour
• Palaeolithic figurative representation
• Early quantification and measurement

Lecturing and Teaching

• BA Archaeology (Part II): `The Archaeology of Early Human Development—Lower Palaeolithic Archaeology' (eight lectures) `The Archaeology of Religion' (lecture on the Palaeolithic and the origins of ritual and religion) `Frameworks of Time' (dating techniques, time and archaeology)
• BA Music (Part II): `Music and Science' (musical acoustics, cognition and perception, in the Faculty of Music) Dissertation supervision
• BA Archaeology and Anthropology (Part I): `The Development of Human Societies' (Palaeolithic archaeology and human evolution; Origins of states; Origins of metallurgy) `Being Human: An Interdisciplinary Approach' (Sex and gender; Life cycles; Strategies of Survival: Problems of Human Ecology and Adaptation; Symbols, Language and Communication; Transformations in Human Society)
• MPhil Archaeology: `Principles of Archaeology—Cognitive Archaeology'