Professor Catherine Morgan

Professor Catherine Morgan

MA, PhD, FBA, OBE
Classics, Archaeology
Senior Research Fellow since 2015

My research focuses on island societies in Classical antiquity, examining the long-term resilience of island states, the formation of economic networks, and the impacts of warfare and human mobility on multiple scales. I work mainly in the Ionian islands and northwestern Greece. I have directed fieldwork on Ithaca on behalf of the British School at Athens and currently collaborate on the publication of excavations in Thesprotia and Akarnania, and on Kephallonia, Leukas, and Meganisi. I am also interested in industrial archaeology, the archaeology of religion, and the history of archaeological research in Greece. With Chris Hayward (Edinburgh), I co-direct a survey of the limestone quarries at Kenchreai in the eastern Corinthia. This aims to reconstruct the history and organisation of stone extraction and the impact of over a millennium of quarry activity on local settlement and supply chains.

Research Areas
Greek Archaeology
Island Studies
Religion
Pottery Analysis
Industrial Archaeology
History of Archaeology

Selected Publications

Morgan, C. 2026, ‘Between political community and sacred landscape in Archaic northwest Greece (ca. 850-470 BCE)’

in S. Verdan, S. Fachard, and T. Theurillat (eds), Reconstructing Greek Sacred Landscape: Dynamics and Approaches from the Field. Proceedings of the Round Table held at the Fondation Hardt, Vandouevres, February 2-4, 2023, Oxford: Archaeopress, 139-160.

Morgan, C. and Barføed, S. (eds) 2026, Stylistic Innovation in Western Greek Ceramics. Western Archaic Polychrome Pottery (WAPP)

in Context. Proceedings of the International Workshop ‘Archaic ‘Elian Style’ Pottery in Western Greece’, Norwegian Institute at Athens, November 18, 2022 (Papers and Monographs from the Norwegian Institute at Athens 15), Athens: Norwegian Institute at Athens.

Morgan, C. 2026. ‘Shifting perspectives: ceramics and connectivity in the central Ionian archipelago from the Archaic period to the foundation of Nicopolis’

in J. Hilditch and M. Revello Lami (eds), Ceramic Perspectives on Connectivity in the Ancient Mediterranean, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 53-90.

Morgan, C. and Charalambidou, X. (eds) 2017. Interpreting the Seventh Century BC: Tradition and Innovation,

Oxford: Archaeopress.

Morgan, C. 2003. Early Greek States Beyond the Polis

 London: Routledge.

Morgan, C. 1999. Isthmia VIII. The Mycenaean Settlement and Early Iron Age Sanctuary,

Princeton: American School of Classical Studies at Athens.

Other Research

Pottery in the archaeological collection of the German Archaeological Institute, Athens from the 1901 Excavation by Wilhelm Dörpfeld on the Acropolis of Ancient Leukas
1st November 2024 | Journal article | south Italy
Excavations in the ancient theatre of Sparta, 2008
29th October 2024 | Journal article | 4301 Archaeology
Adding buildings to Early Iron Age sanctuaries: the materiality of built space
7th June 2024 | Chapter | Early Iron Age
Thirty years on: progress and prospects in the study of Early Iron Age and Archaic pottery assemblages from Greek sanctuaries
31st May 2024 | Chapter | Interpreting the Pottery Record from Geometric and Archaic Sanctuaries in the Northwestern Peloponnese: Proceedings of the International Online Symposium, November 5‒6, 2020
The Corinthia
Chapter | Companion to Early Greece and the Mediterranean
Prehistoric settlement in the Inner Ionian Sea Archipelago and its Ionian Archipelago connections
1st September 2022 | Chapter | The Archaeology of the Ionian Sea
The communal ceramic traditions of prehistoric Ithaca
31st January 2022 | Chapter | Social Science
Bridging the Gulf: the role of landscape in the transmission and organization of knowledge
1st November 2021 | Chapter | The Transmission and Organization of Knowledge in the Ancient Mediterranean (
Caves and consumption: the case of Polis bay, Ithaca’
1st November 2021 | Chapter | Cave and Worship in Ancient Greece. New Approaches to Landscape and Ritual
The Ionian Islands’
9th January 2020 | Chapter | History