Matthew L. Murray
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Associate Director of Projects
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
P.O. Box 1848
University, MS 38677-1848

Phone: 662-915-3995
Office: Leavell 307
E-mail:

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Biography:
I joined the University of Mississippi in January 2003 as Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Associate Director of Projects. I received undergraduate training in Anthropology and Prehistory at the University of Connecticut and the Universität Salzburg in Austria, and I was awarded a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Harvard University in 1995.

Research:
My primary research interests are the archaeology of ancient Celtic peoples, Bronze and Iron Age cultures of Central Europe, mortuary archaeology, survey methodology and the analysis of surface collections, and the exploration and interpretation of cultural landscapes. I have also practiced applied archaeology and cultural resource management in the United States, where I have directed numerous archaeological field projects focused on resource identification, evaluation, and data recovery.

I have two ongoing research projects in Europe: the “Landscape of Ancestors” project and the “Lower Bavarian Survey Project.”

Landscape of Ancestors

In 1999, I began collaborating with Professor Bettina Arnold (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) on the “Landscape of Ancestors” project, which involves the excavation and analysis of early Iron Age burial monuments in the Hohmichele mound group near the Heuneburg hillfort at Hundersingen in southwestern Germany (see http://www.uwm.edu/~barnold/arch/). In 1999/2000 and 2002, we excavated two large burial mounds, recovering and documenting the remains of at least 26 graves. Fieldwork was supported by grants from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the National Geographic Society. We are currently awaiting restoration of many finds and preparing data for final publication.

Lower Bavarian Survey

In 2005, after several years of archival research and logistical planning, I initiated an ongoing archaeological reconnaissance and survey project in Lower Bavaria in the heart of southeastern Germany. This project is a multifaceted exploration of a portion of the Loess Hills physiographic region between the Danube and Isar rivers.

The primary goal of the project is the exploration of prehistoric and early historic use of the Loess Hills, in particular changes in site distributions and land-use associated with significant cultural transformations during later prehistory (5500 BC to AD 50). The project area offers a useful laboratory for the examination of processes and events relating to several important periods: 1) colonization of the landscape by early farmers; 2) expansive settlement of developed farming communities; 3) Bronze Age elites and the concentration of power; 4) coalescence of late Iron Age communities; and 5) Roman conquest and cultural hegemony. Project results provide information on taphonomic processes and survey bias in the collection and interpretation of surface archaeological data. I also project data to develop methods of assessing elements of the “folk landscape” that facilitate the discovery and interpretation of archaeological remains.

Fieldwork for the project has been supported by grants from the University of Mississippi and the National Geographic Society (in collaboration with Peter S. Wells, University of Minnesota). Project personnel work in close cooperation with regional and local organizations including the Bavarian Landesamt für Denkmalpflege, the Gesellschaft for Archäologie in Bayern, and the Verein für Archäologie in Stadt und Landkreis Landshut. The project offers undergraduate and graduate students an opportunity to conduct archaeological field research in a rich archaeological and cultural environment.

Selected publications
Murray, Matthew L.
2006 Place Names and Folk Landscapes in Southern Germany as Archaeological Resources. In Landscape Ideologies, edited by Thomas Maier, pp. 155-173. Archaeolingua, Budapest.

Murray, Matthew L.
2003 Ritual Sites: Viereckschanzen. In Ancient Europe, 8000 B.C. to A.D. 1000: An Encyclopedia of the Barbarian World, edited by Peter Bogucki and Pamela J. Crabtree, pp. 174-178. Scribner’s, New York.

Arnold, Bettina, Matthew L. Murray, and Seth A. Schneider
2003 Untersuchungen an einem zweiten hallstattzeitlichen Grabhügel der Hohmichele-Gruppe im “Speckhau,” Markung Heiligkreuztal, Gde. Altheim, Kreis Biberach. Archäologische Ausgrabungen in Baden-Württemberg 2002, pp. 80-83. Konrad Theiss, Stuttgart.

Arnold, Betttina and Matthew L. Murray
2002 A Landscape of Ancestors in Southwest Germany. Antiquity 76:321-322.

Murray, Matthew L.
2001 West-Central European Late Bronze Age Tradition. In Encyclopedia of Prehistory, Volume 4: Europe, edited by Peter N. Peregrine and Marvin Ember, pp. 415-435. Human Relations Area Files, Kluwer Academic and Plenum Publishers, New York.

Arnold, Bettina, Matthew L. Murray, and Seth A. Schneider
2001 Abschließende Untersuchungen an einem hallstattzeitlichen Grabhügel der Hohmichele-Gruppe im “Speckhau,” Markung Heiligkreuztal, Gde. Altheim, Kreis Biberach. Archäologische Ausgrabungen in Baden-Württemberg 2000, pp. 67-70. Konrad Theiss, Stuttgart.

Arnold, Bettina, Matthew L. Murray, and Seth A. Schneider
2000 Untersuchungen an einem hallstattzeitlichen Grabhügel der Hohmichele-Gruppe im “Speckhau,” Markung Heiligkreuztal, Gemeinde Altheim, Landkreis Biberach. Archäologische Ausgrabungen in Baden-Württemberg 1999, pp. 64-68. Konrad Theiss, Stuttgart.

Murray, Matthew L.
1997 Archäologische Landesaufnahmen und Survey im Raum Kelheim: Die Entwicklung einer Kulturlandschaft der frühen Kelten. In Von Keltenkriegern und Kirchenmäusen - Archäologische Forschungen im Landkreis Kelheim 1994-96, edited and translated by Michael Rind, pp. 142-146. Buchverlag der Mittelbayerischen Zeitung, Regensburg.

Murray, Matthew L.
1996 Viereckschanzen and Feasting: Socio-Political Ritual in Iron Age Central Europe. Journal of European Archaeology 3/2:125-151.

Murray, Matthew L.
1996 Socio-Political Complexity in Iron Age Temperate Europe: A Dialectical Landscape Approach. In Debating Complexity, edited by Daniel A. Meyer, Peter C. Dawson, and Donald T. Hanna, pp. 406-414. University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta.

Murray, Mathew L.
1993 The Landscape Survey, 1990-1991. In Settlement, Economy and Cultural Change at the End of the European Iron Age: Excavations at Kelheim in Bavaria, 1987-1991, edited by Peter S. Wells, pp. 96-134. International Monographs in Prehistory, Ann Arbor.

Murray, Matthew L.
1992 The Archaeology of Mystification: Ideology, Dominance, and the Urnfields of Southern Germany. In Ancient Images, Ancient Thought: The Archaeology of Ideology, edited by A. Sean Goldsmith, Sandra Garvie, David Selin, and Jeannette Smith, pp. 97-104. University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta.

Murray, Matthew L. and Margaret J. Schoeninger
1988 Diet, Status, and Complex Social Structure in Iron Age Central Europe: Some Contributions of Bone Chemistry. In Tribe and Polity in Late Prehistoric Europe: Demography, Production and Exchange in the Evolution of Complex Social Systems, edited by D. Blair Gibson and Michael N. Geselowitz, pp. 155-176. Plenum Press, New York.

Teaching:
ANTH 101:   Introductory Cultural Anthropology
ANTH 305:   Archaeology
ANTH 306:   Archaeology of the Ancient Celts
ANTH 507:   The Archaeology of Landscape
GEOG 101:  Introduction to Geography (Principles of Geography)
LIBA 102:     Celts, National Identity, and Cultural Constructions
LIBA 102:     Perceptions of the Past: Archaeology in the Public Eye