Papers by Sophie Moore
Left (bottom) and right (top) humeri, anterior view -note the difference in size of the two bones... more Left (bottom) and right (top) humeri, anterior view -note the difference in size of the two bones and general porosity of both. © Michelle Gamble 2015 Thoracic vertebrae, left-posterior view with first thoracic vertebrae to the right side of the image. Note the extension of the spinous processes and the fusion of the third and fourth bodies.
The Odd, the Unusual, and the Strange: Bioarchaeological Explorations of Atypical Burials, 2020
Çatalhöyük is most well-known for its Neolithic and Chalcolithic occupations, but the site also s... more Çatalhöyük is most well-known for its Neolithic and Chalcolithic occupations, but the site also served as a cemetery during the Bronze Age, as well as the Roman, Byzantine and Islamic periods. During the Neolithic, Çatalhöyük was both a settlement and a cemetery, with the dead buried under the floors of houses. In later periods, however, the site appears to have been used exclusively for burials. This paper discusses several examples of non-normative/irregular burials at Çatalhöyük, including ones characterized by spatial segregation, unconventional body positioning, orientation and grave inclusions. We examine two Neolithic burials: one of a mature male buried with a sheep and another of a young male with a congenital deformity; a Roman period double burial with an atypical grave orientation, and an isolated twentieth-century burial of a woman from the local village of Küçükköy, which represents the last known burial at the site. Osteobiographical information and sociocultural context are used to assess the significance of each burial. In addition to outlining the social and biological factors that influence the funerary treatment of individuals within a particular cultural context, we also question how normative and non-normative burials are defined in the archaeological record.
Anatolian Studies , 2018
The landscape immediately surrounding the site at Çatalhöyük preserves topographic and ceramic ev... more The landscape immediately surrounding the site at Çatalhöyük preserves topographic and ceramic evidence from prehistory to the present day. This article presents the results of a program of investigation of the landscape conducted through analysis of remote sensing, map data and field survey with particular emphasis on the first and second millennium AD. The concept of taphonomy, usually defined in archaeology as the process of change after deposition, is applied to the transformation of the settled landscape from its Neolithic origins to its present status as a UNESCO world heritage site. Taphonomy serves as a linking concept as we explore how past landscapes are mobilized and translated into the ever-changing present.
Conference sessions by Sophie Moore
As time passes, we forget. In the ongoing conversation about memory and archaeology, this session... more As time passes, we forget. In the ongoing conversation about memory and archaeology, this session frames forgetting as a productive and selective process. The act of forgetting, deliberate or otherwise, shapes which ideas persist in communities of practice. Archaeology is a discipline built around absences; we piece together our truths from a highly fragmentary material record. The concept of forgetting, analogous to that of destruction of the material record, can be constructed as both inadvertent decay and deliberate omission. Pulling apart those two types of forgetting in past and contemporary societies is a key aim of this session.
Archaeology tends to be concerned with what remains; we are afraid of losing things or allowing traces of the past to slip through the cracks. However, this is a perspective not necessarily shared with our subjects of study. Following recent ontological approaches to the past which emphasise the potential radical differences between different ways of living, we seek papers which address material absences that might be interpreted as omissions. We are interested in critically appraising whether we can identify moments of forgetting as deliberate or otherwise, and whether such omissions are archaeologically visible in prehistoric, historic, and contemporary societies. Paper submissions are encouraged to deal with topics as broad as the role of the state in forgetting, transgenerational memory and different scales of memory/ forgetting, the difference between memory and knowledge of the past, and the knotty problem of how to discuss material culture which is absent from the archaeological record.
Conference Presentations by Sophie Moore
Archives are archaeology. I suggest that to a large extent they are what differentiates us from o... more Archives are archaeology. I suggest that to a large extent they are what differentiates us from other groups who dig up and deal with the past. Archives are what we produce, and what we mostly work with. No archaeologist goes immediately from excavation to write-up without an intervening step of recording, and in this paper I will consider the mechanics and implications of the recording processes in place at Çatalhöyük for the 1st and 2nd millennium AD burials on site. When we excavate, we literally deterriotrialize the past: We take things out of the ground, pulling contexts apart in order to better understand them. This process acts to radically transform what remains to us. This paper theorises the production of archaeological knowledge as a form of DeLanda’s territorialization, whereby the production of archaeological knowledge occurs in the moment of constructing the archive.
What does posthumanist archaeology contribute to the study of a deeply textual field like Byzanti... more What does posthumanist archaeology contribute to the study of a deeply textual field like Byzantium, where human accounts of religious experience are often held front and centre? This paper explores the intersections between the new materiality and the immaterial nature of the Byzantine spiritual world (cf Buchli 2016). Exploring human experience does not necessarily require us to privilege human agency. The relationships between architecture, feeling, allegory and the divine existed prior to the middle Byzantine moments in which they were experienced. I will examine whether or not there is any such thing as a posthumanist phenomenology, or whether those terms are inherently self-contradictory, through considering the archaeology of song in Byzantine church spaces.
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Papers by Sophie Moore
Conference sessions by Sophie Moore
Archaeology tends to be concerned with what remains; we are afraid of losing things or allowing traces of the past to slip through the cracks. However, this is a perspective not necessarily shared with our subjects of study. Following recent ontological approaches to the past which emphasise the potential radical differences between different ways of living, we seek papers which address material absences that might be interpreted as omissions. We are interested in critically appraising whether we can identify moments of forgetting as deliberate or otherwise, and whether such omissions are archaeologically visible in prehistoric, historic, and contemporary societies. Paper submissions are encouraged to deal with topics as broad as the role of the state in forgetting, transgenerational memory and different scales of memory/ forgetting, the difference between memory and knowledge of the past, and the knotty problem of how to discuss material culture which is absent from the archaeological record.
Conference Presentations by Sophie Moore
Archaeology tends to be concerned with what remains; we are afraid of losing things or allowing traces of the past to slip through the cracks. However, this is a perspective not necessarily shared with our subjects of study. Following recent ontological approaches to the past which emphasise the potential radical differences between different ways of living, we seek papers which address material absences that might be interpreted as omissions. We are interested in critically appraising whether we can identify moments of forgetting as deliberate or otherwise, and whether such omissions are archaeologically visible in prehistoric, historic, and contemporary societies. Paper submissions are encouraged to deal with topics as broad as the role of the state in forgetting, transgenerational memory and different scales of memory/ forgetting, the difference between memory and knowledge of the past, and the knotty problem of how to discuss material culture which is absent from the archaeological record.