Sarah C. Murray
Assistant Professor of Classics & Religious Studies (Early Greek Archaeology & Digital Humanities)Area of Focus: Art History
BA 2004, Dartmouth College
Sarah Murray is a Classical Archaeologist specializing in Early Greece. Her primary research focus is the collapse of Mycenaean and Minoan Civilization at the end of the Late Bronze Age, the ensuing aftermath of the Greek Early Iron Age, and how that aftermath eventually transformed into historical Greek society. Her current project, entitled "Digital Dark Ages", seeks to shed new light on the precise cadence of this episode of a prototypical collapse and regeneration of complex society using a "big data" approach to the sum total of the relevant material evidence. This digital project is designed to dovetail with the publication of a monograph on change in the Greek economy between 1300 and 900 BCE. Other areas of interest and publication include the integration of GIS in archaeological field project data management systems, Greek athletics, the intersection of religion and ancient society, British travel in 18th century Sicily, and the monuments of post-Soviet Georgia.
Selected Publications:
“Quantitative Data, Hypothesis Testing, and Archaeological Narratives: Was there really a Greek Dark Age?” in C. Papadopoulos, E. Paliou, A. Chrysanthi, E.Archaeological Research in the Digital Age: Proceedings of the 1st Conference on Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology Greek Chapter (CAA-GR), Rethymno, Crete, 6-8 March 2014. (IMS-FORTH) 2015: 64-69.
“GIS in Action: Analyzing an Early Bronze Age Coastal Landscape on the Saronic Gulf,” in G. Touchais, R. Laffineur, and F. Rougemont (ed.) Physis: L’Environnement Naturel et la Relation Homme-Milieu dans le Monde Égéen Protohistorique (Leuven) 2014: 103-109. Co-authored with M. Clinton and T. Tartaron.
“Spatial Analysis and Humanities Data: A Case Study from the Grand Tour Travelers Project,” in J. Coolidge (ed.) A CESTA Anthology (Stanford) 2013 (CESTA): 45-50.
“The Plakias Stone Age Project.” Full website, summer 2013. www.plakiasstoneageproject.com. Co- authored with T. Strasser.
“The Role of Religion in Greek Sport and Spectacle,” in D. Kyle and P. Christesen (eds.) A Companion to Sport and Spectacle in Greek and Roman Antiquity. (Blackwell) 2013: 309-319.
“Macedonian Religion,” in I. Worthington and J. Roisman (eds.) A Companion to Ancient Macedonia (Blackwell) 2010: 428-445. Co-authored with P. Christesen.
“A Spatial Approach to California Botanists,” Stanford Spatial History Project Website, 2 December 2008. http://www.stanford.edu/group/spatialhistory/cgi-bin/site/pub.php?id=19. Co-authored with B. Hoy, C. Roby, and N. Viles.