MORRIS, Craig 1939-2006
(Edward Craig Morris)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born October 7, 1939, in Murray, KY; died of complications from heart surgery, June 14, 2006, in New York, NY. Anthropologist, museum curator, educator, and author. Morris was an authority on pre-Columbian civilizations, but became especially renowned for his Inca excavations and the exhibitions he organized at the American Museum regarding the Inca civilization. Earning a B.A. at Vanderbilt University in 1961, he did his graduate work at the University of Chicago. Here, he became interested in the Inca and completed his master's in 1964, followed by a Ph.D. in 1967. His first teaching position was at Northern Illinois University, but he joined Brandeis University in 1968 and remained there for seven years. In the 1970s, he started organizing expeditions to Peru, and over the years explored over three hundred digs. His most extensive work was at Huánuco Pampa, where he led an excavation for eleven years; he was also on the cutting edge of technology when he participated in aerial and satellite surveys to study the region. Morris was hired as an assistant curator at the American Museum of Natural History in 1975, and five years later he was promoted to curator of anthropology; from 1994 to 2004 he was dean of science, and at the time of his death was senior vice president and curator of anthropology. His studies of artifacts from the Incas helped archaeologists better understand the economy and politics of that civilization. Also an adjunct professor at Cornell University, Morris was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. A contributor to books and encyclopedias, he wrote or coauthored several respected works. Among these are The Inka Empire and the Andean Origins (1993) and The Cities of the Ancient Andes (1998). At his death, he had just completed a book about ancient Andean art for Thames & Hudson, with collaborator Adriana von Hagen, which was scheduled for posthumous publication.

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PERIODICALS

New York Times, June 16, 2006, p. C11.