Max Mallowan
Encyclopedia
Sir Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan, CBE
(6 May 1904 – 19 August 1978) was a prominent British
archaeologist, specialising in ancient Middle East
ern history, and the second husband of Dame Agatha Christie
.
on 6 May 1904, he was educated at Lancing College
(where he was a contemporary of Evelyn Waugh
), and studied classics at New College
, Oxford
.
He first worked as an apprentice to Leonard Woolley
at the archaeological site of Ur
(1925–31), which was thought to be the capital of Mesopotamia
n civilization. (It was at the Ur site, in 1930, that he first met Agatha Christie.) He married Christie that year. In 1932, after a short time working at Nineveh
with Reginald Campbell Thompson
, Mallowan became a field director for a series of expeditions jointly run by the British Museum
and the British School of Archaeology in Iraq
. His excavations included the prehistoric village at Tell Arpachiyah
, and the sites at Chagar Bazar
and Tell Brak in the Upper Khabur
area (Syria
). He was also the first to excavate archaeological sites in the Balikh Valley, to the west of the Khabur basin.
Following the outbreak of the Second World War he served with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
in North Africa, being based for part of 1943 at the ancient city of Sabratha
. He was commissioned as a pilot officer
on probation in the Administrative and Special Duties Branch on 11 February 1941, promoted flying officer
on 18 August 1941, flight lieutenant
on 1 April 1943. At some point he also held the rank of wing commander
as when he finally resigned his commission on 10 February 1954 he was permitted to retain that rank in retirement.
After the war, in 1947, he was appointed Professor of Western Asiatic Archaeology at the University of London
, a position which he held until elected a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford
in 1962. In 1947 he also became director of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq (1947-1961), and directed the resumption of its work at Nimrud
(previously excavated by A. H. Layard
), which he published in Nimrud and its Remains (2 volumes, 1966).
Mallowan gave an account of his work in Twenty-five Years of Mesopotamian Discovery (1956), and his wife Agatha Christie described his work in Syria in Come, Tell Me How You Live
(1946).
Agatha Christie died in 1976, and the following year Mallowan married Barbara Hastings Parker, an archaeologist who had been his epigraphist at Nimrud
, and Secretary of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq
.
Mallowan was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1960 Queen's Birthday Honours
, and knighted
in 1968. He and Dame Agatha Christie were among the small number of married couples, each of whom held knightly honours in their own right.
He died aged 74 in Wallingford, Oxfordshire. His widow Barbara, Lady
Mallowan died in Wallingford in 1993, aged 85.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(6 May 1904 – 19 August 1978) was a prominent British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
archaeologist, specialising in ancient Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
ern history, and the second husband of Dame Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
.
Life and work
Born Edgar Mallowan in WandsworthWandsworth
Wandsworth is a district of south London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It is situated southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-Toponymy:...
on 6 May 1904, he was educated at Lancing College
Lancing College
Lancing College is a co-educational English independent school in the British public school tradition, founded in 1848 by Nathaniel Woodard. Woodard's aim was to provide education "based on sound principle and sound knowledge, firmly grounded in the Christian faith." Lancing was the first of a...
(where he was a contemporary of Evelyn Waugh
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...
), and studied classics at New College
New College, Oxford
New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.- Overview :The College's official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always...
, Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
.
He first worked as an apprentice to Leonard Woolley
Leonard Woolley
Sir Charles Leonard Woolley was a British archaeologist best known for his excavations at Ur in Mesopotamia...
at the archaeological site of Ur
Ur
Ur was an important city-state in ancient Sumer located at the site of modern Tell el-Muqayyar in Iraq's Dhi Qar Governorate...
(1925–31), which was thought to be the capital of Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...
n civilization. (It was at the Ur site, in 1930, that he first met Agatha Christie.) He married Christie that year. In 1932, after a short time working at Nineveh
Nineveh
Nineveh was an ancient Assyrian city on the eastern bank of the Tigris River, and capital of the Neo Assyrian Empire. Its ruins are across the river from the modern-day major city of Mosul, in the Ninawa Governorate of Iraq....
with Reginald Campbell Thompson
Reginald Campbell Thompson
Reginald Campbell Thompson was a British archaeologist, assyriologist, and cuneiformist. He excavated at Nineveh, Ur, Nebo and Carchemish among many other sites.He was born in Kensington, and educated at Colet Court, St...
, Mallowan became a field director for a series of expeditions jointly run by the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
and the British School of Archaeology in Iraq
British School of Archaeology in Iraq
The British Institute for the Study of Iraq is the only body in Britain devoted to research into the ancient civilizations and languages of Mesopotamia....
. His excavations included the prehistoric village at Tell Arpachiyah
Tell Arpachiyah
Tell Arpachiyah was an Ancient Near Eastprehistoric site about 4 miles from Nineveh. The proper name of the site is Tepe Reshwa.-History:The site was occupied in the Halaf and Ubaid periods. It appears...
, and the sites at Chagar Bazar
Chagar Bazar
Chagar Bazar is an ancient site in northern Syria, about 35 kilometers north of Al-Hasakah, occupied from the sixth to the second millennium BC. It is situated by the small river Dara, a tributary to the Khabur River. Alternative spellings are Tell Chagar Bazar, or Šagir Bazar.-History:Chagar...
and Tell Brak in the Upper Khabur
Khabur River
The Khabur River , , , ) is the largest perennial tributary to the Euphrates in Syrian territory. Although the Khabur originates in Turkey, the karstic springs around Ra's al-'Ayn are the river's main source of water. Several important wadis join the Khabur north of Al-Hasakah, together creating...
area (Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
). He was also the first to excavate archaeological sites in the Balikh Valley, to the west of the Khabur basin.
Following the outbreak of the Second World War he served with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
The Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve consists of a number of groupings of individual military reservists for the management and operation of the Royal Air Force's Air Training Corps and CCF Air Cadet formations, Volunteer Gliding Squadrons , Air Experience Flights, and also to form the...
in North Africa, being based for part of 1943 at the ancient city of Sabratha
Sabratha
Sabratha, Sabratah or Siburata , in the Zawiya District in the northwestern corner of modern Libya, was the westernmost of the "three cities" of Tripolis. From 2001 to 2007 it was the capital of the former Sabratha wa Sorman District. It lies on the Mediterranean coast about west of Tripoli...
. He was commissioned as a pilot officer
Pilot Officer
Pilot officer is the lowest commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many other Commonwealth countries. It ranks immediately below flying officer...
on probation in the Administrative and Special Duties Branch on 11 February 1941, promoted flying officer
Flying Officer
Flying officer is a junior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence...
on 18 August 1941, flight lieutenant
Flight Lieutenant
Flight lieutenant is a junior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many Commonwealth countries. It ranks above flying officer and immediately below squadron leader. The name of the rank is the complete phrase; it is never shortened to "lieutenant"...
on 1 April 1943. At some point he also held the rank of wing commander
Wing Commander (rank)
Wing commander is a commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many other Commonwealth countries...
as when he finally resigned his commission on 10 February 1954 he was permitted to retain that rank in retirement.
After the war, in 1947, he was appointed Professor of Western Asiatic Archaeology at the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
, a position which he held until elected a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford
All Souls College, Oxford
The Warden and the College of the Souls of all Faithful People deceased in the University of Oxford or All Souls College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England....
in 1962. In 1947 he also became director of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq (1947-1961), and directed the resumption of its work at Nimrud
Nimrud
Nimrud is an ancient Assyrian city located south of Nineveh on the river Tigris in modern Ninawa Governorate Iraq. In ancient times the city was called Kalḫu. The Arabs called the city Nimrud after the Biblical Nimrod, a legendary hunting hero .The city covered an area of around . Ruins of the city...
(previously excavated by A. H. Layard
Austen Henry Layard
Sir Austen Henry Layard GCB, PC was a British traveller, archaeologist, cuneiformist, art historian, draughtsman, collector, author, politician and diplomat, best known as the excavator of Nimrud.-Family:...
), which he published in Nimrud and its Remains (2 volumes, 1966).
Mallowan gave an account of his work in Twenty-five Years of Mesopotamian Discovery (1956), and his wife Agatha Christie described his work in Syria in Come, Tell Me How You Live
Come, Tell Me How You Live
Come, Tell Me How You Live is a short book of autobiography and travel literature by crime writer Agatha Christie. It is one of only two books she wrote and had published under both of her married names of "Christie" and "Mallowan" and was first published in the UK in November 1946 by William...
(1946).
Agatha Christie died in 1976, and the following year Mallowan married Barbara Hastings Parker, an archaeologist who had been his epigraphist at Nimrud
Nimrud
Nimrud is an ancient Assyrian city located south of Nineveh on the river Tigris in modern Ninawa Governorate Iraq. In ancient times the city was called Kalḫu. The Arabs called the city Nimrud after the Biblical Nimrod, a legendary hunting hero .The city covered an area of around . Ruins of the city...
, and Secretary of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq
British School of Archaeology in Iraq
The British Institute for the Study of Iraq is the only body in Britain devoted to research into the ancient civilizations and languages of Mesopotamia....
.
Mallowan was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1960 Queen's Birthday Honours
Queen's Birthday Honours
The Queen's Birthday Honours is a part of the British honours system, being a civic occasion on the celebration of the Queen's Official Birthday in which new members of most Commonwealth Realms honours are named. The awards are presented by the reigning monarch or head of state, currently Queen...
, and knighted
Knight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
in 1968. He and Dame Agatha Christie were among the small number of married couples, each of whom held knightly honours in their own right.
He died aged 74 in Wallingford, Oxfordshire. His widow Barbara, Lady
Lady
The word lady is a polite term for a woman, specifically the female equivalent to, or spouse of, a lord or gentleman, and in many contexts a term for any adult woman...
Mallowan died in Wallingford in 1993, aged 85.
Further reading
- Cameron, George G. "Sir Max Mallowan, 1904–1978: [Obituary]", The Biblical Archaeologist, Vol. 42, No. 3. (Summer, 1979), pp. 180–183.
- Christie Mallowan, Agatha. Come, Tell Me How You Live: An Archaeological Memoir. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1976 (hardcover, ISBN 0-396-07320-4); New York: Vintage/Ebury, 1983 (hardcover, ISBN 0-370-30563-9); New York: HarperCollins, 1999 (paperback, ISBN 0-00-653114-8); Pleasantville, NY: Akadine Press, 2002 (with introduction by David Pryce-Jones; paperback, ISBN 1-58579-010-9).
- Mallowan, M.E.L. Mallowan's Memoirs. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1977 (hardcover, ISBN 0-396-07467-7). Reprinted as Mallowan's Memoirs: Agatha and the Archaeologist. New York: HarperCollins, 2002 (paperback, ISBN 0-00-711704-3).
External links
- Kuehl, Greg. Sir Max Mallowan bio at the Emuseum of Minnesota State University, Mankato (with links)
- Agatha Christie/Sir Max Mallowan's blue plaque at Cholsey