Max Mallowan

Max Mallowan

Sir Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan, CBE (6 May 1904 – 19 August 1978) was a prominent British archaeologist, specialising in ancient Middle Eastern history, and the second husband of Dame Agatha Christie.

Contents

Life and work

Born Edgar Mallowan in Wandsworth on 6 May 1904,[1] 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 Mesopotamian 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,[2] promoted flying officer on 18 August 1941,[3] flight lieutenant on 1 April 1943.[4] 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.[5]

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,[6] and knighted in 1968.[7][8] 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.[9]

See also

References

  1. ^ Index of Births England and Wales 1837-1915
  2. ^ London Gazette: no. 35106. p. 1528. 14 March 1941. Retrieved 7 September 2009.
  3. ^ London Gazette: no. 35292. pp. 5668–5669. 14 March 1941. Retrieved 7 September 2009.
  4. ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 36059. p. 2777. 15 June 1943. Retrieved 7 September 2009.
  5. ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 40234. p. 4249. 16 July 1954. Retrieved 7 September 2009.
  6. ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 42051. p. 3983. 3 June 1960. Retrieved 7 September 2009.
  7. ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 44600. p. 6300. 31 May 1968. Retrieved 7 September 2009.
  8. ^ London Gazette: no. 44717. p. 21305. 15 November 1968. Retrieved 7 September 2009.
  9. ^ Deaths England and Wales 1984-2006 (subscription required)

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



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  • Max Mallowan — Sir Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan CBE (* 6. Mai 1904 in London; † 19. August 1978 in Wallingford, England) war britischer Archäologe Vorderasiens, in erster Ehe verheiratet mit der Schriftstellerin Agatha Christie. Seinen Ausgrabungen sind… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Max Mallowan — Sir Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan, CBE (6 mai 1904 19 août 1978) est un archéologue britannique. Il naît le 6 mai 1904 à Wandsworth. Il rencontra Agatha Christie au Moyen Orient en 1927. Le mariage aura lieu trois ans plus tard, en 1930. Sa femme… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan — Sir Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan KBE (* 6. Mai 1904 in London; † 19. August 1978 in Wallingford, England) war britischer Archäologe Vorderasiens, in erster Ehe verheiratet mit der Schriftstellerin Agatha Christie. Seinen Ausgrabungen sind… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Mallowan — Sir Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan KBE (* 6. Mai 1904 in London; † 19. August 1978 in Wallingford, England) war britischer Archäologe Vorderasiens, in erster Ehe verheiratet mit der Schriftstellerin Agatha Christie. Seinen Ausgrabungen sind… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Mallowan —   [ mæləʊən], Sir (seit 1968) Max Edgar Lucien, britischer Archäologe, * London 6. 5. 1904, ✝ ebenda 19. 8. 1978; Ȋ mit Agatha Christie; ab 1947 Professor in London und Direktor der British School of Archeology in Iraq (bis 1961); u. a. Ausgräber …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Mallowan, Sir Max — ▪ British archaeologist born May 6, 1904, London died August 19, 1978, Wallingford, Oxfordshire, England       British archaeologist who made major contributions as an excavator and educator.       After receiving a degree in classics at New… …   Universalium

  • Mallowan, Max E.L. — (1904 1978)    A renowned English archaeologist who significantly advanced modern studies of ancient Mesopotamia and the ancient cultures of neighboring regions. Mallowan received an education in classics at oxford University and soon afterward… …   Ancient Mesopotamia dictioary

  • MALLOWAN, Sir Max — (1904–1978)    British archaeologist, administrator, and writer. He gained his first experience as assistant to Sir Leonard Woolley at Ur(1923–1931) and went on to conduct a deep sounding at Nineveh (1931–1932) to establish the stratigraphic… …   Historical Dictionary of Mesopotamia

  • Agatha Christie — For the band, see Agatha Christie (band). Dame Agatha Christie, DBE Born Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller 15 September 1890(1890 09 15) Torquay, Devon, England Died 12 January 1976(1976 01 12 …   Wikipedia

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