Max Mallowan

Sir Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan CBE ( born May 6, 1904 in London, † August 19 1978 in Wallingford, England) was a British Near Eastern archaeologist, first marriage with the writer Agatha Christie. His excavations are due to significant insights into the prehistory and early history of the Near East.

Life and work

Mallowan was born as the son of an Austrian immigrant, his mother was a French artist. He received his education in the prestigious private school Lancing College and then studied classics at New College, Oxford. After graduating in 1925, he participated as an assistant at Leonard Woolley's excavations at Ur campaign, which lasted until 1931. There he learned in 1930 14-year- old Agatha Christie know who was staying for the second time as a guest at the Woolley. They married on 11 September of the same year in Edinburgh, but both gave a false age in order to disguise the age difference between them.

After six years at Woolley Mallowan changed in the autumn of 1931 to Nineveh to Reginald Campbell Thompson, but remained only one year and then began with her own excavations, supported by the British Museum. He dug first in Tell Arpachiyah in Iraq, but then opted for a change to Syria after the political situation in Iraq had intensified. Until the beginning of World War II he undertook excavations in Chagar Bazar and Tell Brak. In 1939 he returned to England.

Mallowan volunteered for the army, but was rejected because of his age and Austrian descent. It was not until 1941 he got the opportunity to go for the Royal Air Force to Cairo.

After the war he was awarded the Department of Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of London. from 1949 to 1963, he carried out excavations at Nimrud. In 1960 he was appointed Commander of the British Empire, and in 1968 knighted.

Agatha Christie died in 1976. A year later married Barbara Parker Mallowan, an archaeologist and long -time collaborator with his excavations. In August 1978, he died of a heart attack.

Writings (selection )

  • Twenty -five years of Mesopotamian discovery ( 1932-1956 ). London 1956.
  • Early Mesopotamia and Iran. London 1965.
  • Nimrud and Its Remains. London 1966.
  • Ivories from Nimrud. London 1967.
  • Mallowan 's Memoirs. Dodd, Mead and Company, New York, Collins, London, 1977. ISBN 0-00-216506-6
Order of the British Empire Wallingford (Oxfordshire) Integrated Authority File
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