The Life of Max Mallowan: Archaeology and Agatha Christie is a biography of Max Mallowan written by Henrietta McCall and published by British Museum Press in 2001, timed to coincide with the Agatha Christie and Archaeology: Mystery in Mesopotamia international exhibition. Although focussing primarily on the life and work of Max Mallowan, the life of Agatha Christie, her efforts in the field of archaeology and her travels with her husband are covered in detail.
Blurb on front flap[]
The Life of
Max
Mallowan
This is the fir st full-length biography of Sir Max Mallowan (1904-78), archaeologist and husband of Agatha Christie. Trained by the great Leonard Woolley at Ur in the mid 1920s, when the Royal Cemetery was discovered, Mallowan then excavated at Nineveh before conducting his own digs at prehistoric sites in Iraq and north-east Syria, including the massive mound of Tell Brak. After the Second World War, he returned to Iraq to supervise the excavation of the important city of Nimrud, where ivories of unsurpassed workmanship were uncovered and recorded in Mallowan's major work, Nimrud & its Remains.
Max Mallowan was always accompanied by his wife Agatha Christie, whose work on her current book was frequently interrupted by the demands of her role as site photographer, registrar of finds and repairer of pottery, as well as medical adviser and cook. She was fascinated by his work, and theirs was a supremely happy marriage. Like Hercule Poirot, her world-famous detective, Mallowan was a master of the false trail and the misleading clue. For both of them, the art was to discover the hidden truth.
With 24 black and white illustrations.
Contents[]
- Acknowledgements
- An Ability for History
- This Most Important Cradle of Civilization and Religion
- The Lure of the Past Came Up to Grab Me
- The Dangerous Chasm
- A New and Enthralling Chapter
- A Fine Leader
- Reluctantly Cultivating Vegetables
- What about a Site? Erbil, Kutha, Der, Nimrud?
- In the Grand Manner
- Further Reading
- Index