Sir Max Mallowan CBE FBA FSA
Mallowan and Agatha Christie in 1950
Born	Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan (1904-05-06)6 May 1904 Wandsworth, London, England
Died	19 August 1978(1978-08-19) (aged 74) Greenway, Devon, England
Resting place	Church of St Mary, Cholsey, Oxfordshire, England
Alma mater	New College, Oxford
Spouses	Agatha Christie ​ ​ (m. 1930; died 1976)​ Barbara Hastings Parker ​ ​ (m. 1977)​
Scientific career
Fields	Archaeologist
Institutions	University of London All Souls College, Oxford

Sir Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan CBE, FBA, FSA (6 May 1904 – 19 August 1978) was a prominent British archaeologist and academic, specialising in the Ancient Near East. Having studied classics at Oxford University, he trained in archaeology under Leonard Woolley at Ur and under Reginald Campbell Thompson at Nineveh. He then led a number of archaeological expeditions sponsored by the British Museum and the British School of Archaeology in Iraq. He was the second husband of Dame Agatha Christie, meeting during the excavation at Ur in 1930.

Early life and education

Born Edgar Mallowan in Wandsworth on 6 May 1904,^[1] he was the son of Frederick Mallowan and his wife Marguerite (née Duvivier), whose mother was mezzo-soprano Marthe Duvivier.^[2] His father's family was from Austria.^[3] He was educated at Rokeby School and Lancing College (where he was a contemporary of Evelyn Waugh) and studied literae humaniores (i.e. classics) at New College, Oxford.^[4] He achieved a Fourth-class honours in Mods in 1923 and third-class honours in Greats in 1925.^[5]

Archaeological career

He first worked as an apprentice to Leonard Woolley at the archaeological site of Ur (1925–1930),^[4] which was thought to be the capital of Mesopotamian civilization. It was at the Ur site, in 1930, that he first met Agatha Christie, the famous author, whom he married the same year.^[6] 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^[4] 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. In December 1933, he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (FSA).^[7]

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 in Libya. He was commissioned as a pilot officer on probation in the Administrative and Special Duties Branch on 11 February 1941,^[8] promoted flying officer on 18 August 1941,^[9] flight lieutenant on 1 April 1943^[10] and at some point he also held the rank of wing commander. He resigned his commission on 10 February 1954, but was permitted to retain that rank in retirement.^[11]

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.^[4] 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^[12] (1946).

Agatha Christie died in 1976; 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.

Honours

Mallowan was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1960 Queen's Birthday Honours,^[13] and knighted in 1968.^[14][15] He gave the 1969 Albert Reckitt Archaeological Lecture.^[16]

Death

He died on 19 August 1978, aged 74, at Greenway House in Devon^[17] and was interred alongside his first wife in the churchyard of St Mary's, Cholsey^[18] in Oxfordshire. His estate was valued at £524,054.^[19] His second wife, Barbara, died in Wallingford in 1993, at the age of 85.^[20]

In popular culture

In 2019, Mallowan was portrayed by Jonah Hauer-King in the film Agatha and the Curse of Ishtar.

In 2022, Mallowan was portrayed by Lucian Msamati in the British-American film See How They Run.

Selected works

• Mallowan, M. E. L. (1956). Twenty-five years of Mesopotamian discovery (1932-1956). London: British School of Archaeology in Iraq.
• Mallowan, M. E. L. (1965). Early Mesopotamia And Iran. The Library of Early Civilizations. London: Thames and Hudson.
• Mallowan, M. E. L. (1966). Nimrud and its Remains. London: Collins on behalf of The British School of Archaeology in Iraq.
• Mallowan, M. E. L. (1970). "VIII: The development of cities: from Al-'Ubaid to the end of Uruk". In Edwards, I. E. S.; Gadd, C. J.; Hammond, N. G. L. (eds.). Prolegomena and Prehistory. The Cambridge Ancient History. Vol. I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 327–462.
• Mallowan, Max; Davies, Leri Glynne (1970). Ivories in Assyrian Style, Commentary, Catalogue and Plates. London: British School of Archaeology in Iraq.