Mallowan, Max Edgar Lucien

Mallowan, Sir Max Edgar Lucien, 1904–78, British archaeologist, educated at Oxford. He participated in the British Museum–Univ. of Pennsylvania excavations at Ur (1925–30) and Nineveh (1931–32), both in present-day Iraq. From 1947 to 1961 he served as director of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq, supervising the Nimrud excavations of 1949–58 and those at numerous other sites. He taught at the Univ. of London from 1947 until 1962 and was knighted in 1968. He was married to the popular mystery novelist Agatha Christie. His writings include an autobiography, Mallowan's Memoirs (1977), and Twenty-five Years of Mesopotamian Discovery (1956).