>The British Museum is offering a free seminar on “Agatha Christie and Archaeology.” Below is an introduction to the seminar:

Agatha Christie (1890-1976) is still, more than 25 years after her death, one of the world{A146}s most successful authors. Her books are read in more than 100 countries and have been translated into 44 languages. But behind the famous name lies an unexpected story. In 1930 Agatha Christie married the archaeologist Max Mallowan (1904-78) and afterwards accompanied him on all his excavations in the Middle East.

In this seminar, Henrietta McCall, special curator for the “Agatha Christie and Archaeology” exhibition at The British Museum, retraces Agatha Christie’s travels to the Middle East, and explores how those travels and life on the archaeological sites she visited provided the inspiration and setting for several of her most popular books, including Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, Murder in Mesopotamia and Appointment with Death. Archaeology benefitted as well: Agatha Christie’s emotional, financial, and material aid helped Mallowan to become one of the great archaeologists of the twentieth century. His career started at the ancient Sumerian city of Ur (southern Iraq), included the sites of Nineveh, Arpachiyah, Chagar Bazar and Tell Brak, and culminated at the major city of Nimrud, as he recorded in Nimrud and its Remains.

The seminar is divided into four sections and each seminar is illustrated with pictures of Agatha Christie and several artifacts belonging to the British Museum.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Agatha Christie, Archaeology

var addthis_pub = ‘claude mariottini’;