DEV>The Oxford Archaeologists, Pt. II

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This illustration features the preeminent Oxford archaeologists Sir Arthur Evans (center), Sir Charles Leonard Woolley (right), and his wife and partner Katherine Woolley (left). Arthur Evans (1851-1941) studied the classics at Brasenose College, Oxford and became a leading authority on Aegean civilization. Among his accomplishments was the excavation of Knossos on the Greek isle of Crete. This discovery lead Evans to name the island’s pre-Mycenaean civilization the Minoan culture, after the mythological King Minos who commissioned a great labyrinth to be built for his realm and guarded by a fierce minotaur. Leonard Woolley (1880-1960) was a methodical archaeologist educated at New College, Oxford. His digs in Mesopotamia during the 1920s led to the unearthing of important artifacts pictured in the illustration adjacent to Woolley: the Sumerian Queen’s Lyre and the Standard of Ur. Among those who assisted Woolley at Ur was the widow Katherine Menke (1888-1945), who herself also studied at Oxford, but had to withdraw due to health reasons. Woolley designated Katherine as his site artist, and the pair eventually married. Among those counted as friends by the Woolleys was the archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan and his wife, mystery novelist Agatha Christie, who drew inspiration from the visits to the Middle East for her writings. In the background of the illustration to the left is the North Entrance at Knossos, and on the right is King Minos, as depicted by the printmaker Gustave Doré in Dante Alighieri’s Inferno.

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