Two Johns, a Marie and a Mary

John Garstang’s archaeological career spanned decades and thousands of miles. From Britan to Sudan, the man who went to study maths at Oxford ended up becoming one of the most well-known Egyptologists.

Much of this work however, he did not do alone. His wife Marie Garstang was there providing silent support in the form of funds for his excavations but also conducting some of the very important post-excavation work.

In this first Sunday lecture, please join us as we explore the lives of John and Marie Garstang, their careers in the field of Egyptology as well as their legacies.

John Pendelbury the brave Brit who sadly lost his life to the Nazis while trying to organise the local population of his beloved Crete to hold off the invasion, was also a brilliant (and quirky) archaeologist.  For a time Pendlebury oversaw excavations of the two hottest sites in the Mediterranean (Knossos and Tell el Amarna).

Mary Chub was a secretary, at the Egypt Exploration Fund. She opened a box of finds and her longing to go to the field drove her to join Pendlebury at Tell el Amarna. While there, she learned a lot of things (like what quftis are) and recounted her eye witness account of excavations in her charming book, ‘Nefertiti lived here’.  Her love for archaeology was sadly cut short due to an accident during the Second World War.

In this second Sunday lecture we will explore the lives of John Pendlebury and Mary Chubb and the excavation season they shared at Amarna.