Monday Afternoon Club: Come, Tell Me How You Live

My presentation yesterday for the Monday Afternoon Club on Victorian archaeologists went very well. I profiled four 'ladies in the field': Amelia Edwards, Zelia Nuttall, Jane Dieulafoy, and Agatha Christie. 

There is something to be said for researching, writing, and then presenting a paper to a group of like-minded women. All the members of the club are life-long readers and each one has a lively interest in intellectual pursuits. 

I find that actually having to 'perform' in front of an audience is so much more fulfilling than the times in school when term papers were simply handed in to the teacher and then received back with a grade. Somehow having to think about how my audience might respond to the information I am writing makes for a tighter and more entertaining paper.

I have come a long way since the time I was in a fourth-grade talent show and kept my eyes closed the entire time I was on stage thinking - with my elementary-school brain - that if I couldn't see the audience then they couldn't see me!

Over the years I have learned some tricks that make speaking in front of an audience less terrifying than my early school year experiences. Yes, I did keep my eyes open! As a matter of fact, getting to share with the group the intriguing ideas and information that I have come across in my research is truly the best part - the frosting on the cake!

Thanks for your comments and for sending me your well wishes for this project.

Hmmm. Now, what do I want to research for next year's paper?

Come, Tell Me How You Live by Agatha Christie Mallowan

I am so glad I discovered Come, Tell Me How You Live (1946) by Agatha Christie. It gave me a look at quite a different side the famed mystery writer. It is billed as an archaeological memoir but it is not in the least bit as dusty as the places she writes about.

I thought it would be a somewhat dry retelling of days spent digging in the dirt and cleaning bits and bobs of found broken pottery.

Not so.

Instead, it is her delightful perspective of the people, customs and culture of Syria in the 1930s, the time she and husband Max Mallowan, archaeologist, were there. 

Her stories of the eccentricities of the servants, the tribal conflicts among the workers, the personalities of the house dogs and cats, her hopes for a good meal, the hospitality (and a bit of greed) of the sheikhs, the fussy rules and regulations of the French government officials, changing weather, flooded wadis, temperamental automobiles, fashion faux pas, language barrier mishaps, the handling of medical emergencies, and encounters with giggling veiled women and dirty children with runny noses, are all quite amusing.

It is more of a travel journal than a treatise on the exploration of archaeological sites. And it is quite funny which for some reason I didn't expect. Ms. Christie has quite a sharp eye for the amusing detail.

In the epilogue, written in the spring of 1944, she states that the book is a result of the rough notes and diaries that she kept during their seasons in Syria. It wasn't until after the war that she gathered her notes together as a way of looking again at experiences she "not only had but still has."

For it seems to me that it is good to remember that there were such days and such places, and that at this very minute my little hill of marigolds is in bloom, and old men with white beards trudging behind their donkeys may not even know there is a war. 

Inshallah, I shall go there again, and the things that I love shall not have perished from this earth...

In Which I Make Preparations to Dig

Max Mallowan and Agatha Christie
Archeaologists

I belong to a local organization - the Monday Afternoon Club - which has as its mission "the encouragement of culture among women". It was founded in 1887. It meets in a community room at the library from October to April.  We begin the year with a very civilized tea complete with silver tea service at a member's home and end each year with a luncheon.  

In between those two social events, each Monday afternoon a member presents a research paper on a subject in one of three broad categories chosen by the 35 members the previous year. We have a short business meeting, one member presents Current Events - highlights from the headlines of the preceding week - and then the week's paper is given. 

It is all very enlightening.

Which leads me to tell you that this year I will be giving a paper in the category of "Unearthing History". My subject will be the Middle Eastern archaeological adventures of Dame Agatha Christie. I started nosing about for stories on female archaeologists in general and discovered that Ms. Christie wrote what she called 'an archaeological memoir' - a tale first published in 1946 of her experiences investigating ancient, dusty ruins with her husband Max Mallowan. Some of her most delightful mysteries take place in or around those foreign excavations.

I have taken the title of my paper from the title of her book: Come, Tell Me How You Live.

The book arrived yesterday along with another volume of stories of seven female archaeologists by Amanda Adams entitled Ladies of the Field (2010). It takes a look at Victorian ladies - including Ms. Christie - who gathered up their skirts and went off to seek adventures far from home. 

So I will be spending the next month or two reading and researching these brave ladies and then comes the most fun - writing the paper. 

This will be my fifth presentation to the club and although it causes quite a bit of nail-biting, hair-tearing, and heavy sighing, in the end it always proves to be an enriching experience and one that I look forward to. I do think it will be quite fun Unearthing History.