Mary Chubb (22 March 1903 – 22 January 2003) was a British writer and archaeologist. She has been described as "the first professional excavation administrator". She was the daughter of John Burland Chubb (1861–1955), A.R.I.B.A., and a descendant the Bridgwater artist John Chubb (artist), 1746–1818.

Career

Archaeology

Chubb has been described as an "accidental archaeologist". She took as job at the

Egypt Exploration Society The Egypt Exploration Society (EES) is a British non-profit organization. The society was founded in 1882 by Amelia Edwards and Reginald Stuart Poole in order to examine and excavate in the areas of Egypt and Sudan. The intent was to study and ana ...

(EES) to fund her study of sculpture at the

Central School of Art The Central School of Art and Design was a public school of fine and applied arts in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1896 by the London County Council as the Central School of Arts and Cr ...

in London, and not because she had an interest in archaeology or

Egyptology Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , ''-logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious p ...

. After a year as the under-secretary at the EES's London base, doing odd jobs as the secretary refused to pass any real work onto her, she felt like quitting. Having been sent into the basement to look for a drawing that was to be included in one of the Society's publications, she found an object that would trigger her interest in archaeology, something that the previous twelve months of work had not. She described this moment in her book ''Nefertiti Lived Here'': Chubb left her under-secretary job at the Egypt Exploration Society and volunteered herself as a "secretarial dogsbody" to their excavation of

Tell el-Amarna Amarna (; ar, العمارنة, al-ʿamārnah) is an extensive Egyptian archaeological site containing the remains of what was the capital city of the late Eighteenth Dynasty. The city was established in 1346 BC, built at the direction of the Ph ...

in Egypt. She slowly developed skills and became an important member of the team. Her administrative work "helped to set new standards in archaeological publication". After the end of the dig at Amarna, she joined the excavations in Iraq, at Ur and

Eshnunna Eshnunna (modern Tell Asmar in Diyala Governorate, Iraq) was an ancient Sumerian (and later Akkadian) city and city-state in central Mesopotamia 12.6 miles northwest of Tell Agrab and 15 miles northwest of Tell Ishchali. Although situated in th ...

, run by the Oriental Institute of the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

; she held the tile "Field Secretary to the Iraq Expedition of the Oriental Institute". She then spent 1938 at the University of Chicago writing up their recent excavations.

Author

After returning to England during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Chubb was involved in an accident that would end her archaeological career. She was hit by a military lorry while riding a bicycle and was seriously injured; she survived the crash but lost her leg and lived the rest of her life

physically disabled A physical disability is a limitation on a person's physical functioning, mobility, dexterity or stamina. Other physical disabilities include impairments which limit other facets of daily living, such as respiratory disorders, blindness, epilepsy ...

. In 1942, while recuperating from her injury, she realised it would stop her from attending any more archaeological excavation, and so she turned her talent to writing. Chubb wrote a number of books on archaeology for the

general public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlic ...

and also wrote a number of children's books on people of the

ancient world Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history cov ...

. She also branched out into journalism, writing for magazines such ''

Punch Punch commonly refers to: * Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist * Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice Punch may also refer to: Places * Pun ...

'' and for the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

Career

Archaeology

Author

Selected works

References