Agatha Christie 1977

Come, Tell Me How You Live.
New York: Dodd, Mead & Company.

This amazing book was written by A. Christie to tell, in a half-novel way, her journeys with her husband Max Mallowan in Syria (and partially modern Southern Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan), describing their first excavations on some important sites, such as Chagar Bazar and Tell Brak (mainly), achieved between ca. 1936 and 1938.

Alongside these main excavations, the couple also undertook some surveys in the area of the Khabur and Balikh rivers: among the many tells they investigated, also Tell Mozan is quoted, namely on pp. 63-64 (of the 1977 edition), describing the site and the reasons which led them to abandon any further excavation there: “Three Tells compete for the honour of our attention – Tell Hamdun, which is geographically in an interesting sector, our first selection, Tell Chagar Bazar; and a third, Tell Mozan. This is much the largest of the three, and a lot depends on whether there will be much Roman deposit to dig through. Soundings must be made at all three mounds. We make a start with Tell Mozan. […] Tell Mozan has been reluctantly erased from our list of possibles. There are several levels of Roman occupation, and though the periods we want to dig are there underneath, it would take several seasons – that is to say, more time and money than we can afford”.