William Taylour

Edit links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
William Taylour
A balding man in a formal suit
Born
William Desmond Taylour

(1904-01-03)3 January 1904
Died2 December 1989(1989-12-02) (aged 85)
NationalityBritish
Known forExcavations at Mycenae
Academic background
EducationHarrow School; Trinity College, Cambridge
ThesisMycenaean Pottery in Italy and Adjacent Areas (1955)
Academic work
DisciplineArchaeology
Sub-disciplineMycenaean Greek archaeology
Military career
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service/branchBritish Army
RankCaptain
Unit2nd Derbyshire Yeomanry
Battles/wars

Lord William Desmond Taylor (3 January 1904 – 2 December 1989) was a British archaeologist, specialising in Mycenaean Greece.

Biography

William Desmond Taylour was the second son of

Meath County, Ireland.[2][3]

He attended Harrow School and, after a short spell in the diplomatic service,[2] began a career in finance, first on Wall Street and then in London.[4] During the World War II, Taylour fought in North Africa among the 2nd Derbyshire Yeomanry, where he gained the rank of captain.[2]

After the war, he joined the Allied Control Commission in Germany until 1947,[2] when he enrolled at Trinity College, Cambridge. A keen archaeologist since his time at Harrow,[2] he devoted himself to the study of Mycenaean pottery, the subject of his doctoral thesis published in 1958.[4] He studied under Grahame Clark and Glyn Daniel.[5] From 1949 onwards, he took part in numerous excavations in Greece, in particular at Mycenae with Alan Wace, and at Pylos with Carl Blegen.[2]

After Wace's death in 1957, Lord William Taylour became director of the

Mycenaean civilisation, quickly became a reference.[4] Between 1959 and 1977, he also excavated the site of Ayios Stephanos in Laconia, a small Bronze Age harbour,[2] demonstrating the commercial links between Minoan Crete and mainland Greece.[2]

In 1981, together with Elizabeth French, he inaugurated the first volume of Well Built Mycenae, a publication that continued until 2012.[4]

Resources

  • "Taylour, Lord William Desmond". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 54. 2004. pp. 1–2.
  • Mycenae excavation and publication archive (University of Cambridge Faculty of Classics Archives)

References

  1. ASCSA indicates a birth at Headfort House
    (Ireland) but the DNB mentions Pennington, before moving to Headfort.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i DNB.
  3. ^ "Pennington House". St Barbe Museum + Art Gallery.
  4. ^
    doi:10.1017/S0068245400014830
    .
  5. ^ a b "William D. Taylour Papers". American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Taylour&oldid=1196806689"