REVIVING A RUINED CITY BY : A. R. WILLIAM When British archaeologist Max Mallowan investigated the neo-Assyrian site of Nimrud in northern Iraq, he got help from someone who loved detective work- his wife, Agatha Christie . Despite her busy career, the mystery writer made time every winter from 1949 to 1957 to register and photograph the artifacts that her husband’s excavations brought to light. She probably also took the picture of the stone relief shown above left . That art , which once adorned a palace wall, depicts a priest performing a ceremony before a motif called a tree of life. But the photo reveals something curious-a cut around the priest’s head. Looters in the 19 th century are possible culprits, but so are invading soldiers in antiquity. The city of Nimrud , also known as Calah in Bible, became the capital of the neo-Assyrian Empire in 883 B.C., under King Ashurnasirpal II. At the end of the seventh century B.C., The Emp...