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

Mycenaean Greece Mycenaean Greece (or the Mycenaean civilization) was the last phase of the Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in ...

Biography

William Desmond Taylour was the second son of

Geoffrey Taylour, 4th Marquess of Headfort Geoffrey Thomas Taylour, 4th Marquess of Headfort DL, JP, FZS (12 June 1878 – 29 January 1943), styled Lord Geoffrey Taylour until 1893 and Earl of Bective between 1893 and 1894, was a British politician and Army officer. Career Styled Lor ...

, and the Irish

Gaiety Girl Gaiety Girls were the chorus girls in Edwardian musical comedies, beginning in the 1890s at the Gaiety Theatre, London, in the shows produced by George Edwardes. The popularity of this genre of musical theatre depended, in part, on the beautifu ...

Rosie Boote Rosie Boote (1878 – 17 August 1958) was an Irish Gaiety Girl who became the Marchioness of Headfort when she married in 1901. Early life Rose Boote was born in Ireland, or possibly to Irish parents in England; reports vary on this point. She wa ...

. He was born on January 3, 1904, at Pennington House (

Lymington Lymington is a port town on the west bank of the Lymington River on the Solent, in the New Forest district of Hampshire, England. It faces Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, to which there is a car ferry service operated by Wightlink. It is within the ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

), where his parents lived after their scandalous wedding, but was raised in the family estate

Headfort House Headfort House is a large country house on the southern outskirts of Kells in County Meath, Ireland. History The house was constructed in the 1760s for The 1st Earl of Bective to a design by the Irish architect George Semple. The interiors ...

, in Meath County, Ireland. He attended

Harrow School (The Faithful Dispensation of the Gifts of God) , established = (Royal Charter) , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school , religion = Church of E ...

and, after a short spell in the diplomatic service, began a career in finance, first on

Wall Street Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for t ...

and then in London. During the

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 opposin ...

, Taylour fought in

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

among the 2nd Derbyshire Yeomanry, where he gained the rank of captain. After the war, he joined the Allied Control Commission in Germany until 1947, when he enrolled at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

. A keen archaeologist since his time at Harrow, he devoted himself to the study of

Mycenaean pottery Mycenaean pottery is the pottery tradition associated with the Mycenaean period in Ancient Greece. It encompassed a variety of styles and forms including the stirrup jar. The term "Mycenaean" comes from the site Mycenae, and was first applied by ...

, the subject of his doctoral thesis published in 1958. He studied under

Grahame Clark Sir John Grahame Douglas Clark (28 July 1907 – 12 September 1995), who often published as J. G. D. Clark, was a British archaeologist who specialised in the study of Mesolithic Europe and palaeoeconomics. He spent most of his career working at ...

and

Glyn Daniel Glyn Edmund Daniel Fellow of the British Academy, FBA, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, FRAI (23 April 1914 – 13 December 1986) was a Wales, Welsh scientist and archaeologist who taught at Cambridge University, ...

. From 1949 onwards, he took part in numerous excavations in Greece, in particular at

Mycenae Mycenae ( ; grc, Μυκῆναι or , ''Mykē̂nai'' or ''Mykḗnē'') is an archaeological site near Mykines in Argolis, north-eastern Peloponnese, Greece. It is located about south-west of Athens; north of Argos; and south of Corinth. Th ...

with

Alan Wace Alan John Bayard Wace (13 July 1879 – 9 November 1957) was an English archaeologist. Biography Wace was educated at Shrewsbury School and Pembroke College, Cambridge. He was director of the British School at Athens (1914–1923), Deputy Keepe ...

, and at

Pylos Pylos (, ; el, Πύλος), historically also known as Navarino, is a town and a former municipality in Messenia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it has been part of the municipality Pylos-Nestoras, of which it is th ...

with

Carl Blegen Carl William Blegen (January 27, 1887 – August 24, 1971) was an American archaeologist who worked at the site of Pylos in Greece and Troy in modern-day Turkey. He directed the University of Cincinnati excavations of the mound of Hisarlik ...

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

British School at Athens , image = Image-Bsa athens library.jpg , image_size = 300px , image_upright= , alt= , caption = The library of the BSA , latin_name= , motto= , founder = The Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, called the foundation meeti ...

excavations at Mycenae, working jointly with Ioánnis Papadimitríou and George Mylonas of the

Archaeological Society of Athens The Archaeological Society of Athens (Greek: Εν Αθήναις Αρχαιολογική Εταιρεία) is an independent learned society. Also termed the Greek Archaeological Society, it was founded in 1837 by Konstantinos Bellios, just a fe ...

. Their work led to an in-depth knowledge of the citadel of Mycenae and the development of the complex of buildings that he described as the cult centre. His 1964 ''The Mycenaeans'', one of the first major studies of the

Mycenaean civilisation Mycenaean Greece (or the Mycenaean civilization) was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1750 to 1050 BC.. It represents the first advanced and distinctively Greek civilization in mainland ...

, quickly became a reference. Between 1959 and 1977, he also excavated the site of Ayios Stephanos in

Laconia Laconia or Lakonia ( el, Λακωνία, , ) is a historical and administrative region of Greece located on the southeastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. Its administrative capital is Sparta. The word ''laconic''—to speak in a blunt, c ...

, a small Bronze Age harbour, demonstrating the commercial links between

Minoan Crete The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, whose earliest beginnings were from 3500BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000BC, and then declining from 1450B ...

and mainland Greece. In 1981, together with

Elizabeth French Elizabeth Bayard French, FSA ( Wace; 19 January 1931 – 10 June 2021), also known as Lisa French, was a British archaeologist and academic, specialising in Mycenaean Greece, especially pottery and terracotta figurines and the site of Mycenae. ...

, he inaugurated the first volume of ''Well Built Mycenae'', a publication that continued until 2012.

Resources

*
Mycenae excavation and publication archive
(University of Cambridge Faculty of Classics Archives)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylour, William D 1904 births 1989 deaths British archaeologists Archaeologists of the Bronze Age Aegean Mycenaean archaeologists Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge People educated at Harrow School