Alexis Mallon

Alexis Mallon (1875–1934), more commonly known as Père Mallon, was a French Jesuit priest and archaeologist. He founded the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Jerusalem and made important early contributions to the study of the prehistory of the Levant with his excavations at Teleilat el Ghassul (1929–1934).

Education and career Born in France, Mallon received his Jesuit training in Beirut, Lebanon, and spent four years studying theology in England between 1905 and 1909. He discovered prehistoric stone tools at Shuqba Cave in 1924 and conducted trial excavations there in 1928. Subsequent excavations at Shuqba by British archaeologist Dorothy Garrod unearthed the first traces of the Mesolithic outside of Europe and defined the Natufian culture.

Mallon's most notable contribution to archaeology was his excavations at Teleilat el Ghassul on the northern shore of the Dead Sea. He directed excavations there until his death in 1934, establishing the site as one of the key Chalcolithic sequences in the region and the type site of the Ghassulian culture. Robert Koeppel of the Pontifical Biblical Institute continued the excavations after Mallon's death.

Mallon had a significant influence on René Neuville, introducing him to prehistoric archaeology when he first arrived in Jerusalem as a diplomat in 1926. The two went on to collaborate on excavations at Oumm Qatafa, and Neuville assisted Mallon at Teleilat el Ghassul.

Selected publications

Grammaire Copte (1904)