David Talbot Rice

11 J–12 M

David Talbot Rice CBE was an English archaeologist and art historian. His name is sometimes written as Talbot-Rice. His parents were Charles Henry Talbot-Rice and Cecily Mary Talbot-Rice (née Lloyd). Born in Rugby and brought up in Gloucestershire, Talbot Rice was educated at Eton prior to reading archaeology and anthropology at Christ Church, Oxford. At Oxford his circle of friends included Evelyn Waugh and Harold Acton as well as his future wife (Elena) Tamara Abelson (1904–1993) a Russian émigré whom he was to marry in 1927. This group allegedly formed the original for Waugh's *Brideshead Revisited*. Elena was also an art historian, writing on Byzantine and Central Asian art, and spent much time travelling abroad with him on archaeological digs. In 1925 while he was still an undergraduate, Talbot Rice became a staff member at the Oxford Field Museum's archaeological excavation in Kish, Iraq. He was to use this experience by incorporating some of his findings when completing his B.Sc. degree gained in 1927. Developing a passion for all things Byzantine, Talbot Rice joined the expeditions of the British Academy in Constantinople (now Istanbul) in 1927–32 and 1952–54. In 1928, for example, he visited Trebizond (now Trabzon), which would lead to his monograph on the subject being published in 1936. Talbot Rice's fieldwork continued with expeditions to Cyprus, Asia Minor, Iraq and Iran. His academic career took off in 1934 when he was appointed to the Watson Gordon Chair of Fin

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