JP Mallory

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This article is about the archaeologist James "JP" Mallory. For information about James Mallory, the constitutional scholar, please see James Mallory (jurist).

James Mallory, is an Irish-American archaeologist and Indo-Europeanist. Mallory, is a professor at the Queen's University, Belfast. His initials are printed without periods in all his publications, JP Mallory.

Mallory received his B.A. in History from Occidental College in California, then served three years in the US Army as an military police sergeant. He received his Ph.D. in Archaeology from UCLA in 1975. He has held several posts at Queen's beginning in 1978, becoming Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology in 1998.

Professor Mallory's research has focused on Early Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe, the problem of the homeland of the Proto-Indo-Europeans, and the archaeology of early Ireland. He favors an integrative approach to these issues, comparing literary, linguistic and archaeological evidence to solve historical puzzles.

One consequence of this preference for an integrated approach is that Professor Mallory has been strongly critical of the widely publicised theory of Indo-European origins held by Colin Renfrew which locates the urheimat or homeland of this language family in early Neolithic Anatolia and associates its spread with the spread of agriculture. A key element of his criticism has been a vigorous defence of lingustic palaeontology as a valid tool for solving the Indo-European homeland problem, arguing that Renfrew is sceptical about it precisely because it offers some of the strongest evidence against the latter's own model. Professor Mallory will shortly be publishing a new book with D.Q. Adams, entitled The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World and published by Oxford University Press, where doubtless the debate with Renfrew will resume in earnest.

He is the editor of the Journal of Indo-European Studies, published by the Institute for the Study of Man of which Roger Pearson is the founding editor.

[edit] Major works

Books
- In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology and Myth. London: Thames & Hudson, 1989.
- The Archaeology of Ulster (with T.E. McNeill). Belfast, 1991.
- Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture (with D. Q. Adams). Fitzroy-Dearborn, London and Chicago. 1997.
- The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West (with V.H. Mair). London: Thames and Hudson. 2000.
Articles
- "The Homelands of the Indo-Europeans." Archaeology and Language. eds. R. Blench and M. Spriggs. Vol I. London and New York, Routledge, 93-121. 1997.
- "The Indo-European homeland problem: A matter of time," part of "The Indo-Europeanization of Northern Europe". eds. K. Jones-Bley and M. E. Huld. Journal of Indo-European Studies Monography No. 17, Washington, D.C., 1-22. 1993.
- "The Old Irish Chariot: and "Mír Curad". Studies in Honor of Calvert Watkins, eds. J. Jasanoff, H. Melchert, L. Oliver, Innsbruck. Innsbrucker Beitrage zur Sprachwissenschaft. 451-464. 1998.