From 1954 to 1956, he was an assistant master (teacher) at St Catherine's School, a boarding school in
Almondsbury, Gloucestershire.[1] A devout Christian,[4] he undertook study at
Tyndale House, an
evangelical biblical studies library in
Cambridge, between 1956 and 1958.[1] He then worked as the "European representative" for the Australian Institute of Archaeology, a
biblical archaeology organisation, from 1958 to 1959.[3][5]
In 1959, Mitchell joined the
British Museum as a curator in its
Department of Western Asiatic Antiquities: he would remain at the museum until retirement.[1][6] He edited and prepared for publication the final three reports from
Sir Leonard Woolley's excavations at
Ur (published in 1962, 1965 and 1972).[1][3] He joined the committee of the
Palestine Exploration Fund in 1968, and served as its Honorary Librarian from 1972 to 1985.[4] At the British Museum, he was promoted to deputy keeper of his department in 1974, and was acting keeper from 1983 to 1985.[3] He was appointed Keeper of Western Asiatic Antiquities in 1985, in succession to
Edmond Sollberger.[1] In addition to leading the department, he researched and published The Bible in the British Museum (1988).[3] He retired in 1989.[6]
Mitchel died on 21 April 2019, aged 89.[4] A
Festschrift had been prepared to celebrate his 90th birthday, but he died before it was published.[8]
Selected works
Woolley, Leonard (1962). Mitchell, T. C. (ed.). Ur Excavations, IX: The Neo-Babylonian and Persian Periods. London: The British Museum.
Woolley, Leonard (1965). Mitchell, T. C. (ed.). Ur Excavations, VIII: The Kassite Period and the Period of the Assyrian Kings. London: The British Museum.
Mitchell, T. C. (1969). Sumerian art: illustrated by objects from Ur and Al-'Ubaid. London: The British Museum Press.
Woolley, Leonard;
Mallowan, Max (1976). Mitchell, T. C. (ed.). Ur excavations, VII: The Old Babylonian period. London: British Museum Publications.
Mitchell, T. C. (1988). Biblical archaeology: documents from the British Museum. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
ISBN978-0521363235.
Mitchell, T. C. (1988). The Bible in the British Museum: interpreting the evidence. London: The British Museum Press.
T. C. Mitchell (1992). "29: Israel and Judah from the coming of Assyrian domination until the fall of Samaria, and the struggle for independence in Judah (c. 750–700 B.C.)". In John Boardman; I. E. S. Edwards; E. Sollberger; N. G. L. Hammond (eds.). The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume 3, Part 2: The Assyrian and Babylonian Empires and Other States of the Near East, from the Eighth to the Sixth Centuries BC. Cambridge University Press. pp. 322–370.
ISBN978-0521227179.
T. C. Mitchell (1992). "30: Judah until the fall of Jerusalem (c. 700–586 B.C.)". In John Boardman; I. E. S. Edwards; E. Sollberger; N. G. L. Hammond (eds.). The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume 3, Part 2: The Assyrian and Babylonian Empires and Other States of the Near East, from the Eighth to the Sixth Centuries BC. Cambridge University Press. pp. 371–409.
ISBN978-0521227179.
T. C. Mitchell (1992). "31: The Babylonian Exile and the restoration of the Jews in Palestine (586–c. 500 B.C.)". In John Boardman; I. E. S. Edwards; E. Sollberger; N. G. L. Hammond (eds.). The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume 3, Part 2: The Assyrian and Babylonian Empires and Other States of the Near East, from the Eighth to the Sixth Centuries BC. Cambridge University Press. pp. 410–460.
ISBN978-0521227179.
Mitchell, T. C.; Searight, Ann (2008). Catalogue of the Western Asiatic seals in the British Museum: Stamp seals III: impressions of stamp seals on cuneiform tablets, clay bullae, and jar handles. Leiden: Brill.
ISBN978-9004156159.
^"Marriages". Times. 23 August 1926. p. 13 – via The Times Digital Archive.
^
abcdefghCurtis, John (2020). "Introduction". In Curtis, John (ed.). Studies in Ancient Persia and the Achaemenid Period. Cambridge: The Lutterworth Press. pp. ix–x.
doi:
10.2307/j.ctv10vm0td.4.
ISBN978-0-227-90706-1.
^Curtis, John, ed. (2020). Studies in ancient Persia and the Achaemenid period: Essays by and for Terence Mitchell on the occasion of his 90th birthday. Cambridge: James Clarke & Co.
ISBN978-0227177051.