My brother Stephen Mitchell, who has died aged 75, was a historian, archaeological surveyor and interpreter of inscriptions of the Hellenistic, Roman and early Byzantine intervals, notably in what’s now Turkey. Equally at dwelling on a hillside as in a lecture theatre, he as soon as found three misplaced cities of the Pisidian individuals, excessive in Anatolia’s Taurus mountains, in a single fortnight.
Stephen joined the division of classics at Swansea College in 1976, gaining a professorship in 1993; he held visiting fellowships on the College of Göttingen in Germany and the Institute for Superior Examine at Princeton within the US. From 2002 to 2011 he was Leverhulme professor of Hellenistic tradition at Exeter College, turning into emeritus professor on retirement.
His books included Anatolia: Land, Males, and Gods in Asia Minor (1993), A Historical past of the Later Roman Empire AD 284-641 (2006), and, accomplished and printed solely final 12 months, The Christians of Phrygia from Rome to the Turkish Conquest.
Stephen was born in Oxford, the primary of 4 kids of David Mitchell and Barbara (nee Davies), each lecturers at Oxford College. Precocious in school, he was additionally a gymnast, fencer and squash participant, sustaining a wiry health all through his life. From Magdalen School college, at 16, he received an exhibition to review classics at St John’s School, Oxford.
Earlier than college, he had gained archaeological expertise within the UK (sleeping in a freezing instrument shed on website), the Center East and Italy. Later his focus turned to Turkey, and he spent lengthy intervals there nearly yearly from the age of twenty-two. Past his skilled curiosity – which included the research of the traditional metropolis of Cremna and main the primary systematic survey, in 1985, of Sagalassos – he developed a deep affinity with the individuals and tradition of the nation.
It was in Turkey, in 1972, that Stephen met Matina Weinstein, who was finishing up analysis into the function of ladies within the Euphrates valley. They married in 1974.
Stephen was fluent in German, spoke Turkish nicely and will conduct seminars in a number of different languages. It was a household joke that he tried to study Farsi over a summer time in order that he may learn one unique manuscript for a analysis publication.
He served at instances as chair of the British Institute at Ankara, and of the Worldwide Epigraphic Affiliation and was a fellow of the British Academy. Unusually for an atheist, he obtained an honorary doctorate in theology from Humboldt College, Berlin, for his work on early Christianity.
His educational work was pushed by his curiosity in different individuals. He was beneficiant, whether or not encouraging colleagues, or sharing his and Matina’s dwelling with refugees from Syria, and latterly Ukraine. Unobtrusively, he donated a lot of his revenue to charity. He as soon as flew to Kenya to go to Urafiki, a group improvement mission, carrying a number of additional jumpers to provide away, since they might not match into his baggage.
A decade in the past, Stephen and Matina moved to Berlin. He had just lately returned there from giving a seminar in Warsaw, when he died immediately of an aortic dissection. He’s survived by Matina, their three sons, Lawrence, Daniel and Samuel, and a granddaughter.
