Stephen Mitchell obituary
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 periods, particularly in what is now Turkey. Equally at home on a hillside as in a lecture theatre, he once discovered three lost cities of the Pisidian people, high in Anatolia’s Taurus mountains, in a single fortnight.
Stephen joined the department of classics at Swansea University in 1976, gaining a professorship in 1993; he held visiting fellowships at the University of Göttingen in Germany and the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton in the US. From 2002 to 2011 he was Leverhulme professor of Hellenistic culture at Exeter University, becoming emeritus professor on retirement.
His books included Anatolia: Land, Men, and Gods in Asia Minor (1993), A History of the Later Roman Empire AD 284-641 (2006), and, completed and published only last year, The Christians of Phrygia from Rome to the Turkish Conquest.
Stephen was born in Oxford, the first of four children of David Mitchell and Barbara (nee Davies), both academics at Oxford University. Precocious at school, he was also a gymnast, fencer and squash player, maintaining a wiry fitness throughout his life. From Magdalen College school, at 16, he won an exhibition to study classics at St John’s College, Oxford.
Before university, he had gained archaeological experience in the UK (sleeping in a freezing tool shed on site), the Middle East and Italy. Later his focus turned to Turkey, and he spent long periods there almost every year from the age of 22. Beyond his professional interest – which included the study of the ancient city of Cremna and leading the first systematic survey, in 1985, of Sagalassos – he developed a deep affinity with the people and culture of the country.
It was in Turkey, in 1972, that Stephen met Matina Weinstein, who was carrying out research into the role of women in the Euphrates valley. They married in 1974.
Stephen Mitchell at the ancient city of Sagalassos, in south-west Turkey. He led the first systematic survey of the site, in 1985.
Stephen was fluent in German, spoke Turkish well and could conduct seminars in several other languages. It was a family joke that he tried to learn Farsi over a summer so that he could read one original manuscript for a research publication.
He served at times as chair of the British Institute at Ankara, and of the International Epigraphic Association and was a fellow of the British Academy. Unusually for an atheist, he received an honorary doctorate in theology from Humboldt University, Berlin, for his work on early Christianity.
His academic work was driven by his interest in other people. He was generous, whether encouraging colleagues, or sharing his and Matina’s home with refugees from Syria, and latterly Ukraine. Unobtrusively, he donated much of his income to charity. He once flew to Kenya to visit Urafiki, a community development project, wearing several extra jumpers to give away, since they would not fit into his luggage.
A decade ago, Stephen and Matina moved to Berlin. He had recently returned there from giving a seminar in Warsaw, when he died suddenly of an aortic dissection. He is survived by Matina, their three sons, Lawrence, Daniel and Samuel, and a granddaughter.