An archeologist is the best husband any woman can have: the older she gets, the more interested he is in her.

The quip plays on the stereotype of the archaeologist as someone who values age because it signals rarity, depth, and historical interest. By transferring that professional preference to marriage, the line humorously inverts a common cultural anxiety that women become less valued as they grow older. Christie’s wit turns the fear of aging into an advantage: with an archaeologist-husband, time increases fascination rather than diminishing it. The joke also nods to Christie’s own long association with archaeology through her second husband, Max Mallowan, suggesting an affectionate, insider’s satire of the field and a light feminist edge in its critique of age-based desirability.

1) “An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have; the older she gets, the more interested he is in her.”
2) “Archaeologists make the best husbands: the older you get, the more interested they become.”