Kathleen Kenyon

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Kathleen Kenyon, 1977

Dame Kathleen Mary Kenyon (born January 5, 1906 in London , † August 24, 1978 in Wrexham ) was a British archaeologist .

Live and act

Kathleen Kenyon was the eldest daughter of Frederic G. Kenyon , a director of the British Museum . She studied at Somerville College at the University of Oxford in the 1920s .

She gained her first archaeological experience in 1929 when Gertrude Caton-Thompson was excavating to explore Greater Zimbabwe . She then returned to England and participated from 1930 to 1935 in the excavations of Mortimer Wheeler in Verulamium , the Roman St Albans north of London. There she took over the management of the excavations of the Roman theater. In addition, she worked from 1931 to 1934 with John Crowfoot (1873-1959) in Samaria , which was part of the British Mandate of Palestine. There she began to apply the method of stratigraphy consistently and exposed the iron II layer, i.e. the Roman settlement period. It contributed significantly to the development of the entire Palestine archeology by providing reliable methods and data.

In 1934 she founded the Institute of Archeology at University College London with the Wheeler family . From 1936 to 1939 she undertook excavations on the Jewry Wall in Leicester . During World War II, she served as Divisional Commander in the Hammersmith Red Cross . At the same time she continued her archaeological work as secretary and director at the Institute of Archeology at the University of London .

After the war she undertook various excavations in Great Britain (Southwark, Wrekin, Shropshire etc.) and at the same time in the Roman city of Sabratha in Libya. Since she was a member of the Council of the British School of Archeology in Jerusalem (BSAJ) before the war, she took on the task of reopening the school. In January 1951 she undertook excavations in Jericho ( Tell es-Sultan ) for the BSAJ . This work, which lasted until 1958, contributed to its worldwide fame and marked a turning point in the methodology of archaeological research. Fundamental finds from the Neolithic were made here. At the same time, the first indications of the beginning of agriculture could be obtained and an extraordinary walled settlement was uncovered. The consistent application of stratigraphic research, in which the layers of the earth were precisely distinguished, made it possible to classify the ceramics found. This provided a basis for developing a chronology of the history of Palestine. Again at the same time she published her excavation reports on Samaria. From 1961 to 1967, Kathleen Kenyon turned the research of David City of south Jerusalem's Old City to

In her research on Jericho, her refutation of the dating of the end of the fourth city (City IV) by John Garstang attracted particular attention. Garstang identified the end of the fourth city with the biblical story of Joshua in the 1930s and dated it to around 1400 BC. BC, i.e. the end of the late Bronze Age. Kenyon, however, dated the destruction to around 1550 BC. BC (end of the Middle Bronze Age) and took place for the period from 1400 BC. no signs of settlement. In the 1990s there was another controversy about the dating, when the American archaeologist Bryant G. Wood, after comparative studies of Middle Eastern Bronze Age ceramics and reassessment of the ceramic finds in Jericho, questioned the results of Kenyon and a destruction around 1400 BC. Thought likely. Later, however, radiocarbon dating of the grain stores of City IV spoke against the dating of Wood and for that of Kenyon (late 17th or early 16th century BC).

At the same time as her excavation work, Kathleen Kenyon always worked as a lecturer in archeology. From 1948 to 1962 she taught Levant Archeology at University College London. With this combination of teaching and excavation, she trained her own generation of British archaeologists.

Kathleen Kenyon has received numerous awards and was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1973 . Since 1955 she was a member ( fellow ) of the British Academy .

literature

  • William G. Dever: Kathleen Kenyon (1906–1978). In: Getzel M. Cohen, Martha Joukowsky (Ed.): Breaking Ground. Pioneering Women Archaeologists. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor 2004, ISBN 0-472-11372-0 , pp. 525-552.
  • AD Tushingham: Kathleen Mary Kenyon, 1906–1978 . In: Proceedings of the British Academy . tape 71 , 1985, pp. 555-582 ( thebritishacademy.ac.uk [PDF]).

Web links

Commons : Kathleen Kenyon  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wood, Did the Israelites Conquer Jericho? A New Look at the Archaeological Evidence, Biblical Archeology Review, Vol. 16, No. 2, 1990, pp. 44-58
  2. ↑ Hendrik Bruins, Johannes vd Plicht, Tell Es-Sultan (Jericho): Radiocarbon Results of Short- Lived Cereal and Multiyear Charcoal Samples From the End of the Middle Bronze Age , Radiocarbon, Volume 37, No. 2, 1995, Web Archive
personal data
SURNAME Kenyon, Kathleen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kenyon, Kathleen Mary
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British archaeologist
DATE OF BIRTH January 5, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH August 24, 1978
Place of death Wrexham