Kathleen Kenyon

Dame Kathleen Mary Kenyon (5 January 1906 – 24 August 1978) was a British archaeologist of Neolithic culture in the Fertile Crescent. She led excavations of Tell es-Sultan, the site of ancient Jericho, from 1952 to 1958, and has been called one of the most influential archaeologists of the 20th century. She was Principal of St Hugh's College, Oxford, from 1962 to 1973, having undertaken her own studies at Somerville College, Oxford.

Biography Kathleen Kenyon was born in London, England, in 1906. She was the eldest daughter of Sir Frederic Kenyon, biblical scholar and later director of the British Museum. Her grandfather was lawyer and Fellow of All Souls College, John Robert Kenyon, and her great-great-grandfather was the politician and lawyer Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon. She grew up in Bloomsbury, in a house attached to the British Museum, with her mother, Amy Kenyon, and sister Nora Kenyon. Known for being hard-headed and stubborn, Kathleen grew up as a tomboy, fishing, climbing trees and playing a variety of sports.

Determined that she and her sister should be well educated, Kathleen's father encouraged wide reading and independent study. In later years Kenyon would remark that her father's position at the British Museum was particularly helpful for her education. Kathleen was an excellent student, winning awards at school and particularly excelling in history. She studied first at St Paul's Girls' School, where she was head girl, before winning an Exhibition to read history at Somerville College, Oxford.

Archaeological career A career in archaeology was first suggested to Kathleen by Margery Fry, librarian at Somerville College. In 1934, Kenyon was closely associated with the Wheelers in the foundation of the Institute of Archaeology of University College London. Kenyon initially thought the overall Jewry Wall site was that of the town forum. Although she modified her views when she uncovered the remains of the baths, she continued to believe that the area had originally been laid out as the forum, with the Jewry Wall the west wall of the basilica, but argued that in a second phase of building the site had been converted to public baths. In a series of excavations undertaken between 1961 and 1972, the true remains of the forum were identified further east. The Jewry Wall was then identified as the wall of the palaestra (gymnasium) of the baths complex.

Digging Jericho Plastered skull found in Jericho (Tell es-Sultan), Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, c. 7200 BC. BM 12741-42. This skull had the lower jaw removed, and the face modelled from lime plaster, with shells placed in eye sockets. During the Second World War, Kenyon served as Divisional Commander of the British Red Cross in Hammersmith, London, and later as acting director and secretary of the Institute of Archaeology of the University of London.

Legacy

Kenyon's legacy in the field of excavation technique and ceramic methodology is attested to by Larry G. Herr, one of the directors of the Madaba Plains Project. He attributes to her directly the first of the key events (after the advances made by William Foxwell Albright at Tell Beit Mirsim in the 1920s) that brought about our modern understanding of pottery in the southern Levant:

Herr detects Kenyon's powerful indirect influence in the second event that promoted advance within ceramic methodology, namely:

"the importation of Kenyon's digging techniques by Larry Toombs and Joe Callaway to Ernest Wright's project at Balata. Here, they combined Wright's interest in ceramic typology in the best Albright tradition with Kenyon's methods of excavation, which allowed the isolation of clear, stratigraphically determined pottery assemblages".

Awards and commemoration In the 1973 New Year Honours, following her retirement from Oxford, she was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) "for services to archaeology"; she had received the CBE in the 1954 New Year Honours. She was an elected Fellow of the British Academy (FBA) and of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA). She was made a Grand Officer of the Order of Independence by the King of Jordan in 1977. In 2025, the University of Leicester announced that their first academic building to be named after a woman would be the Kathleen Kenyon Building, housing its Schools of Archaeology & Ancient History and Museum Studies, which merged on 1 August 2025 to form the School of Heritage & Culture.

Kenyon collections The Kathleen Kenyon Archaeology Collection, a collection of Kenyon's books and papers from her home office purchased from her estate in 1984, is housed at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Baylor Libraries do not hold the copyright for these materials.

The finds from her excavations are held in a number of collections, including the British Museum, the British Institute for Libyan and Northern African Studies and the UCL Institute of Archaeology, while the bulk of archive material is located at the Manchester Museum.

Published works 1942 The Buildings at Samaria, [Samaria-Sebaste I], London, 1942 (co-authored with Crowfoot, J.W. & Sukenik, E.L.) 1948 Excavations at the Jewry Wall Site, [Reports of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries of London 15], Leicester, London: Society of Antiquaries, 1948. 1949 Guide to Wroxeter Roman City, London, 1949. 1951 "Some Notes on the History of Jericho in the Second Millennium B.C.", PEQ 83 (1951), 101–138. 1952 Beginning in Archaeology, London, 1952. 1952 "Early Jericho", Antiquity 26 (1952), 116–122. 1953 Beginning in Archaeology, second edition, London, 1953. 1954 Guide to Ancient Jericho, Jerusalem, 1954. 1957 Digging Up Jericho, London, 1957. (also published in Dutch, Hebrew, Italian, Spanish and Swedish editions). 1957 The Objects from Samaria, [Samaria-Sebaste III], London, 1957 (co-authored with Crowfoot, J.W. & Crowfoot, G.M. 1958 "Some Notes on the Early and Middle Bronze Age Strata of Megiddo", Eretz Israel 5 (1958), pp. 51–60. 1959 Excavations at Southwark, [Research Papers of Surrey Archaeological Society 5], 1959. 1960 Archaeology in the Holy Land, first edition, London, 1960. (also published in Dutch) 1960 Excavations at Jericho – Volume I Tombs Excavated in 1952–4, London 1960. 1961 Beginning in Archaeology, revised edition, London, 1961. 1965 Archaeology in the Holy Land, second edition, London, 1965. 1965 Excavations at Jericho – Volume II Tombs Excavated in 1955–8, London, 1965. 1965, "British Archaeology Abroad – Jerusalem", Antiquity 39 (1965), 36–37. 1966 Amorites and Canaanites, (Schweich Lectures Series, 1963), London : Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press, 1966. 1966 "Excavations in Jerusalem, 1965", PEQ (1966), 73–88. 1967 Jerusalem – Excavating 3000 Years of History, [New Aspects of Antiquity], London, 1967 (also published in a German edition). 1969 "Middle and Late Bronze Age Strata at Megiddo", Levant 1 (1969), pp. 25–60. 1970 Archaeology in the Holy Land, third edition, 1970 (also published in Dutch, Danish, German, Spanish and Swedish editions). 1971 Royal Cities of the Old Testament, London, 1971. 1971 "An Essay on Archaeological Technique: the Publication of Results from the Excavation of a Tell", Harvard Theological Review 64 (1971), 271–279. 1974 Digging up Jerusalem, London : Benn, 1974. 1974 "Tombs of the Intermediate Early Bronze – Middle Bronze Age at Tel 'Ajjul", in Stewart, J.R. (ed.), Tell el Ajjul – the Middle Bronze Age Remains, [App. 2. Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology], Göteborg, 1974, 76–85. 1978 The Bible and recent archaeology, London : British Museum Publications Ltd, 1978. (also published in Dutch)