Kenyon, Dame Kathleen Mary°
KENYON, DAME KATHLEEN MARY°
KENYON, DAME KATHLEEN MARY ° (1906–1978), British archaeologist; daughter of biblical scholar and director of the British Museum, Sir Frederic Kenyon. Early in her career she took part in excavations at Zimbabwe (1929), St Albans/ Verulamium (1930–35), and Samaria (1931–34). From 1935 to 1951 she directed excavations at various Roman sites in England and at Sabratha, Tripolitania (1948–49, 1951). At the University of London Institute of Archaeology Kathleen Kenyon served as secretary (1935–48), acting director (1942–46), and lecturer in Palestinian archaeology (1948–62). While acting as director of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem (1951–66), she conducted excavations at Jericho (1952–58) and Jerusalem (1961–67). W.G. Dever summed up her character as follows: "her gruff manner often obscured her gentler personal qualities, and she showed obvious impatience with excavators who did not possess an immediate and intuitive grasp of strati-graphical complexities, in which she reveled and excelled." From 1962 she was principal of St. Hugh's College, Oxford. Her publications include Beginning in Archaeology (2nd rev. ed. 1953); Digging up Jericho (1957); Samaria-Sebaste, 3 vols. (with J.W. and G.M. Crowfoot; 1942–57); Excavations at Jericho, 1 (1960); Archaeology in the Holy Land (19652); Jerusalem. Excavating 3000 Years of History (1967); and Digging up Jerusalem (1974). Her major excavations remained largely unpublished until after her death, with the work being undertaken by T. Holland, A.D. Tushingham, H. Franken, M. Steiner, K. Prag, and others.
add. bibliography:
P.R.S. Moorey, "Kathleen Kenyon and Palestinian Archaeology," in: peq, 111 (1979), 3–10; P.R.S. Moorey and P.J. Parr (eds.), Archaeology in the Levant: Essays for Kathleen Kenyon (1985); G.I. Davies, "British Archaeologists," in: Benchmarks in Time and Culture: An Introduction to Palestinian Archaeology (1988), 37–62; S. Gibson, "British Archaeological Institutions in Mandatory Palestine, 1917–1948," in: peq, 131 (1999), 115–43, esp. note 25; W.G. Dever, "Kathleen Kenyon (1906–1978)," in G.M. Cohen and M.S. Joukowsky (eds.), Breaking Ground: Pioneering Women Archaeologists (2004), 525–53.
[Michael Avi-Yonah /
Shimon Gibson (2nd ed.)]