Kathleen Kenyon

Dame Kathleen Mary Kenyon ( 5 January , 1906 – 24 August , 1978 ), important English Archaeologist of Neolithic culture in the Fertile Crescent and excavator of Jericho in Jordan from 1952 to 1958.

Her father, Sir Frederic Kenyon , was Director of the British Museum . Kathleen Kenyon was a graduate of Somerville College, Oxford , and was the first woman to become president of the Oxford Archaeological Society. Following her graduation in 1929, she worked with Gertrude Caton–Thompson on the excavation of Great Zimbabwe , and subsequently went to work for leading archaeologist, Sir Mortimer Wheeler .

Her work with Wheeler led to the development of the Wheeler-Keynon system of archaeological excavation, a system that relies on measured units or squares to divide the excavation field.

Between 1936 and 1939 Kenyon excavated the Jewry Wall site in Leicester . After World War II she co-founded the University Of London Institute Of Archaeology , and worked on excavations at Sutton Walls , Sabratha , and other major sites, eventually becoming Honorary Director of the British School Of Archaeology In Jerusalem .

Her work at Jericho helped date the occupation of the mound Natufian Culture at the end of the last Ice Age (10,000 – 9,000 BC). She also excavated in Jerusalem (the City Of David ), with relatively little success. In 1962, she became principal of St Hugh’s College, Oxford .

On her retirement in 1973, she was created a DBE ( Dame Commander Of The British Empire ).

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