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
thumb|[[Plastered human skulls|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
thumb|right|Kenyon and [[Vassilios Tzaferis at an excavation in 1977]]
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: