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Dame Kathleen Kenyon biography for kids
Date: 1906 – 1978 (72 years old)
Who was Dame Kathleen Kenyon ?
Dame Kathleen was a very important British archaeologist. She worked in Britain and in the Middle East. She made many discoveries throughout her career.
She made her most famous discovery between 1952 and 1958, finding out that the oldest occupied area was a place called Jericho.
She also published 28 books about her discoveries so people could read about them.
Download this biography for kids
Inspirational Quotes Dame Kathleen Kenyon:
"It has been mentioned that in Trench I there is evidence of three successive stages of these defences"
"The contents of the massive banks behind these successive revetments makes it quite clear that the material was derived from the incorporation of earlier occupation levels."
Biography:
Kathleen’s Childhood
Kathleen was born on 5th January 1906 in London. Her father encouraged her and her sister to have a strong education.
Kathleen loved playing sports as a child, and also spent a lot of time fishing and climbing trees!
At Oxford University, where she studied History, she became the first female president of Oxford University Archaeological Society.
Kathleen’s Early Caeer
Kathleen’s first archaeology experience after finishing University was taking photos of excavations (diggings) in Great Zimbabwe.
Between 1930-1935, Kathleen spent her summers working on a site near London called St Albans. The old Roman name for this site is ‘Verulamium’.
During the Second World War, Kathleen served as a Red Cross Divisional Commander. She also helped to rebuild a school in Jerusalem.
Jericho
Her work after the Second World War made Kathleen very well-known indeed.
During her excavation of a place called Jericho in the Middle East, Kathleen became very famous due to her discoveries.
Her major finding was that she discovered that Jericho was the oldest area to have people living there. She analysed the remains of pottery there to work out the date of the settlement.
Kathleen Kenyon in Jericho in the 1950s
Kathleen’s Legacy
Kathleen gave talks at the University of London about her career.
Kathleen’s digging method was to create big trenches or squares in the ground. There would be ‘walls’ between the squares, which helped find out how old her discoveries were.
Kathleen made archaeology a lot more popular, especially to women! Kathleen was made a Dame in 1973 because of her discoveries.
