Thursday 5 January 2017

Kathleen Kenyon

Dame of the British Empire 
January 5, 1906 to August 24, 1978



Kathleen was born in England where she grew up the oldest child in a home of where biblical authority and history held equal sway.  Her family home was physically attached British Museum, where her father was the director.

She is referred to as being strong headed, stubborn, and a tomboy.  She won awards for Somerville College Oxford where she was studying archaeology for her skills as a hockey player.  She also became the first female president of the Oxford University Archaeological Society ad graduated from Somerville College in 1929.  

Her first job on archaeology sites was as a photographer, she learned her skills in stratigraphic excavation, the process of  swiping the surface of a site and moving back through history during the summers of 1930-1935 where she worked alongside  Mortimer Wheeler in Zimbabwe.


While actively working dig sites from 1948 to 1962 Kathleen also lectured on archaeology all over the world inspiring men and women in this field.

It was Kathleen's work on the Jericho wall that earned her the title as one of the most influential archaeologist of the 20th century.  

Kathleen meticulous sifted through inch after inch of soil and artifacts painstaking 
moving from modern times all the way to a stone age foundation.  Kathleen came to two conclusion the first was that Jericho is the oldest continuously inhabited community and the second was that the wall of Jericho fell long before the Bible places Joshua at the site.

In 1973 five years before her death Queen Elizabeth II named Kathleen Dame of the British Empire for her work.

Kathleen died from a stroke at age 72, and she was one of the influential archaeologist of the 20th century.

Kathleen Kenyon is a woman of history.

Grandma Snyder
©2013-2017 twosnydergirls

Read more about Kathleen in this articles:
  1. Kathleen Kenyon  Wikipedia 
  2. Kathleen Kenyon and Jericho Bible Odyssey
  3. Kathleen Kenyon: Larger Than Life   Vision

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