Teach TCI – edited by Mr. Platt
THE LIFE OF AN ARCHAEOLOGIST
Directions: Complete the task below on a sheet of unlined paper and submit them to me by 9/16.
Purpose: This enrichment’s purpose is let you dig deeper into one of the social scientists we learned
about in our first lesson and learn about a real person and her accomplishments in a city that we will
learn about in this unit - Jericho.
Goals: Integrating with ELA with writing summaries. 6.H.1.3 – how do we find primary sources to study?
IB Goals: ATL of Transfer and Information Literacy
The Life of an Archaeologist
In our first lesson of the year, you learned how social scientists are like detectives who solve mysteries
of the past. One type of social scientist is an archaeologist. An archaeologist studies the past by
examining artifacts that people have left behind.
Kathleen Kenyon was a British archaeologist who studied Jericho. Jericho was a Neolithic settlement
located in present-day Israel. [Neolithic means ‘new stone age’. This is a vocabulary word we will talk
about in the next week.] She discovered that Jericho was the world's oldest known continuous
settlement. With information from Jericho, archaeologists and other social scientists are better able to
understand how people began to farm and produce/grow their own food.
Below is a biography of Kathleen Kenyon. As you read, think about this question: What do you learn
about the life of an archaeologist?
Kathleen Kenyon was born on January 5, 1906. She was the oldest daughter of Sir Frederic Kenyon, the
director of the well-known British Museum. She graduated from college and began excavating the ruins
of Zimbabwe in southern Africa. From there, she studied the ancient Roman city of Verulamium, just
north of London. Kenyon worked under Sir Mortimer Wheeler. He taught her about his method of
excavation. He wanted to be able to analyze the Earth's layers. To do so, he dug narrow, deep trenches.
In between the trenches remained a strip of earth showing its layers. Wheeler made careful
observations, interpretations, and records about those layers throughout the excavation. His technique
became known as the Wheeler-Kenyon method.
During World War II, Kenyon became the acting director of the University of London Institute of
Archaeology. She was a lecturer in Palestinian archaeology. As a teacher, she combined classroom
teaching with hands-on work in the field. Her teaching allowed her students to get hands-on experience
as archaeologists. In 1951, she became the honorary director of the British School of Archaeology in
Jerusalem. Though she conducted excavations in Jerusalem, she is more famous for her work in Jericho.
Using the Wheeler-Kenyon method, she established the first historical framework for Jericho. She even
found human skulls. With some plaster, Kenyon was able to re-create what the inhabitants of Jericho
actually looked like. Considering that the skulls were several thousand years old, this was an amazing
piece of information for social scientists.
Kathleen Kenyon died in 1978. Many of her works have since been published. Current excavations in
Israel and Jordan still use the Wheeler-Kenyon method. Her discoveries have made a significant impact
on the study of archaeology in the Middle East.
Teach TCI – edited by Mr. Platt
THE LIFE OF AN ARCHAEOLOGIST
1. Create a historical marker/monument at Jericho commemorating the contributions of Kathleen
Kenyon to archeology. (worth up to 5 points)
Your marker must contain:
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A title.
A brief summary of her life. – remember what you learned about summary from Mrs. Griffin
An explanation of her importance to archeology.
Correct grammar and spelling.
An image of the marker/monument at Jericho