Did I Find King David's Palace?

Prior articles on the subject:

Women in Archaeology: Kathleen Mary Kenyon-Follow up
Women in Archaeology: Eliat Mazar

Here's a special E-feature from Biblical Archaeological Review online, with an informative photo/slide show too:

Did I Find King David’s Palace?
by Eilat Mazar

This lengthy article is worth the read for anyone interest in "biblical" archaeology in that hot-bed of controversy, where so much as rolling over a stone causes an uproar - Jerusalem.

I found three things intriguing as I read - that Kenyon and Mazar excavated in Jerusalem some 40 years apart, that women are still a rarity in the world of archaeology (though no so rare as when Kenyon was doing her field work), and those "aeolic" style columns -- are those porpoise-heads depicted in the capitals?  Or are my eyes deceiving me???  Whatever the design was meant to be - or suggest - I find it most evocative. A circular spiral is much in evidence, as is a linear triangular "delta" or "V" in the drawing of the capitals in the article -- was not able to copy it here.  Both symbols have long been associated with the goddess - and that spiral - of course it brought to mind the Fibonnaci sequence of numbers that are encoded in all spirals found in nature. 

Women in Archaeology: Kathleen Mary Kenyon-Follow up

Prior post about Kenyon. Female excavator had many finds April 3, 2008 By Elizabeth Herring Reporter (Baylor University, The Lariat Online) The Hankamer Treasure Room in the Armstrong Browning Library, which is usually filled with writings and artifacts, held a large group of students and faculty Tuesday afternoon during Dr. Miriam Davis' lecture on Dame Kathleen Kenyon, one of the first female archaeologists in the Middle East. Davis, an associate professor of history at Delta State University in Mississippi, spoke on the life and work of Kenyon, whose work excavating in Jericho is "some of the most important in the 20th century," she said. Baylor is home to the Kenyon Collection, Kenyon's personal library. Janet Sheets, a reference librarian and associate professor of social sciences and humanities, said she hoped students "would learn about a scholar, like Kathleen Kenyon, and about Miriam Davis and the way (Davis) went about doing her scholarship (on Kenyon)." Beth Tice, an assistant director of the Baylor libraries, said she thinks it is important to show students the process of research. Tice said she hopes that Davis can show students how they can develop their research into different projects, like Davis did by writing the first biography on Kenyon, titled, Dame Kathleen Kenyon: Digging Up the Holy Land. "Why was Kathleen Kenyon worth a biography?" Davis said, to open her speech on Kenyon. "She became an archeologist quite by accident." Kenyon was the daughter of Sir Frederic Kenyon, the director of the British Museum. Many people thought that her upbringing made her predisposed to become an archeologist. Kenyon graduated with a third-class degree from Oxford, which is low. Davis said Kenyon spent more time playing lacrosse and tennis than she did studying. After graduating, Kenyon joined her first expedition to Great Zimbabwe, an ancient stone ruin in present-day Zimbabwe, with Gertrude Caton-Thompson, another important female archeologist. It was there that Kenyon "fell in love with field archeology and became interested in methodology," Davis said. On her second excavation, she worked with Sir Mortimer Wheeler, who developed a new method of digging that emphasized precision in order to gather more data about the artifacts that were discovered. Kenyon followed his method that she later developed into her own method at her digs in Jerusalem. She excavated in Jericho for seven field seasons. "The discoveries she made were breath-taking," Davis said. Among her discoveries were a series of seven human skulls that had been plastered and decorated with shells to look like humans. These were some of the oldest portraits ever found and made the front page of the New York Times upon their discovery. Archaeologists frequently argue about the historical existence of biblical characters. When in Jericho, Kenyon was asked to examine the work of previous archeologists in the area to determine if the biblical city of Jericho had existed. Kenyon determined that all the different walls of Jericho fell because of earthquakes in the area and that sections of the wall were built at different times. "Archaeology does not do a great deal here to illuminate archaeological biblical history," Davis said. "Some archaeologists now claim much of the Hebrew Bible is fiction." When in Jerusalem, Kenyon excavated at the site of the city of David. When digging, she found part of a wall that was from the middle bronze age when King David was said to have lived, Davis said. Kenyon had unknowingly discovered what present-day archaeologists think may be King David's palace. "Kathleen Kenyon's career continues," Davis said.

Women in Archaeology: Kathleen Mary Kenyon

From about.com "Kathleen Mary Kenyon [1906-1978]" By K. Kris Hirst, About.com Definition: English archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon is perhaps best known for excavating at Jericho, although she worked at the Great Zimbabwe site with Caton-Thompson, and excavated at Jerusalem. She was a student of Mortimer Wheeler's, working with Wheeler and his wife Tessa at the Roman site of Verulamium. Kenyon was associated with the University of London Institute of Archaeology, the British School of Archaeology at Jerusalem, and St. Hugh's College, Oxford. She is also known for her work on what is now called the Wheeler-Kenyon excavation method (where you leave balks standing between units to better understand stratigraphy). Brief (very) Bibliography

• Kenyon, Kathleen Mary, Dame. 1987. The Bible and recent archaeology. Atlanta : J. Knox Press, 1987.---1974.
• Digging up Jerusalem. London, Benn ---1967 Jerusalem: excavating 3000 years of history. [London] Thames and Hudson ----1960-1983.
• Excavations at Jericho. London : British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem

This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology. Any mistakes are the responsibility of Kris Hirst.