University to honour pioneering archaeologist

The University of Leicester is to honour a pioneering female archaeologist by naming one of its academic buildings after her.

Taken from a news item by Dan Martin, BBC News, Leicester

Dame Kathleen Kenyon worked at ancient sites across the United Kingdom, the Middle East and Africa in the 20th Century.

She also led excavations at Leicester’s Jewry Wall Roman baths complex in the 1930s.

The University said its Schools of Archaeology and Ancient History and Museum Studies would be called the Dame Kathleen Kenyon Building – becoming the first academic building on campus to be named after a woman.

The building will be renamed in a ceremony on Friday 7 March – the day before International Women’s Day.

Deputy vice-chancellor Prof Henrietta O’Connor said: “Dame Kathleen Kenyon contributed so much to our understanding of Leicester’s Roman past, and commemorating her immense contribution in this way perfectly reflects the world-changing research being done by our School of Archaeology and Ancient History and School of Museum Studies.”

Kenyon, who died in 1978, was recognised for her work in Leicester as well as sites in Libya and Palestine including Sabratha and Jericho.