Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (359 page)

 
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The burial of a single adult male on land controlled by the US Army Corps of Engineers that has caused considerable legal and ethical turmoil over questions of ownership, cultural affinity, and the needs and desirability of scientific analysis. Known as the Kennewick Man, the skeleton was found in 1996 by spectators at a boat race after the remains eroded from an embankment. Upon examination it was found that, rather unusually, a stone projectile point was embedded in the pelvis. A radiocarbon determination dates the remains to about 7300–7600 bc (8410 ± 60 BP, UCR-3476). Initially, the Army Corps of Engineers proposed that the remains were culturally affiliated to the local Umatilla tribe and agreed repatriation. However, competing claims were brought forward, amongst them a claim by a group of scientists who want to study the remains. In September 2000 that USA's Department of the Interior determined its view that the remains were those of a Native American and were covered by
NAGPRA
. Five claimants were identified in the ruling and at the end of 2000 the remains were still in storage in a museum in Seattle. While the first part of the judgement is widely accepted, considerable concern has been expressed over the generality of the wide-ranging cultural attribution which many believe runs contrary to both the spirit of NAGPRA and the potential for the scientific investigation of early people and their societies.
[Sum.: S. Hutt , 2000, Meriwether Lewis and Kennewick Man: two travellers in reluctant pursuit of a eulogy. In D. F. Craib (ed.),
Topics in cultural resource law
. Washington: Society for American Archaeology, 59–68]

 
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A rock-shelter situated in the sandstone hills of eastern central Queensland which contains one of the longest and most complete cultural sequences in Australia. Excavations by John Mulvaney in 1962 revealed deposits spanning the period 17000 bc through to 550 bc. The stone tools from the lowest levels through to about 3000 bc comprised steep-edge flake scrapers and cores. Between 3000 bc and 550 bc there was an extensive assemblage of Australian Small Tool Tradition. Pieces of ochre were scatted right through the sequence. The walls of the cave carry images of stencilled hands and other images including boomerangs, shields, and spear-throwers.
[Rep.: D. J. Mulvaney and E. B. Joyce , 1965, Archaeological and geomorphological investigations at Mt Moffatt Station, Queensland, Australia.
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society
, 31, 147–212]

 
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A stone slab found in the late 19th century with an inscription in
RUNES
purporting to record the arrival of
VIKINGS
. Always controversial, it is now dismissed as a fake.
[Rev.: G. Daniel , 1958, The Minnesota petroglyph.
Antiquity
, 32, 264–7]

 
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Kenyon , Kathleen
(1906–78)
[Bi].

British archaeologist who pioneered the application of stratigraphic excavation in the Near East. Born in London, daughter of Sir Fredrick Kenyon who was Director of the British Museum. Educated at St Paul's Girls' School and Somerville College, Oxford, where she read modern history and obtained a third-class degree in 1928. She took an active interest in the university's Archaeology Society and was the first woman to be elected President. After travelling to Zimbabwe with an expedition organized by the British Association she joined the team of archaeologists working for Mortimer Wheeler at Verulamium. In 1931 she joined J. W. Crowfoot's expedition to Samaria, almost single-handedly introducing British excavation methods to the region. Returning to work in Britain at Leicester and elsewhere in the late 1930s she was drawn into Wheeler's plans for the Institute of Archaeology in London, of which she was Secretary between 1935 and 1948, and Acting Director 1942–6. After WW2 she was appointed to a lectureship in Palestinian Archaeology at the Institute, but the political situation in the Near East prevented her from immediate involvement in fieldwork. Instead she excavated at Sabratha, Libya, from 1948 until 1951. In 1951 she became Honorary Director of the British School in Jerusalem and in 1952 she began a programme of excavations at Jericho in the Jordan Valley, followed in 1961 by excavations in Jerusalem. In 1962 she left the Institute of Archaeology to become Principal of St Hugh's College, Oxford, where she remained until retirement in 1973. Although not always popular amongst her peers, her excavations and surveys fundamentally changed understandings of the prehistory of Palestine and the Near East. Her translation of the Wheeler box method of excavation to the Near East made such an impact that it is often referred to as the Wheeler–Kenyon method. In 1973 she was appointed DBE.
[Obit.:
The Times
, 25 August 1978]

 
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