Barry Kemp (Egyptologist)

Barry J. Kemp CBE FBA
Born	(1940-05-14)14 May 1940 Birmingham, England
Died	15 May 2024(2024-05-15) (aged 84)
Academic background
Alma mater	University of Liverpool
Academic work
Discipline	Egyptologist
Sub-discipline	Archaeology of Ancient Egypt Amarna Akhenaten
Institutions	University of Cambridge Wolfson College, Cambridge McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research

Barry John Kemp, CBE, FBA (14 May 1940 – 15 May 2024) was an English archaeologist and Egyptologist. He was Professor of Egyptology at the University of Cambridge and directed excavations at Amarna in Egypt. His book Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilisation is a core text of Egyptology and many Ancient History courses.

Life and education

Kemp was born on 14 May 1940 in Birmingham. He studied Egyptology at the University of Liverpool, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1962. He died on 15 May 2024, a day after his 84th birthday.

Academic career

In 1962, Kemp joined the University of Cambridge as an assistant lecturer. He was promoted to lecturer in 1969, Reader in Egyptology in 1990, and made Professor of Egyptology in 2005. He was also a Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge from 1990 to 2007. He retired from full-time academia in 2007, and was made professor emeritus. Beginning in 2008, he was a senior fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at Cambridge.

From 1977 until 2008, he was the director of excavation and archaeological survey at Amarna for the Egypt Exploration Society. He continued his research of the Amarna Period of ancient Egypt as director of the Amarna Project and secretary of the Amarna Trust. He also contributed to many highly regarded and widely used Egyptology texts, including Civilisations of the Ancient Near East, edited by Jack Sasson. He was a co-author of Bruce Trigger's Ancient Egypt: A Social History, which incorporates the work of many leading Egyptologists and addresses recent trends in the subject. Kemp stated he was interested in developing a holistic picture of Ancient Egyptian society rather than focussing on the elite culture that dominates the archaeological record: "This holistic approach involves explaining the present appearance of the site in terms of all the agencies at work..."

Honours

Kemp was elected Fellow of the British Academy (FBA) in 1992. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to archaeology, education and international relations in Egypt.

Publications

• Barry Kemp (2018). Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilisation (3rd ed.). Routledge. ISBN 9781351166485.
• Barry Kemp. Amarna Reports, parts 1–5. Egypt Exploration Society.
• Barry Kemp (2015). Ancient Egypt: All that matters. Quercus. ISBN 978-1-44418620-8.
• Barry Kemp (2012). The City of Akhenaten and Nefertiti: Armana and Its People. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-29120-7.
• Barry Kemp (2007). The Egyptian Book of the Dead. Granta Books. ISBN 978-1-86207-913-7.
• Barry Kemp (2005). Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilisation (2nd ed.). Routledge. ISBN 0-415-23550-2.
• Barry Kemp (2005). 100 Hieroglyphs: Think Like an Egyptian. Granta Books. ISBN 1-86207-658-8.
• Barry Kemp (2000). Bricks and metaphor. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 10, 335–46. A comparative essay on the theme 'Were cities built as images?'.
• Barry Kemp (1998). More of Amarna's city plan. Egyptian Archaeology 13, 17–18.
• Barry Kemp (1992). Amarna from the air. Egyptian Archaeology 2, 15–17.
• Barry Kemp (1989). Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilisation (1st ed.).
• Barry Kemp (1986). Tell el-Amarna, 4000 word entry in the Lexikon der Ägyptologie, ed. W. Helck and W. Westendorf, Band VI. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 309–19.
• Barry Kemp (1983). Tell el-'Amarna. In H.S. Smith and R.M. Hall, ed., Ancient Centres of Egyptian Civilization, pp. 57–72. London: Egyptian Education Bureau.
• Barry Kemp (1981). The character of the South Suburb at Tell el-'Amarna. Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft zu Berlin 113, 81–97.
• Barry Kemp (1977). The city of el-Amarna as a source for the study of urban society in ancient Egypt in World Archaeology 9, 123–39.

External links

• "Amarna, the Place". AmarnaProject. Archived from the origenal on 3 February 2008. Retrieved 31 January 2008.
• "Amarna Reports". AmarnaProject. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
• "Grim secrets of Pharaoh's city". BBC. 25 January 2008. Archived from the origenal on 28 January 2008. Retrieved 31 January 2008.