Barry Kemp (Egyptologist)

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.^[1]

Kemp was born on 14 May 1940 in Birmingham.^[2][3] He studied Egyptology at the University of Liverpool, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1962.^[3][4] He died on 15 May 2024, a day after his 84th birthday.^[5][6]

In 1962, Kemp joined the University of Cambridge as an assistant lecturer.^[7] He was promoted to lecturer in 1969, Reader in Egyptology in 1990, and made Professor of Egyptology in 2005.^[3][8] He was also a Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge from 1990 to 2007.^[3][9] He retired from full-time academia in 2007, and was made professor emeritus.^[3] Beginning in 2008, he was a senior fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at Cambridge.^[3][10]

From 1977 until 2008, he was the director of excavation and archaeological survey at Amarna for the Egypt Exploration Society.^[11] He continued his research of the Amarna Period of ancient Egypt as director of the Amarna Project and secretary of the Amarna Trust.^[12] 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.^[13] 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..."^[14]

Kemp was elected Fellow of the British Academy (FBA) in 1992.^[7] 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.^[15]

• 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.

• "Amarna, the Place". AmarnaProject. Archived from the original 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 original on 28 January 2008. Retrieved 31 January 2008.

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